Opportunity Framer

opportunity-framer

Agent: VP Product

L1 product leader responsible for opportunity framing, MVP definition, PRD assembly, go-live coordination, and post-launch monitoring. Owns the product strategy and roadmap from idea through GA.

Department ethos: ideal-product.md

Skill Description

Frames a validated opportunity as a clear problem statement with target user, pain, and market size.

When to Use

• When a customer signal, sales request, or market trend needs to be converted into a structured opportunity before prioritization
• When the team has multiple competing ideas and needs a consistent format to compare them on user pain and market potential
• When an initiative is being pitched to leadership and requires a tight problem-statement one-pager with TAM/SAM/SOM

Workflow

1. Identify the target user: Define the specific persona or segment experiencing the pain. Anchor on observable behaviors, not demographics. Deliverable: persona card with role, context, and jobs-to-be-done.
2. Articulate the pain: Write a single-sentence problem statement in the format "Today, [user] struggles to [job] because [barrier], which causes [negative outcome]." Validate with at least two evidence sources (interviews, support tickets, analytics). Deliverable: problem statement with linked evidence.
3. Size the opportunity: Estimate TAM, SAM, and SOM using top-down and bottom-up approaches. Cite data sources and state assumptions explicitly. Deliverable: market-size table with methodology notes.
4. Assess strategic fit: Score the opportunity against company strategy, existing capabilities, and competitive landscape. Flag dependencies or cannibalization risks. Deliverable: fit-assessment paragraph with go/no-go recommendation.
5. Package the opportunity brief: Combine persona, problem statement, market size, and strategic fit into a single-page opportunity brief. Deliverable: opportunity brief document ready for prioritization review.

Anti-Patterns

• Solution-first framing: Describing the opportunity in terms of a feature ("we need a dashboard") instead of a user pain. Why: Locks the team into a solution before validating whether the problem is worth solving.
• Unsubstantiated market sizing: Claiming a $1B TAM without citing sources or explaining assumptions. Why: Erodes credibility and leads to misallocated investment.
• Boiling the ocean: Defining the target user as "everyone" or "all SMBs." Why: Makes the pain statement generic and the opportunity impossible to validate or prioritize.

Output

On success: A one-page opportunity brief containing the target persona, validated problem statement, TAM/SAM/SOM estimates with sources, and strategic fit assessment — ready for roadmap prioritization. On failure: Report which elements are incomplete (missing evidence for the pain, unsourced market data, unclear persona), what validation was attempted, and recommend specific research steps to fill the gaps.

Related Skills

• business-model-sketcher — sibling skill under the same agent — combine with business-model-sketcher for end-to-end coverage
• competitive-response-monitor — sibling skill under the same agent — combine with competitive-response-monitor for end-to-end coverage
• goal-framer — sibling skill under the same agent — combine with goal-framer for end-to-end coverage