Market Context

Market Context

How This Works

Positioning says what you are. Alternatives say what you beat. Market context says why the world needed you right now — the layer that makes a narrative land as inevitable instead of opportunistic. This skill builds that narrative from macro forces and buying triggers, then deepens your brain's existing Section 5 in place rather than creating a second market file — one source of truth stays intact for every downstream skill.

Step 0 — Load brain Section 5 (current market context, however thin), Section 3 (alternatives, for narrative grounding), and any guardrails from /context/meta-patterns.md.

Step 1 — Establish category and maturity: what category the product competes in (existing, emerging, or being created), and where that category sits on the adoption curve.

Step 2 — Surface macro forces and buying triggers: what external shifts (regulatory, technological, economic, cultural) create demand for this category right now, and what specific event moves a buyer from passive awareness to active evaluation. Every force and trigger tagged [CONFIRMED] / [INFERRED] / [HYPOTHESIS].

Step 3 — Build and stress-test the narrative arc: the single sentence connecting macro force → buyer consequence → why the old approach breaks → why now. Run the specificity and buyer-connection checks before it ships.

Step 4 — Deepen brain Section 5 with the narrative (on user confirmation).

Step 5 — Learning Close: log the session to /context/skill-sessions.md.

Trigger

• When: Defining or sharpening the market narrative — why this category, why this moment, what forces make the solution feel inevitable rather than opportunistic.

• Not for: Positioning statement or messaging hierarchy itself → use positioning-messaging. Competitive alternatives mapping → that's brain Section 3, handled within product-marketing-context or this skill's own Step 0 load, not rebuilt here. Full ICP or buying-committee work → ideal-customer-profile or buyer-personas.

• Example prompts:

  • "Why now for this launch?"
  • "What's our market context?"
  • "Define our category — are we creating one or fighting in one?"
  • "What macro trends support us right now?"
  • "Audit our market narrative — does it still hold?"

Inputs

• Args: None required — the skill asks one question at a time if nothing is on file. Analyst reports, customer interview notes, or a pasted market description speed this up but aren't required.
• Defaults: No brain, or Section 5 still empty → run full BUILD. Section 5 populated → load silently, offer [View current] [Update] [Audit narrative durability].
• Context keys:
  • /foundation/brain.md — read Sections 3 and 5 if present; written to (Section 5 only) after explicit user confirmation of the exact before/after.
  • /context/meta-patterns.md — guardrails, read at Step 0.

Pre-flight

• Check /foundation/brain.md Section 5 — if populated, this is an UPDATE or AUDIT, not a fresh BUILD.
• If /foundation/brain.md doesn't exist at all, surface once: "No brain found. You can still run this skill, but output will be less precise. Run product-marketing-context first for sharper results. Continuing." No hard block.

Steps

Step 1 — Category and maturity. Ask what category the product competes in — existing, emerging, or being created. Push for specificity: "project management" and "async work coordination for distributed teams" are different answers with different GTM implications. Then place it on the adoption curve: Nascent, Early Growth, Growth, Mature, or Declining — each stage implies a different motion (educate first vs. differentiate vs. win on execution).

Step 2 — Macro forces and buying triggers. For each macro force, capture: what's specifically changing (not "AI is changing everything" — generic forces get rejected), who feels it most, what it makes buyers do differently, and how long it's been building. Distinguish forces (the conditions) from triggers (the moment a buyer acts): compliance deadlines, scale thresholds, incidents, leadership change, competitive pressure, budget cycles. Tag every claim [CONFIRMED] (direct source — a quote, a filing, a transcript), [INFERRED] (a pattern with no direct confirmation), or [HYPOTHESIS] (a plausible force with no supporting evidence yet).

Step 3 — Narrative arc and category moment. Build the arc: "[Market force] has caused [specific change in buyer's world]. This means [buyer consequence]. The old approach [what they used to do] no longer works because [why]. [Product] was built for this moment because [connection to the force]." Name the category moment: creation (lead with problem, educate first), redefinition (challenge the dominant frame), or differentiation (lead with the gap from brain Section 3). Exit check — the arc must pass all three:

• Specificity: every force names who feels it and what changed, not a category-level generality
• Coherence: force → trigger → consequence → solution holds as one chain; break any link and it collapses in a sales conversation
• Durability: rate durable / at-risk / short-window and set a review date — a narrative that expires silently is worse than one that was never built

Step 4 — Deepen brain Section 5 on confirmation. Show the user the exact before/after for Section 5 before writing anything. On confirmation, write:

## Section 5: Market Context

**Market Maturity:**
{{stage}} — {{one-line GTM implication}}

**Macro Forces Making Our Solution Relevant:**
{{numbered list, each tagged CONFIRMED/INFERRED/HYPOTHESIS}}

**Why Now:**
{{buying triggers — trigger type, who feels it, urgency window}}

**Market Narrative (The bigger story):**
{{the full arc sentence, plus category moment named, plus durability
rating and review date}}

Never write silently — this is a shared source of truth every downstream skill reads.

Step 5 — Learning Close. Append a row to /context/skill-sessions.md:

skill: market-context
session_date: {{date}}
pattern: "{{what surprised you, what the tagging discipline caught, or
  'none' if nothing notable happened — never skip the row}}"
source: {{surprised/wrong/missing/n.v.t.}}

Outputs

• Brain Section 5 deepened in place (on confirmation only)
• A stated narrative arc, category moment, and durability rating — not buried in prose
• Session logged to /context/skill-sessions.md
• External side effects: n.v.t.
• Next skill: check next-skill-map.md for "After market-context" and surface that prompt.

Verification

• Every macro force names who feels it and what specifically changed — no generic entries survive to Section 5
• Narrative arc is one coherent chain — force → trigger → consequence → solution — not four disconnected claims
• Category moment explicitly named, not implied
• Durability rated and a review date set
• Brain Section 5 write shown to the user before it happens, written only on confirmation
• Session logged with all four fields, pattern: none written explicitly if nothing notable happened — the row is never skipped

Do Not Use For

• positioning-messaging — when the task is producing the positioning statement or messaging hierarchy itself, not the market narrative that grounds it. Run this skill first if Section 5 is thin, then that one.

• product-marketing-context — when the task is the full brain build from zero, or any section other than 5

• ideal-customer-profile — when the task is who buys, not why now

• buyer-personas — when the task is mapping the buying committee, not the external market forces around the deal

Operating Rules

1. Load brain Section 5 first. Don't re-ask what's already answered.
2. Never write to Section 5 without showing the exact before/after first. No silent writes, ever.
3. Reject generic macro forces. "Digital transformation" fails the specificity test; a named regulation with a named affected buyer passes.
4. Every force needs a buyer connection. A macro force with no traceable buyer consequence is background noise, not narrative material — cut it.
5. Tag every claim. CONFIRMED / INFERRED / HYPOTHESIS, inline, never buried in prose.
6. Rate durability and set a review date. An undated narrative is a narrative nobody will remember to revisit.

Quality Gate

Commands

/build

Run full BUILD: category, maturity, macro forces, buying triggers, narrative arc, category moment, durability rating.

/update

Refresh Section 5 after a macro shift, category move, or new buying trigger — asks only for what changed.

/audit

Test whether the current narrative arc still holds. Re-check each macro force (accelerating / stalled / reversed), re-check buying triggers, and deliver one verdict: HOLD (update review date only), REVISE (rewrite affected sections), or REBUILD (run full BUILD again — market has moved materially).