--- name: icp-positioning-strategy-builder description: Provides reusable strategy methods for turning discovery material and verified research into a written marketing strategy — ideal customer profile, negative ICP, competitive differentiation, brand manifesto, and per-channel messaging. Use when the user asks to build an ICP, define positioning, write a differentiation or messaging document, onboard a new client strategically, or produce a marketing strategy document before any campaign work begins. metadata: version: "1.1.1" --- # icp-positioning-strategy-builder > **Client-neutral reusable package.** No client names, tenant or workspace identifiers, account or > resource IDs, customer records, credentials, or internal paths. All examples are synthetic. | | | |---|---| | Live catalog name | ICP and Positioning Strategy Builder | | Live category | Agency Operations | | Deliverable type | `reusable_methodology_skill` | | Validation status | Candidate; local package validation only | | Version | 1.1.0 | ## OLLIE Runtime integration Use this capability under the active OLLIE Operator. Read live Workspace Context and tenant bindings for the required inputs below; this public package supplies no client facts or authority. Consume `ask-ollie-authority-core` for authority, `outloop-access-fallback` for recovery and resource verification, `email-lifecycle-core` for recipients, approvals and stored-copy delivery verification, and the bootstrapper Runtime Contract for ownership, scheduling and completion. These owners govern execution; this Skill does not implement a competing runtime. Select the relevant expertise below for the requested outcome. Runtime governs combining Skills, partial use and completing missing steps with other authorized capabilities. This Skill's domain scope does not limit the Operator's wider authorized task. Preserve domain safety restrictions. Verify findings against source evidence and read back any resulting artifact or authorized change. ## Business outcome A new client engagement starts from a written, agreed strategy instead of assumptions — and every downstream campaign can afterwards be checked against a document that says who the buyer is, who the buyer is not, and what the client is choosing not to compete on. ## Operating modes Read · Analyze · Recommend · Draft ## Prerequisites — what must be true before this runs - Workspace Context with organization and client identity - Discovery material — an intake brief, call notes, or both - Evidence for each strategy claim, from existing verified research or research completed through authorized methods ## The stages Use the stages relevant to the request and available evidence. Complete missing research through authorized methods; continue independent sections while naming unresolved evidence gaps. ### Stage 1 — INTAKE Build the structured brief. See `references/01-intake-brief.md` for the full section list. The brief captures what the client believes about their business: what they sell, to whom, at what price, through which channels, against which competitors, with what constraints. It records beliefs as beliefs. It does not yet assert anything as fact. Output: a completed intake brief, and a short list of the contradictions and gaps found in it. ### Stage 2 — COMMISSION RESEARCH Produce the research commission — the brief handed to whoever performs primary research (an analyst, a researcher, a partner firm). See `references/02-research-commission.md`. The commission names five research areas and, for each, what a complete answer looks like. A vague commission returns vague research, and the strategy inherits the vagueness. Output: a research commission ready to send. ### Stage 3 — STRATEGY DOCUMENT Ground strategy claims in real research. Use existing verified research or perform the missing research through authorized methods. Do not invent findings when the commission is incomplete. Produce supported sections and label open questions; only dependent conclusions wait for missing evidence. Build the strategy document. Structure in `references/03-strategy-document-structure.md`; the reasoning rules in `references/04-strategy-methodology.md`. The document has five parts: 1. **Ideal customer profile** — overview, segments, priority order between segments, the **negative ICP** (who is explicitly not a fit and why), and the supporting evidence for each claim. 2. **Differentiation and competition** — the competitive landscape, direct and indirect competitors, a differentiation table, the client's genuine advantages, **what the client is deliberately not offering**, and a strategic response to each identified threat. 3. **Brand manifesto** — vision, promises to the customer, guiding values, and brand language. 4. **Channel messaging** — the message per channel: search, social, site and landing pages, cross-channel, and long-form content. Tone adapts per channel; the claim never changes. 5. **Operating principles** — the standing set of activities the client commits to running, how the ICP connects to the incentive structure, brand consistency, organic and paid synergy, community, continuous measurement, and the end-to-end customer experience. Output: the strategy document, in the client's own language. ### Stage 4 — DELIVERY Write the handover that accompanies the document. See `references/05-delivery-note.md`. The handover states what was decided, what was deliberately excluded, what remains open, and what the client must confirm before campaign work begins. Output: a delivery note, prepared as a draft for a named approver. ### Stage 5 — OPERATIONALIZE Produce the instruction set that locks future marketing work to this strategy — the standing prompt, brief template or agent instructions that downstream campaign work is checked against. The point is that the strategy stops being a document nobody reopens. Every later campaign decision should be answerable with "does this match the ICP, the differentiation, and the messaging we agreed?" Output: a reusable instruction set derived from the approved strategy. ## Required inputs | Input | Source | |---|---| | Client identity, market and output language | Workspace configuration | | Discovery material | Supplied by the operator | | Research evidence | Existing verified sources or research performed for the relevant conclusions | | Named approver for the delivered strategy | Workspace approval policy | ## Expected output Use the relevant artifacts for the task: an intake brief, a research commission, a strategy document, a delivery note, and an operating instruction set. Keep unsupported conclusions pending and deliver supported independent work. ## Synthetic placeholders used in this package | Placeholder | Meaning | |---|---| | `CLIENT_PLACEHOLDER` | The client this engagement covers | | `MARKET_PLACEHOLDER` | The geography or market in scope | | `SEGMENT_PLACEHOLDER` | An audience segment under evaluation | ## Where tenant facts live Never in this package. Copy `references/workspace-config.example.md` into the client workspace, fill it in there, and leave this package unchanged. The Skill reads that file; it never writes to it, and no client value is ever written back here.