market-definition

name

market-definition

description

Define the market context for a VC market map. Two entry modes: start from a specific company (reverse-engineer its market) or from a market category description (top-down). Outputs a market definition document with positioning axes, capability areas, and buyer personas. Triggers on: "market map", "map a market", "competitive landscape", "market mapping", "vc market map", "analyze market", "define market", "market definition".

Market Definition

Define the market context that drives all downstream skills. Two entry modes: start from a company or from a market category. Outputs a structured market definition with positioning axes, capability areas, and buyer personas.

Environment

Variable	Service
EXTRUCT_API_TOKEN	Extruct API

Workflow

Step 1: Determine entry mode

Ask the user:

Mode	When to use	What's needed
A: Company	Start from a specific company, map its competitive landscape	Company domain
B: Category	Start from a market category, map all players	Market description (2-3 sentences)

Step 2: Gather market context

Mode A — Company entry:

1. Look up the company via the extruct-api skill: run a semantic search with the company domain to get its profile (name, description, employee count, founding year).
2. Run 1-2 broad Extruct searches (via extruct-api) to discover similar companies and understand the market landscape.
3. Draft the market description yourself (2-3 sentences) based on the company profile, search results, and any context the user already provided (e.g., "AI legal SaaS in Brazil"). Do NOT ask the user to write it — present your draft for confirmation.
4. Ask: "Are there any well-known competitors you can name?" (These become seed companies for lookalike search later.) If the user says no, use companies found in search results as seeds.

Mode B — Category entry:

1. If the user already described the market (even briefly), use that as the basis. Only ask for more detail if the description is too vague to build axes from.
2. Ask: "Can you name 2-3 example companies in this market?" (Optional, but helps ground the definition.)

In both modes:

• Infer geographic scope from context (e.g., "Brazil" was mentioned -> Brazil). Only ask if genuinely ambiguous.
• Default company stage to "all stages" unless the user specified otherwise.
• Minimize questions. Draft proposals and confirm, don't ask open-ended questions the skill can answer itself.

Step 3: Propose full market definition in one shot

Read references/positioning-axes.md for the standard 5 axes.

Present ALL of the following together in a single message — axes, capabilities, and personas. Do NOT split them into separate steps with separate confirmations. The user should review and approve the full definition at once.

Positioning axes (3-5):

Based on the market description and company profiles found, propose 3-5 axes. For each:

Axis: [Name]
Left pole: [Label] — [description]
Right pole: [Label] — [description]
Why it matters: [1 sentence]

Include SMB vs Enterprise by default. Add custom axes specific to the market (e.g., "AI-native vs Traditional", "Open source vs Proprietary").

Capability areas (5-8):

Propose the functional categories buyers evaluate. For each:

Area: [Name]
Capabilities:
- [Specific capability 1]
- [Specific capability 2]
- [Specific capability 3]
Why buyers care: [1 sentence]

Use buyer language, not vendor architecture.

Buyer personas (2-4):

Persona: [Title/Role]
Cares about: [Key priorities]
Evaluates on: [What matters when choosing a product]
Preferred axes: [Which positioning axes matter most to this buyer]

Present everything together, then ask once: "Does this market definition look right? Anything to add, remove, or change?"

Step 4: Save market context

Save to:

claude-code-gtm/vc-maps/{map-slug}/market_context.md

Create the directory if it doesn't exist. The {map-slug} is derived from the market name (lowercase, hyphenated).

Format:

# Market Context: {Market Name}

## Market Description
{2-3 sentence description}

## Scope
- Geographic: {scope}
- Company stage: {stage focus}
- Focal company: {company name or "N/A"}

## Seed Companies
{List of known companies from user input, one per line with domain}

## Positioning Axes

### {Axis 1 Name}
- Left: {label} — {description}
- Right: {label} — {description}
- Why: {1 sentence}

### {Axis 2 Name}
...

## Capability Areas

### {Area 1 Name}
- {Capability 1}
- {Capability 2}
- {Capability 3}
Why: {1 sentence}

### {Area 2 Name}
...

## Buyer Personas

### {Persona 1 Title}
Cares about: {priorities}
Evaluates on: {criteria}
Preferred axes: {which axes}

### {Persona 2 Title}
...

Handling Knowledge Gaps

If you need deeper market data that you don't have:

1. First, try running a broad Extruct search (via extruct-api skill) to discover companies in the space and learn from their descriptions.
2. If that's insufficient, ask the user: "I need more context on [specific aspect]. Can you provide additional research or context?"
3. Never guess or fabricate market data. If uncertain, say so and ask.

Output Consumers

The market context is consumed by:

• competitive-landscape — reads axes (for enrichment columns), capability areas (for feature comparison), seed companies (for lookalike search)
• market-map-assembly — reads everything (for report structure)

When NOT to Use

• If the user already has a market_context.md for this market — update it, don't recreate
• If the user just wants to find companies — use competitive-landscape directly
• If the user wants a finished report — run the full pipeline (this skill first)