gsp-brand-research

name	gsp-brand-research
description	Research market and competitors — use when: research competitors, who else is doing this, market analysis, what do competitors look like

Phase 1 of the GSP branding diamond. Researches market landscape, competitive positioning, and design trends to inform brand strategy. Personas are already defined in BRIEF.md — this phase validates and enriches the market context around them.

Prerequisites: /gsp-start must have run first to scaffold .design/branding/{brand}/BRIEF.md and config.json. Invoking this skill cold (no brand directory) exits with a one-line "run /gsp-start first" prompt — it does not bootstrap.

Research market context that will inform brand strategy.

Input: .design/branding/{brand}/BRIEF.md Output: .design/branding/{brand}/discover/ (4 chunks + INDEX.md) Agent: gsp-brand-researcher

- Always use `AskUserQuestion` for user-facing questions — never raw text prompts - One decision per question — never batch multiple questions in a single message - Keep interactions concise — 1-2 exchanges max before spawning the agent - Artifacts must balance human readability with agent consumption for downstream phases ## Step 1: Resolve brand

Resolve brand from .design/branding/ (one → use it, multiple → ask). Set BRAND_PATH.

Read {BRAND_PATH}/BRIEF.md. If missing, tell user to run /gsp-start first. Read {BRAND_PATH}/config.json for brand_mode.

Step 2: Confirm research scope

Load BRIEF.md personas and competitive landscape. If {BRAND_PATH}/audit/ exists, also load audit/evolution-map.md and audit/market-fit.md.

Present a compact research plan, then use AskUserQuestion:

• Looks good — "Start research with this scope"
• Adjust — "I want to add competitors or shift emphasis"

Step 2.5: Pre-fetch competitor sites (background)

While preparing the agent context, use WebFetch with run_in_background: true for each competitor URL or website found in BRIEF.md's competitive landscape. This warms the cache so the researcher agent has content ready instead of fetching sequentially during research.

Step 3: Spawn researcher

Load references and agent methodology

Read these files and hold their content for inlining into the agent prompt:

• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../templates/phases/discover.md — discover output template
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/design-trends.md — design trends index (agent loads specific trend files only after open research validates relevance)
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../gsp-style/styles/INDEX.yml — style presets index
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/methodology/gsp-brand-researcher.md — agent methodology

Include any pre-fetched competitor content in the agent context.

Spawn the gsp-brand-researcher agent with:

• BRIEF.md content
• Content of discover output template (loaded above)
• Content of design trends index (loaded above — reference only, agent loads specific trend files only after open research validates them)
• Content of style presets index (loaded above) — agent matches research findings to existing aesthetics
• User-confirmed scope adjustments
• brand_mode from config.json
• Agent methodology (loaded above)
• Audit chunks if they exist
• Output path: {BRAND_PATH}/discover/

The agent writes 4 chunks + INDEX.md:

1. market-landscape.md
2. competitive-audit.md
3. trend-analysis.md
4. mood-board-direction.md
5. INDEX.md

Step 4: Update state

Update {BRAND_PATH}/STATE.md: set Phase 1 (Discover) to complete.

Step 5: Phase transition

Invoke /gsp-phase-transition with phase discover and output directory {BRAND_PATH}/discover/.