cold-email-icp-and-signal-design

name	Cold Email ICP and Signal Design
description	Child skill for defining the right person, right moment, segment, buying signal, timing thesis, buying committee map, and disqualifiers before cold outreach. Returns a persona×signal×reason-now row, a graded signal scorecard, disqualifier kill-list results, and a committee map ready for the outreach compiler.
skill_type	strategy
altitude	domain
activation	progressive
parent_id	cold_email_engagement_first_outreach
depth	1
preserve_markdown	true
legacy_paths	["cold_email_outreach.icp_signal","cold_email_outreach.signal_design"]
reference_modules	[{"id":"cold_email_icp_signal_design.public_campaign_gate","name":"Public Campaign Gate","summary":"Portable public checklist for approving or rejecting a cold-outreach segment before any email is written.","when_to_load":["When using the portable bundle outside BuildOS.","When a target segment, timing signal, or buying committee map needs a fast public-facing approval gate."],"path":"references/public-campaign-gate.md","visibility":"public"},{"id":"cold_email_icp_signal_design.signal_scoring_rubric","name":"Signal Taxonomy Deep-Dive","summary":"Trigger sub-classifiers behind the inline scorecard — Holland inbound/postbound/bridgebound sub-types, Elias A/B/C trigger families, Maurya switching-trigger types, the three-taxonomy cross-validation rule, and compound-relevance multipliers.","when_to_load":["When the primary signal is trigger-based and needs sub-classification before scoring.","When two candidate signals on the same segment compete and the inline scorecard ties.","When a trigger is ambiguous and the Holland/Elias/Maurya cross-check must be run."],"path":"references/signal-scoring-rubric.md","visibility":"internal"},{"id":"cold_email_icp_signal_design.buying_committee_map","name":"Buying Committee Map","summary":"Consolidated role map table (Champion, Economic Buyer, User, Blocker × what each email leads with), Mobilizer/Talker/Blocker behavioral cut, the six 30MPC multithreading rules, Golden Path sequencing, and mode-specific committee shapes.","when_to_load":["When approving a multi-stakeholder B2B segment that needs a stakeholder map (skip for single-stakeholder modes — founder-to-founder, recruiting, PR, customer research).","When choosing who to write first in a committee.","When classifying a reply by role and deciding the next action."],"path":"references/buying-committee-map.md","visibility":"internal"},{"id":"cold_email_icp_signal_design.segment_examples","name":"Segment Examples","summary":"Weak / acceptable / strong worked segment examples in full output-contract shape, each annotated with why it passes or fails.","when_to_load":["When the user provides a candidate segment and wants it compared against graded examples.","When showing what good and bad segments look like."],"path":"references/segment-examples.md","visibility":"internal"}]
path	apps/web/src/lib/services/agentic-chat/tools/skills/definitions/cold_email_icp_signal_design/SKILL.md

Cold Email ICP and Signal Design

Identity

This is a strategy skill at domain altitude (secondary: a procedural runbook): it supplies the decision criteria — the graded signal scorecard, disqualifier kill-lists, and segment tiering — for qualifying a cold-outreach segment before any draft work, while its Procedure sequences those decisions and its reference modules hold the deep taxonomies.

The job: turn a broad target idea into one persona × one narrowing signal with a verified timing thesis, an MVS-passing segment, a buying committee map, and a clean disqualifier run — before any anchor, offer, or draft work begins. Every approved segment ships the four artifacts named in the output contract.

Activation

Use this child skill when the root cold email workflow has a weak "right person" or "right moment."

• The target list is broad, mixed, or based only on job titles.
• The user cannot explain why this person should receive outreach now.
• Reply data would be hard to interpret because the segment is too noisy.
• The offer may be good, but the recipient or timing thesis is weak.
• A B2B segment has no committee map and a single-contact strategy.
• The signal is a static filter (firmographic / demographic only).

Judgment

The decision spine. When the Procedure branches, this is what you reason with.

Signal Scoring Rubric

Score the row's signal before any list-building. Two layers: type strength, then the four-dimension scorecard.

Layer 1 — type strength (Becc Holland's four-type relevance taxonomy; rank order is practitioner consensus, not experimental):

Signal type	Strength	Rule
Firmographic / Demographic	Weak	A filter, not a signal. Alone it never passes — add a layer or do not send.
Technographic	Medium	Implies a current job-to-be-done; still static.
Trigger-based	Strong	Time-sensitive. Sub-classify via the signal taxonomy reference before scoring.

Layer 2 — scorecard. Score each dimension 0 / 1 / 2; total is 0–8. (Score bands and day windows are internal defaults, not sourced thresholds.)

Dimension	0 — weak	1 — acceptable	2 — strong
Freshness