market-research

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from review. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: market-research
description: "Analyzes market landscapes, competitive dynamics, TAM/SAM/SOM sizing, and whitespace opportunities for a product or category. Produces `research/market-research.md`. Not for building customer personas (use icp-research) or planning marketing campaigns (use campaign-plan). For diagnosing a specific business problem, see diagnose. For prioritizing what to build from market data, see prioritize."
argument-hint: "[market or product category]"
allowed-tools: Read Grep Glob Bash WebSearch WebFetch
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: hungv47
  version: "2.0.0"
  budget: deep
  estimated-cost: "$1-3"
promptSignals:
  phrases:
    - "market research"
    - "competitive analysis"
    - "market size"
    - "tam sam som"
    - "competitor analysis"
    - "market landscape"
  allOf:
    - [market, landscape]
    - [competitive, dynamics]
  anyOf:
    - "competitor"
    - "market"
    - "whitespace"
    - "sizing"
    - "tam"
  noneOf:
    - "customer persona"
    - "buyer persona"
  minScore: 6
routing:
  intent-tags:
    - market-research
    - competitive-analysis
    - market-sizing
    - tam-sam-som
    - whitespace-analysis
  position: pipeline
  lifecycle: canonical
  produces:
    - research/market-research.md
  consumes:
    - research/product-context.md
  requires: []
  defers-to:
    - skill: icp-research
      when: "need audience personas, not market landscape"
    - skill: diagnose
      when: "diagnosing a specific metric decline, not surveying the market"
  parallel-with:
    - diagnose
  interactive: false
  estimated-complexity: heavy
---

# Market Research — Orchestrator

*Strategy — Entry point. Maps market landscape, competitors, and identifies gaps and opportunities.*

**Core Question:** "What does the market look like, and where are the gaps worth filling?"

## Critical Gates — Read First

1. **Sources >18 months old → flag as historical, not current.** Don't present stale data as current intelligence.
2. **TAM/SAM/SOM without methodology is a guess.** Every estimate needs method (top-down/bottom-up), source, and confidence.
3. **Adjacent competitors are the highest threat — never skip the adjacent check.** Biggest threats come from adjacent categories expanding in.
4. **Never rely on training data for positions or pricing — use WebSearch.** Competitor data changes constantly; verify live.

## Philosophy

Rigor scales with stakes. Weekend project = quick scan; Series A pivot = deep intel. Evidence, not opinions — every claim cites a source, every opportunity has data.

**Correctness > Verifiability > Completeness > Style.**

## Inputs Required
- Product context (from `research/product-context.md` or willingness to answer questions)

## Output
- `research/market-research.md`

## Chain Position
Previous: none | Next: `prioritize`, `icp-research`

### Skill Deference
- **MARKET landscape and gaps?** → This skill.
- **WHO the customer is, what they feel?** → `icp-research` (personas/VoC, not market maps).
- **A METRIC underperforming?** → `diagnose` (root causes, not landscapes).
- **Know the problem, need SOLUTIONS?** → `prioritize`.

**Re-run triggers:** New market entry, major competitor launch/pivot, fundraising, or quarterly for fast-moving categories.

---

## Pre-Dispatch

Run the Pre-Dispatch protocol (`references/_shared/pre-dispatch-protocol.md`).

**Needed dimensions:** category/niche, geo + time horizon, why-now (decision this informs), known competitors (or "find them"), B2B/B2C.

**Read order:**
1. Pipeline: `research/product-context.md` for product signal, `.agents/skill-artifacts/meta/records/diagnose-*.md` for known root-cause focus.
2. Experience: `.agents/experience/{product,business,audience}.md`.

**Warm Start** (product + B2B/B2C inferable, decision focus clear):

```
Found:
- product → "[1-line from product-context.md]"
- B2B/B2C → "[from audience.md]"

Need before dispatching: category/niche, geo+horizon, why-now, known competitors?
```

**Cold Start** (no upstr