define-customer-profile

What this skill does

**User request**: $ARGUMENTS

# Customer Profile Skill

Create the foundational CUSTOMER.md document through iterative refinement. This document precisely defines WHO your customer is, their problems, behaviors, and what they value. **Everything else in the product derives from this document.**

> **This is the most important document your product will ever have.** Product decisions, feature prioritization, and even brand guidelines all flow from understanding the customer. Get this right first.

## Overview

This skill supports both **creating a new customer doc** and **refining an existing one**. Users come back to adjust their ICP as they learn more about their market or pivot their product.

**Loop**: Check existing → Discover → Research → Draft → Refine → Repeat until complete

This skill guides you through:
0. **Check Existing** - Look for existing CUSTOMER.md; let user choose to refine or start fresh
1. **Discovery** - Clarifying questions about your product, market, and current understanding (keeps asking until confident)
2. **Research Phase** - Launch parallel agents to research ICP data, market, competitors (optional)
3. **Initial Draft** - Generate first CUSTOMER.md based on inputs + research
4. **Refinement & Completion** - Review sections, validate assumptions, update doc, finalize

**Returning users** can skip to Phase 4 to refine specific sections.

### Where the Value Comes From

The discovery questions give you a solid starting point, but **the real magic happens in Phase 2 (Research) and Phase 4 (Refinement)**:
- Research agents dig into real market data, competitor positioning, and ICP characteristics
- You validate whether the ICP resonates with your actual experience
- Each cycle sharpens the doc until it truly captures YOUR ideal customer

**Discovery log**: `/tmp/customer-discovery-{YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS}.md` - external memory updated after each step.

## Workflow

### Initial Setup (create todos immediately)

**Create todo list** - areas to discover, not steps. List expands as user answers reveal new areas.

**Starter todos**:
```
- [ ] Check for existing CUSTOMER.md; done when existing file read or absence confirmed
- [ ] Discovery questions→log; done when user answers captured
- [ ] Research→log (if requested); done when research findings logged
- [ ] (expand: areas as discovery reveals)
- [ ] Generate initial draft; done when draft created
- [ ] Refinement cycles→log; done when user approves direction
- [ ] Refresh: read full discovery log
- [ ] Finalize document; done when CUSTOMER.md written
```

**Create discovery log** at `/tmp/customer-discovery-{YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS}.md`:

```markdown
# Discovery Log: Customer Profile
Started: {timestamp}

## Discovery Answers
(populated incrementally)

## Research Findings
(populated incrementally)

## Decisions Made
(populated incrementally)

## Refinement Notes
(populated incrementally)
```

### Phase 0: Check for Existing Document

**Mark "Check for existing CUSTOMER.md" todo `in_progress`.**

Before starting discovery, check if the user already has a CUSTOMER.md:

1. **Search for existing doc**: Use Glob to search for `**/CUSTOMER.md` in the current directory and common locations
2. **If found**: Read it and ask the user what they want to do

```
header: "Existing Customer Doc Found"
question: "I found an existing CUSTOMER.md. What would you like to do?"
options:
  - "Refine it - update specific sections based on new learnings"
  - "Start fresh - create a new customer profile from scratch"
  - "Review it - just read through what's there"
```

**If "Refine it"**: Ask which sections need updating, then jump to Phase 4 with targeted questions.

**If "Start fresh"**: Proceed to Phase 1 (Discovery) - will overwrite the existing doc.

**If "Review it"**: Read and display the doc, then ask what they want to do next.

3. **If NOT found**: Proceed directly to Phase 1 (Discovery)

**Mark "Check for existing CUSTOMER.md" todo `completed`.**

### Phase 1: Discovery

**Mark "Discovery questions" todo `in_progress`.**

Use AskUserQuestion tool with multi-choice options for EVERY question. **Put the recommended option FIRST** with "(Recommended)" suffix to reduce cognitive load.

**After EACH question**, append to discovery log:
```markdown
### Q{N}: {question topic}
**Answer**: {user's answer}
**Impact**: {what this reveals about ICP}
**New areas**: {any new todos to add}
```

**Recommendation Strategy**: Since there's no prior document, recommendations are based on:
- Most common patterns for solo devs/indie hackers
- Product type (once selected, informs subsequent recommendations)
- Sensible defaults that apply to most cases

**Question 1: Product Stage**

```
header: "Product Stage"
question: "Where is your product in its lifecycle?"
options:
  - "Early stage - have some users, finding PMF (Recommended)"
  - "Pre-launch - still building, no customers yet"
  - "Growth stage - PMF found, scaling acquisition"
  - "Mature - established product, optimizing"
```

Recommendation: "Early stage" is most common for solo devs using this tool.

**Question 2: Product Type**

```
header: "Product Type"
question: "What type of product are you building?"
options:
  - "B2B SaaS - software for businesses (Recommended)"
  - "Developer tool - for engineers/developers"
  - "B2C app - consumer application"
  - "Marketplace/Platform - connecting buyers and sellers"
  - "Content/Media - newsletter, course, community"
  - "Physical product - hardware or tangible goods"
```

Recommendation: "B2B SaaS" is most common. Use selected type to inform later recommendations.

**Question 3: Problem Space** (Free text)

```
header: "Problem"
question: "What core problem does your product solve?"
freeText: true
placeholder: "Describe the main pain point (e.g., 'Teams waste hours manually syncing data between tools')"
```

This is essential context that's hard to multiple-choice. Get 1-2 sentences.

**Question 4: Current Customer Knowledge**

```
header: "Current Understanding"
question: "How well do you know your ideal customer today?"
options:
  - "Somewhat - have some customers, seeing some patterns (Recommended)"
  - "Very well - I've talked to many, have clear patterns"
  - "Vaguely - have hypotheses but not validated"
  - "Not at all - need to figure this out from scratch"
```

Recommendation: "Somewhat" - most users have some signal but need help structuring it.

**Question 5: Primary Value Proposition**

```
header: "Value Prop"
question: "What's the PRIMARY value you deliver?"
options:
  - "Save time - automation, efficiency (Recommended)"
  - "Save money - cost reduction, better ROI"
  - "Make money - revenue generation, growth"
  - "Reduce risk - security, compliance, reliability"
  - "Improve quality - better outcomes, fewer errors"
  - "Enable capability - do something previously impossible"
  - "Provide enjoyment - entertainment, satisfaction"
```

Recommendation: "Save time" is the most common value prop for SaaS products.

**Question 6: Purchase Decision**

Recommendation based on product type:
- B2B SaaS → "Team lead" or "Individual user"
- Developer tool → "Individual user"
- B2C → "Individual user"
- Enterprise → "Multiple stakeholders"

```
header: "Buyer Type"
question: "Who makes the purchase decision?"
options:
  - "Individual user - they buy for themselves (Recommended for B2C/dev tools)"
  - "Team lead - buys for their team (Recommended for B2B SaaS)"
  - "Executive/C-suite - strategic purchase"
  - "Procurement/IT - goes through formal process"
  - "Multiple stakeholders - committee decision"
  - "No purchase - free product, other monetization"
```

**Question 7: Known Customer Characteristics**

```
header: "Customer Traits"
question: "What do you know about your best customers? (Select all that apply)"
options:
  - "Pain intensity (desperate vs nice-to-have) (Recommended)"
  - "Specific job title or role (Recommended)"
  - "Behavioral patterns (power users, specific workflows)"
  - "Company size or type"
  -