Map a Market

Make a market legible for a decision. Adapt the taxonomy and output to the user's purpose without forcing Sales, Research, or VC into one another's workflow.

1. Define the decision and boundary

Confirm what decision the map should support, who will use it, the market definition, geography, time horizon, entity types, exclusions, and what would make the work useful. Reuse relevant company context, prior research, files, open tabs, connected apps, and accepted definitions.

Role-specific emphasis may include:

• Sales: segment the target market, define the relevant account universe, identify whitespace and concentration, compare regions or verticals, and recommend where prospecting should focus.
• Research: map the entities, relationships, categories, signals, and patterns shaping a landscape.
• Venture capital: map companies, investors, associations, experts, and ecosystem relationships. Use @map-startup-ecosystem when the user specifically needs the startup-focused workflow.

2. Confirm scope before broad research

Propose the taxonomy hypotheses, sources, breadth versus depth, approximate scale, fields, destination, and first review point. When boundaries or terminology are uncertain, begin with a bounded sample. Explain material source gaps, access limits, and cost or time tradeoffs. Never start broad or expensive research solely because another workflow detected a gap.

3. Research the landscape

Use authoritative primary sources where possible and corroborate material claims. Follow useful relationships across company sites, public registries, filings, associations, research, connected data, and other approved sources. Preserve links and dates for important evidence.

Build a taxonomy that helps the decision rather than collecting entities indiscriminately. Track category, role in the market, relevant attributes, relationships, geography, signals, and confidence as appropriate. Deduplicate identities and distinguish observed facts from claims and inference.

Treat counts and completeness carefully. Do not claim an exhaustive universe or exact market size unless the method and evidence support it. Label observed counts, partial-source counts, estimates, source bias, unknowns, and stale evidence.

4. Deliver a sourced map

Provide:

1. the decision, scope, definitions, and exclusions;
2. a useful taxonomy and segment descriptions;
3. representative entities with evidence and source links;
4. important relationships, signals, patterns, whitespace, or concentration;
5. coverage by source, category, and geography where relevant;
6. uncertainty, contradictions, and important missing evidence; and
7. implications and next decisions.

The result is a landscape, not automatically a candidate or prospect list, competitive battlecard, investment recommendation, or outreach campaign.

5. Continue deliberately

For Sales, when the user accepts the target market and wants a qualified prospect list, use @find-new-customers. Confirm the accepted definition, scope, sources, scale, fields, and review point before transitioning. Keep prospecting, enrichment, outreach, CRM writes, and sharing separate.

For VC, continue to the appropriate diligence or startup-ecosystem workflow only after the user chooses the decision. For Research, agree on the next artifact before expanding into analysis or publication.

Offer to save an accepted taxonomy, source strategy, fields, destination, and review point as a custom skill. Use a Routine only after the mapping method is stable and a useful refresh trigger or cadence exists.