# PumpGTM user guide

## Start with the decision you need to make

Use this skill pack to research a market, decide which buyers to pursue, prepare relevant messaging, and design a test before committing more effort. Each skill provides a repeatable workflow and a workbook with templates and examples.

You can use one skill for a single task or connect them into a campaign planning process. This guide covers the accompanying files; it does not assume they are installed inside the PumpGTM app or describe unverified app features.

## Choose your starting point

| What you need | Start here | What you should get |
|---|---|---|
| Understand a market, alternatives, or audience questions | [Market intelligence](pumpgtm-market-intelligence/SKILL.md) | A sourced research brief, findings, limitations, and a recommended next action |
| Decide who belongs in your target audience | [Buyer signals](pumpgtm-buyer-signals/SKILL.md) | Segment definitions, qualification rules, exclusions, and conversation angles |
| Write content or explanations representing PumpGTM | [Brand context](pumpgtm-brand-context/SKILL.md) | Copy grounded in PumpGTM context, with unsupported claims flagged |
| Test a targeting, message, offer, or workflow assumption | [Test designer](pumpgtm-test-designer/SKILL.md) | A test plan with outcomes, operating limits, and decision rules |

Start at the point where you are uncertain. If you already have a well-supported buyer profile, use it rather than rebuilding it just to follow a sequence.

## Get the files ready

Keep each named skill folder together with its `references` folder. The workbook contains templates and examples that the main skill links to.

```text
pumpgtm-gtm-skills/
  guide.md
  pumpgtm-market-intelligence/
    SKILL.md
    references/research-workbook.md
  pumpgtm-buyer-signals/
    SKILL.md
    references/buyer-workbook.md
  pumpgtm-brand-context/
    SKILL.md
    references/messaging-workbook.md
  pumpgtm-test-designer/
    SKILL.md
    references/experiment-workbook.md
```

In an assistant that can read local files, point it to the relevant `SKILL.md` and ask it to follow that file for your task. If it cannot access the folder, attach the skill and its workbook with your request. Tools that support skill installation may also accept the entire named subfolder; use that tool's own installation instructions.

Example opening request:

```text
Follow pumpgtm-buyer-signals/SKILL.md for this task. Use its buyer workbook
when you need a template. I will provide our product context and customer notes.
Produce a buyer-selection brief and keep evidence separate from assumptions.
```

Only load the skills relevant to the task. You do not need to provide the whole pack for a simple rewrite or a single research question.

## Prepare a reusable product brief

Give the assistant enough context to work on your actual offer. Copy this brief and complete what you know. Leave missing fields marked as unknown.

```text
Product or service:
What we help customers accomplish:
Who currently uses or buys it:
Current capabilities and important limitations:
Pricing or commercial model, if known:
Customer evidence available:
Current alternatives or workarounds:
Market, geography, or delivery restrictions:
Decision we need to make:
Time and capacity available:
Requested output:
Unknowns:
```

Useful supporting material includes customer call notes, deal feedback, account examples, approved product descriptions, campaign results, and links to original sources. Include dates and context where available. Provide only the material needed for the assignment, using anonymized customer identifiers when appropriate.

If you are selling your own product using PumpGTM, name your product explicitly. PumpGTM's audience and brand voice should not automatically become your customer profile or messaging style.

## Workflow 1: understand the market

Use market intelligence when the decision depends on information you have not yet checked: what buyers discuss, how alternatives position themselves, or which content question deserves attention.

Provide the question, audience, relevant period, existing sources, and desired decision. If current research matters, use an assistant with browsing or supply current source material.

```text
Follow the market intelligence skill.

Research the alternatives our buyers use for the job described in our product
brief. Include manual workarounds where relevant. Use current original sources
when available and record their dates.

Return a comparison, supporting evidence, conflicting findings, and the most
important unanswered question. Do not treat a vendor's promise as a verified
customer outcome.
```

Review whether the sources actually cover your buyer situation. A useful output explains what the evidence supports, what remains uncertain, and why the proposed next action follows.

**Handoff:** save the research brief and evidence ledger for buyer selection or content planning.

## Workflow 2: choose buyers and qualification rules

Use buyer signals to turn product context and customer evidence into a practical selection process. The goal is to explain who deserves attention and why, rather than produce a fictional persona biography.

```text
Follow the buyer signals skill.

Use our product brief, customer notes, and research findings to define the
most defensible starting segment. Explain the job, current workaround,
required fit, timing signals, exclusions, and unknowns.

Give us an account-review table and questions we can use to confirm the
important assumptions in conversation. Mark unsupported buying-role and
budget assumptions clearly.
```

Check that another team member could apply the rules to the same account and understand the reasoning. Keep fit and timing separate: a recent event can make research timely without proving that an account needs your offer.

**Handoff:** save the segment definition, eligibility rules, exclusion rules, stakeholder map, and open discovery questions.

## Workflow 3: prepare relevant messaging

For PumpGTM's own content or product explanations, use the brand context skill with approved product material. For your company's campaigns, provide your own brand and offer context; ask the assistant to use the workbook's planning and review methods while replacing PumpGTM-specific positioning with your approved facts.

```text
Use the messaging workbook to prepare a message for the segment below.
The sender represents our company, and the offer is our product, not PumpGTM.
Use our supplied voice examples and product facts.

Connect a verified account observation to a tentative job hypothesis and an
easy-to-answer question. Return the draft first, followed by any factual
claims that still need verification. Do not send it.
```

For a PumpGTM educational post:

```text
Follow the PumpGTM brand context skill.

Write an educational post explaining how to turn an account signal into a
useful discovery question. Use an explicitly fictional example unless I supply
a verified real one. Keep the explanation practical and avoid unsupported
product or performance claims.
```

Review the speaker, audience, factual claims, and next step. Personalization should explain relevance; mentioning a profile detail alone does not establish a business reason to talk.

**Handoff:** save the approved draft, its supporting context, and any unresolved claims.

## Workflow 4: test the assumption

Use the test designer when you need evidence before expanding an approach. Supply the proposed change, audience, existing counts, available volume, and operating constraints.

```text
Follow the test designer skill.

We want to compare our current conversation opener with the proposed version.
Use the buyer rules and drafts attached. Define a qualified outcome, assignment
method, observation window, guardrails, and decision rule.

Use our historical counts if they support a baseline. If the inputs are
insufficient to calculate sample requirements, identify the gap and explain
what a smaller learning study could establish. Do not invent results.
```

Before running the plan, confirm what is changing, who is eligible, how outcomes will be counted, and what conclusion each possible result supports. A difference in observed percentages is not automatically a reliable improvement.

**Handoff:** save the plan before launch, then add actual counts, deviations, interpretation, and the next decision after the observation window.

## Connect the outputs

For a new campaign, a useful sequence is:

1. Research the buyer's job and existing alternatives.
2. Define a segment and review account fit.
3. Prepare a message grounded in verified relevance.
4. Design a bounded test of the uncertain part.
5. Use the results to revise the targeting, message, or underlying assumption.

Pass the relevant output to the next task explicitly. Do not assume an assistant remembers material from another conversation. Keep a version date on the product brief, buyer rules, approved draft, and test plan so the team can tell which decisions were based on which evidence.

## Review before using an output

| Check | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Correct offer | The work describes your product, audience, and sender accurately |
| Evidence | Important factual claims point to supplied material or inspected sources |
| Unknowns | Assumptions and missing inputs are visible |
| Relevance | The recommendation follows from the buyer's job and situation |
| Claims | Demo figures, forecasts, and customer outcomes remain distinct |
| Measurement | Counts, denominators, dates, and outcome definitions are clear |
| Usability | Another operator could act on the brief without reconstructing its reasoning |

These files prepare analysis, drafts, and plans. They do not themselves connect accounts, send messages, publish content, or run tests. If you want execution, give a separate instruction describing the intended action and scope.

## Common problems

**The output is generic.** Supply a real workflow, a customer example, and the specific decision. Ask the assistant to tie each recommendation to that evidence and remove unsupported filler.

**The assistant invents customer details.** Ask it to rebuild the brief using only cited or supplied facts, labeling other statements as hypotheses. An empty field is preferable to fabricated specificity.

**The assistant cannot read the workbook.** Attach it alongside the main skill, or restore the named skill folder with its `references` subfolder intact.

**Research is outdated or browsing is unavailable.** Supply dated sources and request a supplied-material analysis. Keep current verification outstanding rather than presenting old information as fresh.

**There is too little data for a comparison.** Ask for an interview, account audit, or directional learning design that fits the uncertainty. Do not force a statistically confident conclusion from an undersized sample.

**The copy sounds like PumpGTM when it should represent your company.** Restate the sender, product, audience, and approved voice. Use your own company context for the campaign.

## Share with your team

Share this guide and the complete skill folders your team needs. The linked workbooks are part of the package. Add your own approved product brief and evidence where appropriate so colleagues start from the same context.