# GTM board and investor communication Human Guide

## What This Is For
Structure board meetings, investor updates, and executive communication that builds trust and drives decisions — not slide decks that nobody reads. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for go-to-market work: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the GTM board and investor communication agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for GTM board and investor communication.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the GTM board and investor communication guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- "How do I prepare for our board meeting?"
- "What should go in our investor update?"
- "We missed our numbers, how do we communicate this?"
- "How often should we update investors?"
- "Our board meetings aren't productive"
- Seed through growth-stage companies
- Board meeting preparation and follow-up
- Monthly/quarterly investor updates
- Handling misses and bad news
- Cascading strategy from board to organization
- Financial dashboard (ARR, burn, runway, pipeline)
- Metric scorecard with health indicators (green/yellow/red)

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: When to Use, Core Frameworks, Tell the Story, Then Show the Data, The "Three Things" Narrative Model, Progress Is Directional, Not Absolute, The Four-Tier Metric Hierarchy, Deliver Bad News Before the Board Asks, The Monthly Investor Update, Burn Is About Discipline; Revenue Is About Traction, Cascading Strategy from Board to Organization.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Rule: If it can be read, don't present it
- Filling the meeting with good news (boards don't trust CEOs who only share wins)
- Too many metrics confuse the board. Too few miss important signals. Structure your metrics in four tiers, and never change them quarter to quarter.
- Why track these: early warning before revenue impact
- **Same metrics every quarter.** Build a 4-6 quarter track record. OK to add new metrics, but never drop old ones.
- **Actuals vs plan, always.** Never show a metric without showing what you planned. The delta is the conversation.
- **Why:** Director can help frame for the full board, avoid surprise shock, and may have seen this pattern before
- "Wanted to flag something before our next meeting. [Specific problem]. Here's what we know so far, what we don't know yet, and what we're doing about it. Will have a full update at the board meeting."

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the GTM board and investor communication human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the github/awesome-copilot skill entry for `gtm-board-and-investor-communication`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Board and Investor Communication

Structure board meetings, investor updates, and executive communication that builds trust and drives decisions — not slide decks that nobody reads.

## When to Use

**Triggers:**
- "How do I prepare for our board meeting?"
- "What should go in our investor update?"
- "We missed our numbers, how do we communicate this?"
- "Board deck structure"
- "How often should we update investors?"
- "Our board meetings aren't productive"

**Context:**
- Seed through growth-stage companies
- Board meeting preparation and follow-up
- Monthly/quarterly investor updates
- Handling misses and bad news
- Cascading strategy from board to organization

---

## Core Frameworks

### 1. Tell the Story, Then Show the Data

**The Pattern:**

Most board meetings start with a data dump. Slide after slide of metrics, then 10 minutes of Q&A where board members try to figure out what it all means.

Flip it. The narrative should lead; data should confirm.

**How It Works:**

Open with where you are in the journey. Not "here's our ARR" but "here's what we believed coming into the quarter, what we learned, and where that puts us now." Then show the data that validates the narrative.

**Board Meeting Structure:**

**Pre-Read (Sent 48-72 Hours Before)**
- Financial dashboard (ARR, burn, runway, pipeline)
- Metric scorecard with health indicators (green/yellow/red)
- 2-3 page narrative summary covering market context and strategic update
- Rule: If it can be read, don't present it

**The Meeting (90-120 Minutes)**

1. **Market context and questions on pre-read** (15 min)
   - What's changed in the market since last meeting?
   - Board asks about anything unclear from pre-read
   - No re-presenting the data

2. **CEO strategic update — The "Three Things"** (15 min)
   - **What's working** (2-3 areas showing momentum)
   - **What's not** (1-2 specific gaps, not vague)
   - **What we're doing about it** (specific changes, not promises)
   - This is narrative, not numbers

3. **Decision items** (30-45 min)
   - 1-3 topics where the board's input or approval is needed
   - Come prepared: "We're deciding between X and Y, board thoughts?"
   - Leave with a decision, not "let's revisit next quarter"

4. **Deep dive** (20-30 min)
   - One topic explored in depth (rotating each meeting)
   - Bring the functional leader who owns it
   - Examples: pricing strategy, competitive landscape, org design, market expansion

5. **Closing** (10 min)
   - Summarize decisions made and action owners
   - Closed session (board without management)
   - CEO and board chair debrief

**Common Mistakes:**

- Opening with data before narrative (board gets lost in numbers without context)
- Multiple competing narratives (board can't synthesize — pick one arc)
- Trying to cover too many topics deeply (results in rushed decisions on everything)
- No deep dives (board becomes a rubber stamp)
- Filling the meeting with good news (boards don't trust CEOs who only share wins)