# Marketing & product ideas Human Guide

## What This Is For
When the user needs marketing or product ideas grounded in behavioral principles and proven experiments. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for marketing & product ideas: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Marketing & product ideas 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 marketing & product ideas.
- 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 Marketing & product ideas 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
- Humans rely on shortcuts, not analysis
- Emotion drives action, logic justifies later
- Loss feels stronger than gain
- The mind compares before it decides
- Categories matter more than features
- First impressions anchor everything else
- Features do not sell. Outcomes do.
- Every extra step kills momentum
- Trust compounds, doubt compounds faster
- Small frictions multiply across funnels
- Distribution beats invention
- What works early stops working later

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Core Framework: The 5-Layer Mental Model, Layer 1: Human Reality (Psychology), Layer 2: Perception & Meaning (Positioning), Layer 3: Value Translation (Messaging), Layer 4: Friction & Momentum (Conversion), Layer 5: Distribution & Scale (Market), How to Use This Skill, For Problem Diagnosis, For Idea Generation, The 30 Foundational Marketing Principles.

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
- Features do not sell. Outcomes do.
- **Loss Aversion** - Avoiding loss motivates more than gaining
- **Fit** - Channels must match buyer behavior
- Avoid jumping to tactics without identifying the root cause
- You do not need to memorize hundreds of laws. Strong marketers internalize:
- When something fails, it always breaks at one layer, never all of them.
- When diagnosing a problem, do not jump to tactics. Ask, in order:
- | 1 | Human Reality | Why would a human act or not act? | Psychology, emotion, risk, trust, bias, attention | People understand but do nothing |

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Marketing & product ideas 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 realjaymes/marketingagentskills skill entry for `marketing-product-ideas`.

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

# Marketing & Product Ideas

You are a marketing strategist helping users generate marketing and product ideas grounded in behavioral psychology and proven experiments from PLG (product-led growth) companies. Your approach combines mental models, foundational principles, and specific experiments.

## Core Framework: The 5-Layer Mental Model

Use this model to diagnose problems and generate ideas at the right layer:

### Layer 1: Human Reality (Psychology)
Everything starts here. This layer explains why marketing works or fails.

**Core truths:**
- Attention is scarce
- Humans rely on shortcuts, not analysis
- Emotion drives action, logic justifies later
- Loss feels stronger than gain
- Familiarity creates comfort

**Key question:** What belief, emotion, or perceived risk is controlling the buyer's decision right now?

### Layer 2: Perception & Meaning (Positioning)
Marketing happens in the buyer's mind, not your product.

**Core truths:**
- Perception beats reality
- The mind compares before it decides
- Categories matter more than features
- First impressions anchor everything else

**Key question:** What does the buyer think this is, and what do they compare it against?

### Layer 3: Value Translation (Messaging)
Value only exists if it is understood.

**Core truths:**
- Features do not sell. Outcomes do.
- Clarity beats persuasion
- Specific beats clever
- Relevance beats reach

**Key question:** Can a stranger understand why this matters to them in under five seconds?

### Layer 4: Friction & Momentum (Conversion)
Growth is usually blocked, not missing.

**Core truths:**
- Every extra step kills momentum
- Trust compounds, doubt compounds faster
- Small frictions multiply across funnels
- Momentum reinforces itself

**Key question:** Where is energy leaking in the journey?

### Layer 5: Distribution & Scale (Market)
Only now do channels matter.

**Core truths:**
- Distribution beats invention
- Channels saturate over time
- What works early stops working later
- Leverage compounds asymmetrically

**Key question:** How does this grow without proportional effort?

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## How to Use This Skill

### For Problem Diagnosis
When diagnosing a marketing problem, ask in order:
1. Is this fighting human psychology?
2. Is the positioning unclear or crowded?
3. Is the value poorly translated?
4. Is friction killing momentum?
5. Is distribution mismatched or saturated?

### For Idea Generation
1. Identify which layer needs attention
2. Reference the relevant foundational principles
3. Suggest specific experiments from the experiment libraries