market-research
affaan-m/ecc
Conduct market research, competitive analysis, and investor due diligence with sourced findings and decision-oriented summaries.
What is market-research?
This skill enables structured market research, competitive analysis, investor diligence, and technology scanning with mandatory source attribution and clear separation of fact, inference, and recommendation. Use it when you need to size markets, compare competitors, evaluate funds, or pressure-test business theses before major decisions.
- Produce investor and fund diligence reports with portfolio analysis, check sizes, and fit assessment
- Conduct competitive analysis covering product reality, funding history, traction, pricing, and positioning gaps
- Build TAM/SAM/SOM estimates using top-down reports and bottom-up customer acquisition sanity checks
- Research technology vendors and trends with trade-off analysis, adoption signals, and risk assessment
- Separate fact, inference, and recommendation clearly with explicit assumptions and source attribution
- Flag stale data, include contrarian evidence, and identify risks before delivering findings
How to install market-research
npx skills add null --skill market-researchHow to use market-research
- 1.Define your research question: market sizing, competitor comparison, investor evaluation, or technology assessment
- 2.Specify the scope: geography, time period, customer segments, or competitive set
- 3.Request the research with your specific decision context (e.g., 'before we pitch this fund' or 'to validate our TAM')
- 4.Review the executive summary and key findings for decision-relevant insights
- 5.Check sources and caveats before acting on recommendations; flag any stale data or missing evidence
Use cases
- Evaluating a potential investor before outreach by analyzing fund thesis, portfolio fit, and recent activity
- Comparing three competing products to identify positioning gaps and distribution advantages
- Building a market size estimate for a new category using public datasets and realistic customer acquisition models
- Assessing adoption risk and integration complexity of a new vendor technology before committing
- Pressure-testing a market entry thesis by collecting evidence for and against the business case
- Founders and business strategists planning market entry or fundraising
- Product managers evaluating competitive positioning and market opportunities
- Investors conducting due diligence on companies, funds, or sectors
- Business development professionals researching partnership or acquisition targets
- Analysts building market intelligence for strategic planning
market-research FAQ
This skill enforces source attribution for every important claim, flags stale data, includes contrarian evidence and downside cases, and translates findings into a clear decision or recommendation—not just a summary.
Yes, it uses bottom-up sanity checks from realistic customer acquisition assumptions combined with top-down estimates, but all assumptions are made explicit and labeled as estimates.
It separates fact from inference, includes contrarian evidence, identifies risks and caveats, and makes the reasoning transparent so you can weigh competing claims.
Yes, for competitive analysis and technology research on private companies using public signals (funding, hiring, product changes, customer clues); investor diligence works best on funds with public track records.
The skill will use the best available data, clearly label it as older or estimated, and recommend what additional primary research (customer interviews, surveys) would reduce uncertainty.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from affaan-m/ecc.
name: market-research description: Conduct market research, competitive analysis, investor due diligence, and industry intelligence with source attribution and decision-oriented summaries. Use when the user wants market sizing, competitor comparisons, fund research, technology scans, or research that informs business decisions. metadata: origin: ECC
Market Research
Produce research that supports decisions, not research theater.
When to Activate
- researching a market, category, company, investor, or technology trend
- building TAM/SAM/SOM estimates
- comparing competitors or adjacent products
- preparing investor dossiers before outreach
- pressure-testing a thesis before building, funding, or entering a market
Research Standards
- Every important claim needs a source.
- Prefer recent data and call out stale data.
- Include contrarian evidence and downside cases.
- Translate findings into a decision, not just a summary.
- Separate fact, inference, and recommendation clearly.
Common Research Modes
Investor / Fund Diligence
Collect:
- fund size, stage, and typical check size
- relevant portfolio companies
- public thesis and recent activity
- reasons the fund is or is not a fit
- any obvious red flags or mismatches
Competitive Analysis
Collect:
- product reality, not marketing copy
- funding and investor history if public
- traction metrics if public
- distribution and pricing clues
- strengths, weaknesses, and positioning gaps
Market Sizing
Use:
- top-down estimates from reports or public datasets
- bottom-up sanity checks from realistic customer acquisition assumptions
- explicit assumptions for every leap in logic
Technology / Vendor Research
Collect:
- how it works
- trade-offs and adoption signals
- integration complexity
- lock-in, security, compliance, and operational risk
Output Format
Default structure:
- executive summary
- key findings
- implications
- risks and caveats
- recommendation
- sources
Quality Gate
Before delivering:
- all numbers are sourced or labeled as estimates
- old data is flagged
- the recommendation follows from the evidence
- risks and counterarguments are included
- the output makes a decision easier
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