productize-research-into-durable-competitive-moats

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Research into durable competitive moats

Productize Preamble

Before producing the artifact, implementation step, or code change, classify the work:

• User/persona: founder, product leader, AI PM, AI builder, stakeholder, or mixed/unknown.
• Product stage: idea, validation, PMF search, growth, scale, pivot, or unknown.
• Artifact mode: strategy memo, PRD, research plan, positioning, experiment, deck, roadmap, execution brief, diagnostic, or decision record.
• Artifact format: Markdown for short, repo-native, diff-sensitive artifacts; self-contained HTML for long, visual, shareable, interactive, or explicitly requested artifacts.
• Evidence standard: what is known, assumed, missing, and risky.
• Decision mode: recommend, ask for a blocking input, or proceed with explicit assumptions.

Operating rules:

1. Do not produce generic product strategy filler. Tie every recommendation to the user's context, evidence, stage, and decision pressure.
2. Separate facts from assumptions. Convert high-risk assumptions into tests, research prompts, or instrumentation.
3. Search existing context, attached docs, repo files, or prior Productize artifacts before inventing new structure when those sources are available.
4. Ask only for inputs that materially change the output. If the next step is obvious, proceed and state assumptions.
5. If another Productize skill is a better fit, name it and explain the routing in one sentence before continuing.
6. Enforce the output contract for this skill. Produce the artifact, implementation step, verification evidence, or code change; do not stop at a meta-explanation of the method.
7. End with the concrete next action, decision owner, validation step, metric, or artifact handoff when applicable.
8. Use the user's saved Productize preferences when available, but do not let stale preferences override explicit instructions in the current request.
9. If you must ask a blocking question, use this compact format: AskUserQuestion: <one question> Why it matters: <decision it changes>.
10. Record completion status for durable work as completed, blocked, deferred, or needs-review when runtime hooks are available.

Artifact format policy:

• Default to Markdown for short notes, repo-native documentation, changelog fragments, or artifacts where clean source diffs matter.
• Use a self-contained HTML file when the user asks for HTML, the artifact is likely to exceed about 100 lines, the reader needs diagrams/tables/comparisons/screenshots, the artifact is meant to be shared, or interaction/export controls would help the user stay in the loop.
• Route by product job first, then choose the format. Do not create a generic HTML workflow when a Productize playbook, gate, or routed skill owns the work.
• HTML artifacts must be local-first and portable: one file, embedded CSS/JS, no remote dependencies unless explicitly requested, readable without a dev server, responsive, accessible, and easy to skim.
• Prefer semantic sections, tables, SVG diagrams, annotated code blocks, status chips, collapsible detail, and copy/export buttons when they improve review speed. Avoid decorative complexity that hides the decision.
• For implementation work with ambiguities, use $implementation-notes when the user asks for a running notes file, especially implementation-notes.html or implementation-notes.md.

Runtime hooks, if available:

• Use productize-workflow start "<user request>" at the beginning of durable product work; it restores context, routes the request, records the session, and returns the required artifact contract.
• Use productize-workflow complete --id <id> --status completed|blocked|deferred|needs-review --artifact-type <type> --summary <summary> before ending durable product work; it records the artifact, saves context, and logs completion status.
• Use productize-update-check --strict at the start of maintenance, setup, release, or generated-output work.
• Use productize-config to read or write user/team preferences such as persona, artifact mode, evidence threshold, or update-check policy.
• Use productize-session-log to record important workflow decisions.
• Use productize-artifact-log when a durable artifact is produced.
• Use productize-context-restore before restarting long-running product work from scratch.
• Use productize-context-save after producing a durable strategy, research, spec, or stakeholder artifact.
• Use productize-registry-search or productize-skill-router when routing is ambiguous.
• Use productize-completion-status to log whether the workflow completed, blocked, deferred, or needs review.

Telemetry standard:

• Keep telemetry local by default in .productize/ or PRODUCTIZE_STATE_DIR.
• Log artifact type, routing decision, evidence gaps, and completion status; do not log secrets or private customer data unless the user explicitly asks for it.

Current skill metadata:

• Skill: research-into-durable-competitive-moats
• Lifecycle: Discover
• Category: Discovery
• Primary artifact: Research into durable competitive moats research brief with evidence, insight clusters, assumptions, and next validation steps

Use this skill to run the Productize prompt contract for Research into durable competitive moats.

Instructions

1. Treat every {{PLACEHOLDER}} in the contract as an input to collect, infer, or mark as missing.
2. If missing information blocks useful work, ask only for the blocking inputs. If work can proceed, state assumptions explicitly.
3. Follow the contract's GOAL, CONSTRAINTS, FORMAT, and FAILURE clauses exactly.
4. Preserve the required output schema unless the user explicitly asks for a different artifact.
5. Keep claims grounded in the provided inputs and disclose gaps.

Prompt Contract

INPUTS <provided_inputs>

• {{APP_CONTEXT}}
• {{RESEARCH_BUNDLE}}
• Optional: {{K_STRATEGIES}} # default 10 </provided_inputs>

GOAL Produce a high-quality deliverable for: Research into durable competitive moats. Success metric:

• Produces research-grounded moat insights and converts them into implementation-ready strategies.
• Delivers a diversified moat portfolio with explicit probabilities, defensibility, and kill criteria.
• Keeps recommendations constrained by feasibility, compounding potential, and non-copyability.
• Output follows the required structure exactly.

CONSTRAINTS

• Use only {{APP_CONTEXT}} and {{RESEARCH_BUNDLE}}; if critical info is missing, add explicit assumptions in a top-level assumptions array.
• Extract 8-15 research-backed insights; each insight must include:
  • id (e.g., I1),
  • insight (one sentence),
  • evidence (quote/paraphrase + source cue),
  • implication (competitive implication).
• Generate k moat strategies (k={{K_STRATEGIES}} if provided; otherwise 10).
• Allowed moat_type values:
  • data moat, network effects, switching costs, distribution moat, brand, scale economies, ecosystem/platform, regulatory/permissions, IP/know-how, community.
• Each strategy must include:
  • title,
  • moat_type,
  • contrarian (boolean),
  • mechanism,
  • research_link (insight IDs),
  • implementation_plan (now_30d, next_90d, next_12m, each 3-6 steps),
  • prerequisites,
  • metrics (3-6 leading indicators with targets),
  • risks_and_mitigations (3-6),
  • time_to_moat (<3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months, 12-24 months, 24+ months),
  • estimated_cost (low, medium, high),
  • defensibility_score (1-10) and defensibility_justification,
  • probability (decimal 0.0-1.0).
• Diversity constraints:
  • every strategy probability < 0.15,
  • at least 3 strategies with probability < 0.07,
  • no moat_type used more than twice,
  • at least 2 strategies with contrarian=true.
• Portfolio section must include:
  • recommended_portfolio (exactly 3 strategies with rationale),
  • kill_criteria (2-3 falsifiable stop criteria per recommended strategy),
  • sequencing (month-by-month plan for 6 months with dependencies).
• Output must be valid JSON only, concise and implementation-ready.

FORMAT Return exactly this structure:

{ "assumptions": ["[Only if needed]"], "insights": [ { "id": "I1", "insight": "", "evidence": "", "implication": "" } ], "moat_strategies": [ { "title": "", "moat_type": "", "contrarian": false, "mechanism": "", "research_link": ["I1"], "implementation_plan": { "now_30d": ["", "", ""], "next_90d": ["", "", ""], "next_12m": ["", "", ""] }, "prerequisites": [""], "metrics": [ { "name": "", "target": "" } ], "risks_and_mitigations": [ { "risk": "", "mitigation": "" } ], "time_to_moat": "", "estimated_cost": "", "defensibility_score": 1, "defensibility_justification": "", "probability": 0.01 } ], "recommended_portfolio": [ { "strategy_title": "", "rationale": "" } ], "kill_criteria": [ { "strategy_title": "", "criteria": ["", ""] } ], "sequencing": [ { "month": "M1", "focus": "", "dependencies": [""] } ] }

FAILURE

• Output is not valid JSON.
• Required top-level keys are missing or malformed.
• Insight count is outside 8-15.
• Strategy count does not equal k (default 10).
• Any strategy misses required fields or contains invalid enum values.
• Distribution constraints are violated (probability caps, low-probability count, moat-type repetition, contrarian minimum).
• recommended_portfolio does not contain exactly 3 strategies.
• Kill criteria are not falsifiable or have fewer than 2 criteria per recommended strategy.
• Sequencing is not month-by-month for 6 months.
• Claims are generic or not grounded in provided inputs.
• Assumptions are used but not explicitly stated.