Product Strategy Canvas

Produce a comprehensive Product Strategy Canvas — vision, segments, costs, value props, trade-offs, metrics, growth, capabilities, defensibility — where each pillar cites the customer pains that justify it and the market shifts that make it timely. Grounding turns a plausible-sounding strategy into one you can defend with quotes.

Step 0 — Relevance & availability

Confirm this is product/company-direction work and Evermuse is connected. If the tools aren't present, produce a framework-only canvas labeled ⚠ ungrounded — Evermuse not connected and tell the user to authorize the MCP. See ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/using-evermuse/SKILL.md Step 0.

Evermuse Grounding (required)

Follow ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/using-evermuse/SKILL.md.

Required — one parallel batch of searches. Verify the product (Rule 1), then fire in a single parallel batch:

• 3–4 evidence searches, each worded from a different angle (limit up to 50). Evidence comes back rich and varied — expect large, useful result sets.
• one guidance search and one context search (limit up to 50). These are usually sparse or empty; run them anyway and note when they're thin.

Read each response's digest — it reports how many more results exist. Use judgment on whether a query is worth pulling deeper (raise limit toward the 100 max and/or page with next_offset to avoid repeats), weighing payload size, remaining context, task complexity, and the value of the data. For deep pulls, consider spawning sub-agents — instruct them to return every citation with the same metadata the tools return (url, who_said_it, meeting_name, created_at) so you can still cite.

Optional — considered use. Once grounded, reach for the other tools only when they add value: a quote-angled search for verbatim voice, read_source for a single deep dive, inline citations (references/citations.md), and add_source to save the deliverable. Sources, citations, and saving are optional — not required.

Instructions

You are an experienced product strategist developing a strategy for $ARGUMENTS. Build the canvas so its elements reinforce each other and every choice traces to evidence.

The 9-Section Product Strategy Canvas

1. Vision — What we aspire to achieve and the values we uphold. Anchor in the future customers say they want (evidence quotes about desired outcomes), not internal ambition alone.
2. Market Segments — Defined by problems people have, not demographics. State each segment's Job to Be Done, desired outcome, and constraint. Each segment's problem comes from an evidence result, cited. Name the first segment and why it goes first (strongest, most-cited pain wins).
3. Relative Costs — Do we optimize for low cost (Southwest) or unique value (Starbucks)? State cost position vs. competitors; back competitor claims with context.
4. Value Proposition (per segment) — What before (the pain, quoted from evidence) → How (our mechanism) → What after (the outcome customers named) → Alternatives (what they use today, from evidence/context). Every pillar cites a pain [evidence] and a market shift [context].
5. Trade-offs — What we will NOT do. Use evidence to justify saying no (segments whose pains we deprioritize, and why that focus amplifies value for the chosen segment).
6. Key Metrics — North Star Metric + the One Metric That Matters this quarter. Tie the North Star to the customer outcome in the value prop.
7. Growth — Product-Led vs. Sales-Led; primary acquisition channels; unit-economics logic. Ground channel choice in where evidence shows customers actually discover tools like ours.
8. Capabilities — Competencies/resources to build vs. partner for, to win the chosen segment.
9. Can't/Won't — Why competitors can't or won't copy the integrated set of choices (network effects, switching costs, IP). Cite context on competitor capabilities where relevant (secondary — label it).

Output process

1. Draft vision from customer-desired-future evidence.
2. Identify 2–3 segments, each grounded in a cited pain.
3. Set cost positioning.
4. Write value props with paired [evidence]+[context] citations.
5. State explicit trade-offs with rationale.
6. Set North Star + OMTM.
7. Outline growth and capabilities.
8. Explain defensibility.
9. Coherence check: do the nine reinforce each other? Surface the critical hypotheses that must be true, and one cheap experiment per hypothesis.

Where the source method reaches for "web search / user-provided data," use Evermuse evidence (customer voice) as the primary source and context (market) as secondary.

Deliverable format

# Product Strategy — [product]

**1. Vision:** [one memorable sentence] — grounded in [`1`](URL)

**2. Market Segments**
- **Segment A (first):** [JTBD]. Core pain: > "[quote]" — [attribution] [`2`](URL). Why first: [most-cited].

**4. Value Proposition — Segment A**
| Before (pain) | How | After (outcome) | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| [pain, cited [`3`](URL)] | [mechanism] | [outcome, cited [`4`](URL)] | [today's tools] |
*Market shift making this winnable now:* [context, cited [`5`](URL)]

… (sections 3, 5–9) …

**Critical hypotheses & cheapest tests**
- [hypothesis] → [test]

Further reading

• Adapted from phuryn/pm-skills (MIT); grounding is Evermuse-native.
• Product Strategy Canvas: From Vision to Action
• Product Vision vs Strategy vs Objectives vs Roadmap