/onboarding — Smart Project Intake

Structured intake that detects engagement type, gathers relevant context, and produces readiness scorecards. Saves to type-specific context files that downstream skills consume automatically.

When to Use

Starting a new client engagement or personal project
User says "onboarding", "new project", "new client", "set up a project"
Before running any other skill for a project that hasn't been onboarded

Process

Step 1: Initialize Project

If $ARGUMENTS provides a project name, use it. Otherwise ask:

AskUserQuestion:
  question: "What's the project name? (Short — becomes the folder name, like 'acme' or 'solar-app')"
  header: "Project"

Check if projects/<project>/onboarding.md already exists. If it does, ask whether to update or start fresh.

Step 2: Engagement Type

AskUserQuestion:
  question: "What kind of engagement is this?"
  header: "Type"
  multiSelect: true
  options:
    - label: "GTM"
      description: "Go-to-market — positioning, ICP, pricing, outreach, sales, marketing"
    - label: "Product"
      description: "Product strategy — discovery, brainstorming, PRD, tech spec"
    - label: "Design/Brand"
      description: "Brand strategy, design system, visual identity, creative direction"
    - label: "Engineering"
      description: "Technical implementation — architecture, planning, building, reviewing"
    - label: "General"
      description: "Broad engagement or not sure yet"

Multi-type is encouraged — most engagements span multiple areas. Store the selected types.

Step 3: Shared Discovery — The Business

These questions apply to ALL engagement types. Ask using AskUserQuestion (group into 2-3 questions per round, acknowledge answers before continuing):

Round 1 — What & Why:

What does the company/product do? (Describe it like you would to a stranger.)
What problem do you solve? For whom?
What stage are you at? (Idea, pre-launch, launched, scaling, pivoting, rebranding?)

Round 2 — The Audience:

Who is your ideal customer? Be specific — job title, company size, situation.
What is their life like before they find you? What are they struggling with?
What does success look like after working with you/using your product?

Round 3 — The Market:

Who are your top 3-5 competitors? (Direct and indirect — include DIY/spreadsheet/do-nothing alternatives.)
What makes you different from them? (Honest, not aspirational.)

Round 4 — Goals & Constraints:

What are you trying to accomplish with this engagement?
What does success look like in 90 days? In 12 months?
What constraints should we know about? (Budget, timeline, team size, technical limitations.)

Step 4: Type-Specific Deep Dive

Based on the selected engagement types, run the relevant deep-dive rounds. If multiple types are selected, run all applicable deep dives.

GTM Deep Dive

GTM Motion:

AskUserQuestion:
  question: "How do you currently acquire customers?"
  header: "GTM Motion"
  options:
    - label: "Product-led (PLG)"
      description: "Self-serve signup, free tier or trial, users convert themselves"
    - label: "Sales-led (SLG)"
      description: "Sales team drives deals — SDRs, AEs, demos, proposals"
    - label: "Founder-led"
      description: "Founder is the primary salesperson, no dedicated sales team yet"
    - label: "Not sure / hybrid"
      description: "Mix of approaches or haven't figured it out yet"

Sales team structure? (Founder only, SDRs + AEs, self-serve, channel partners?)
Revenue model? (SaaS, usage-based, services, marketplace, one-time?)
Current revenue/ARR? (Rough range: pre-revenue, <$100K, $100K-$1M, $1M-$10M, $10M+)
Any pipeline metrics? (CAC, LTV, win rate, sales cycle length, churn rate)
What marketing channels are active? How are they performing?

AskUserQuestion:
  question: "Where does your GTM feel most broken?"
  header: "Bottleneck"
  options:
    - label: "Awareness"
      description: "People don't know we exist — can't get attention"
    - label: "Pipeline"
      description: "Not enough qualified leads or demos"
    - label: "Conversion"
      description: "Leads come in but don't close — low win rate"
    - label: "Retention"
      description: "We acquire customers but they churn"

How do competitors sell? (Their GTM motion, not just their product)
Existing GTM assets? (Pitch deck, one-pagers, email sequences, case studies, sales playbook?)

Product Deep Dive

What's the current product maturity? (Concept, MVP, beta, v1, established)
Have you done user research? What did you learn?
Any PMF signals? (Retention, NPS, word-of-mouth, organic growth)
How do you prioritize features? (Gut, customer requests, data, framework?)
What analytics/instrumentation do you have? What are you measuring?
What's on the roadmap? What are the biggest product bets?
Any technical constraints that affect product decisions?

Design/Brand Deep Dive

What's your brand maturity? (No brand, basic logo/colors, partial brand system, full brand)
Any existing visual identity? (Logo, colors, fonts, style guide?)
If your brand were a person, how would you describe their personality?
3 words you want associated with your brand? 3 you do NOT want?
Any brands outside your industry whose style/voice you admire?
Do you have or need a design system? (None, ad hoc, partial, comprehensive)
How do you prefer to communicate? (Formal, casual, technical, conversational?)

Engineering Deep Dive

What's the tech stack? (Languages, frameworks, databases, hosting)
Architecture overview? (Monolith, microservices, serverless, hybrid?)
CI/CD setup? (How do you deploy? How often?)
Testing approach? (Unit, integration, e2e? Coverage level?)
Any performance concerns? (Load, latency, scalability?)
Team structure? (Solo, small team, cross-functional squads?)
What's the development workflow? (Branching strategy, code review, release process?)

Step 5: Summarize & Confirm

After all rounds, summarize everything back and ask: "Does this capture it? What am I missing?"

Step 6: Generate Readiness Scorecard(s)

For each selected engagement type, score across relevant dimensions (1-5 each). See references/readiness-rubrics.md for scoring criteria.

GTM Scorecard (8 dimensions, /40):

Positioning clarity
ICP definition
Competitive understanding
Sales process
Marketing engine
Enablement
Metrics
Team

Product Scorecard (6 dimensions, /30):

Problem clarity
User research depth
PMF signals
Product analytics
Prioritization rigor
Technical foundation

Design/Brand Scorecard (5 dimensions, /25):

Brand clarity
Visual identity maturity
Design system coverage
Voice & tone definition
Brand consistency

Engineering Scorecard (5 dimensions, /25):

Architecture clarity
CI/CD maturity
Test coverage
Performance baseline
Team workflow

Step 7: Save Context Files

Always save projects/<project>/onboarding.md:

---
project: {name}
client: {company name}
date: {YYYY-MM-DD}
stage: {idea|pre-launch|launched|scaling|pivoting|rebranding}
engagement-types: [{gtm|product|design-brand|engineering|general}]
---

# {Project} — Onboarding

## Business Overview
{What they do, problem, stage}

## Target Audience
{Ideal customer, struggling moments, success state}

## Competitive Landscape
{Competitors, differentiation}

## Goals & Success Criteria
{Engagement goals, 90-day targets, 12-month targets}

## Constraints
{Budget, timeline, team, technical limitations}

If GTM selected, also save projects/<project>/gtm-context.md:

---
project: {name}
company: {company name}
date: {YYYY-MM-DD}
stage: {pre-launch|early-traction|growth|pivot}
gtm-motion: {plg|slg|founder-led|hybrid}
---

# {Project} — GTM Context

## GTM Motion & Sales Model
{Current motion, team structure, revenue model, ARR}

## Pipeline & Metrics
{Known metrics, active channels, bottleneck}

## Market & Competition
{Competitors, how they sell, ICP hypothesis vs reality}

## Assets Inventory
{Existing GTM materials}

## GTM Readiness Scorecard
| Dimension | Score (1-5) | Notes |
|-----------|-------------|-------|
| Positioning | X | ... |
| ICP Definition | X | ... |
| Competitive Understanding | X | ... |
| Sales Process | X | ... |
| Marketing Engine | X | ... |
| Enablement | X | ... |
| Metrics | X | ... |
| Team | X | ... |
| **Overall** | **X/40** | |

If Product selected, also save projects/<project>/product-context.md with product-specific findings and scorecard.

If Design/Brand selected, also save projects/<project>/brand-context.md with brand-specific findings and scorecard.

If Engineering selected, also save projects/<project>/engineering-context.md with engineering-specific findings and scorecard.

Step 8: Recommend Next Steps

Based on engagement types and scorecard gaps, recommend skills in priority order:

GTM (prioritize lowest scorecard dimensions):

Positioning weak? → /gtm-positioning
ICP unclear? → /gtm-icp
Competitive blind spots? → /gtm-competitive-intel
No GTM plan? → /gtm-strategy
Pricing undefined? → /gtm-pricing
No pipeline motion? → /gtm-outreach
No content engine? → /gtm-marketing

Product:

Need to understand the customer deeper? → /client-discovery
Ready to brainstorm? → /product-brainstorm
Need to write a PRD? → /product-prd
Need a tech spec? → /product-tech-spec

Design/Brand:

Need brand strategy? → /brand-strategist
Need design direction? → /design-lead
Need a design system? → /design-system

Engineering:

Need an implementation plan? → /engineer-plan
Ready to build? → /engineer-work
Need a security audit? → /security-audit

Sales (any type):

Need to pitch or propose? → /sales-pitch or /proposal-writer
Need content? → /content-writer

Output

Always: projects/<project>/onboarding.md
If GTM: projects/<project>/gtm-context.md
If Product: projects/<project>/product-context.md
If Design/Brand: projects/<project>/brand-context.md
If Engineering: projects/<project>/engineering-context.md

Next Steps

After onboarding, run the recommended skills in order. Each skill reads its relevant context file automatically.

onboarding

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