# Research a market From a problem worth building to your 5 direct competitors, mapped. Run these skills in order; finish each one before the next. ## Step 1: Shortlist a problem worth building Purpose:: Find the problem worth building this week and the searches people type around it. Rules:: - Use only the notes you collected; the problem needs 2+ notes behind it - Skip anything you already built or chose - Search terms are 1-4 words, how people search for a product type; no sentences Inventory:: - Your research notes (posts, reviews, threads, cards) - Your list of past picks Steps:: 1. Group pains and buyer words that mean the same thing 2. Keep groups backed by 2+ notes and relevant now or within 2 years 3. Pick the strongest pain; name it as a thing in a few words 4. Write the problem: struggle to because 5. List 10-15 terms: " software", " tool", " template", " for ", newer names 6. Reply with Thing, Problem, Notes, the 2 runner-up groups and Terms Metrics:: - The thing traces back to 2+ notes - Every term could show search volume in a keyword planner ## Step 2: Pick the winning search term Purpose:: Choose the search term to build for and show why it beat the rest. Rules:: - Score = volume x cost per click; steady or rising 5-year trends beat spikes and falls - Weak supply = forums, Reddit, old or thin pages, no dedicated tool - Always pick a winner; name its risks Inventory:: - 12-15 terms around the problem - A keyword planner, Google Trends (5 years), a Google search Steps:: 1. Get volume and cost per click for every term; score and sort 2. Top 3: read each 5-year trend as rising, steady, falling or spiky 3. Top 3: search each; note what ranks and where the gap is 4. Pick the winner, even if none is perfect 5. Reply: Winner, a few-word Wish, a 2-3 line Why with numbers, trend, gap and risk, then Trends and Supply per term Metrics:: - The why names the numbers, the trend, the gap and the risks - A reader can check every claim ## Step 3: Find your 5 direct competitors Purpose:: Find the 5 strongest products that already ARE your idea, and gather what they do, so you build with proof. Rules:: - Direct = your idea is its MAIN offer: the homepage hero says it, delivered the way you mean it - A subpage, one item in a services menu, or an agency selling it as a service is indirect - Never fill slots with near matches: 3 real beats 5 mixed - Quote each competitor's hero line as proof Inventory:: - Your idea and its search terms - Google search, the competitors' homepages, a domain authority checker Steps:: 1. Write Is (the product), Is not (what looks close but isn't) and Looks like (its homepage hero) 2. Search your idea + up to 4 terms; collect unique domains 3. Open each homepage; quote its hero line; keep it only if it fits Is and not Is not 4. Search " alternatives"; check each new name the same way 5. Rank the direct ones by domain authority, highest first 6. Reply with a table: rank, domain, hero line, authority; then indirect ones by type Metrics:: - Every top 5 fits the intake, with its hero line as proof - You can read the market in 2 minutes ## Step 4: Score competitors from real reviews Purpose:: One table: each direct competitor's best feature, who it is best for, and its cons from real reviews. Rules:: - Only the direct competitors you found; keep their order - Cons come only from reviews you read; none found means "no reviews found" - Trustpilot, Reddit and review blogs; every con traces to a source Inventory:: - Your direct competitors list - Their homepages, Google search for " reviews" Steps:: 1. Per competitor: read the homepage; note its best feature and who it is for 2. Search " reviews" (the domain, not the brand name) 3. Read 1-2 review pages; note the cons people repeat 4. Reply with the table, one "Gap for us" line and one Sources line Metrics:: - 4 columns: Competitor, Best feature, Best for, Cons - Cells max about 12 words - You see where each competitor is weak at a glance ## Step 5: Capture a website's signup funnel Purpose:: Given a URL, sign up and walk the real journey to first use, as reviewed screenshots of every step. Rules:: - Operate the browser yourself; signup and free onboarding are the task - Use a test identity; no purchases, paid trials, invites or public posts; stop before payment - Skip login provider screens; capture only the site's own landing, signup, onboarding, product and upgrade screens - A screenshot counts only after you open and inspect it Inventory:: - A browser you can drive (Playwright or similar) and a test account - An output folder Steps:: 1. Capture the landing page; find the main signup CTA 2. Sign up; handle cookie banners and popups yourself 3. Complete onboarding with reasonable demo choices; note every choice 4. Do one real free first-use task; capture the result and any upgrade prompt 5. Per step: save full-page desktop and mobile screenshots; open both and retake blank or cut-off ones 6. Reply with the steps in order: title, URL, action taken, screenshot paths, blockers Metrics:: - The journey reaches a verified first use, or a precise blocker says where it stopped - Every screenshot was viewed and is complete ## Step 6: Map a competitor's sitemap Purpose:: Turn a captured funnel into a sitemap: the funnel plus the 3-7 most important public pages it skipped. Rules:: - Pick pages a visitor still deciding would open: pricing, features, use cases, comparisons, customers, about - Skip legal, cookies, login, careers, single blog posts and near-duplicates - Public pages only; never recapture a page the funnel has Inventory:: - The captured funnel (steps + URLs) - The site's robots.txt and sitemap.xml, a browser Steps:: 1. List each funnel step's URL 2. Read the sitemap; count URLs per first path segment; note sections the funnel never touched 3. Read the nav and footer: what the brand itself promotes 4. Rank the missing pages by impact on a new visitor; pick 3-7 5. Capture each, desktop and mobile; open every screenshot 6. Reply with the map: funnel, then each added page with URL and why it matters Metrics:: - A reader sees the site's core pages without opening the site - No boilerplate pages, no repeats ## Step 7: Find your competitors' socials Purpose:: Know where your direct competitors live on social media: up to 3 profile URLs each. Rules:: - Company profiles only, as the profile root URL: no founders, posts, tabs or ?params - Only profiles linked from the competitor's own site; nothing guessed - Up to 3 per competitor: where it has the biggest following Inventory:: - Your direct competitors list - Their homepages (header, footer, about page) Steps:: 1. Per homepage: collect the social links 2. Open each profile once; note its followers (not shown: "?", ranked last) 3. Keep the 3 biggest per competitor 4. Reply: one line per profile: competitor · platform · followers · URL Metrics:: - Every URL opens a company profile - Each competitor has 0-3 real profiles Source:: https://isklls.com/playbooks/research-a-market (iSklls, free skill library)