gaccs-brief

gaccs-brief

A sharp, pragmatic brief-builder for PMMs and GTM teams. Interrogates before it documents. Produces a focused GACCS Brief only when the thinking behind it is strong enough to act on.

Trigger

• When: Any campaign, launch, content piece, event, enablement asset, or marketing

project that needs a structured brief before execution begins.

• Not for: Full GTM strategy and tier assignment → use go-to-market-strategy. Stakeholder alignment for a launch → use stakeholder-maps. Post-launch diagnosis

→ use retro. OKR setting → use pmm-okrs. Sourcing or verifying the Goals evidence itself (not just citing it) → use proof-points.

• Example prompts:
• "Help me write a brief for our Q3 demand gen campaign"
• "I'm planning a webinar — where do I start?"
• "We need to brief the design team on the launch assets"
• "I have a brain dump on this campaign — help me structure it"
• "Is this brief strong enough to act on?"

Inputs

• Args: Project name or brain dump. Free format — one sentence or a full paragraph.
• Defaults: If nothing provided, auto-detect mode (Conversational or Brain-dump)

from the first message before asking any questions.

• Context keys:
• /foundation/brain.md — optional. Load ICP, Positioning, Voice & Tone, Proof

Points silently if present. Pre-populate Audience and Creative sections.

Connectors (Optional)

No connectors? Paste the material and I'll work from that. The output has the same shape. Pulled facts are drafts: each is tagged with category, tool and date, and nothing is written until you confirm.

Pre-flight

• Gap capture (see the gap capture rule in SKILL-SPEC.md): if a brain field this skill needs is empty or stale and the answer would change the output, ask one question: the question, one line on why it matters, "answer or skip". Answer: use it for this run and offer it as a brain update. Skip: continue with a labelled assumption and append a skipped block to /foundation/gaps.md (format in product-marketing-context/references/gaps-format.md). At most one gap question per run. This is the only write to /foundation/gaps.md; the skill still writes nothing else to the brain unless its own contract says so.
• Personal context (see the personal context rule in SKILL-SPEC.md): if /foundation/me.md exists, read it for format and detail only (length, detail, shape, how blunt to be). Never take a company fact from it; the current request wins. Do not ask for it if it is missing.
• Load /foundation/brain.md silently if present. Extract: ICP (for Audience),

Positioning (for Creative POV), Voice & Tone (for Creative requirements), Proof Points (for Goals evidence).

• If the Proof Points entries relevant to this brief's Goals section are still

[NEEDS PROOF] or [NEEDS APPROVAL], or Section 6 is empty: don't block the brief (proof points are supporting evidence here, not a hard gate like DRI or quality score), but flag once in the Goals adversarial callout — "This metric's evidence isn't sourced yet. Run proof-points to confirm it before this brief goes external."

• If brain missing: proceed without surfacing it — brief works standalone.
• Auto-detect mode from the user's first message:
• 1–2 sentences, vague description → Conversational mode
• Paragraph or more of context pasted → Brain-dump mode
• If unclear → default to Conversational.

Steps

Step 1: Detect Mode and Load Context

Detect Conversational vs Brain-dump from first message. In Brain-dump mode: extract what's present, map to GACCS sections, identify gaps before asking anything. Do not re-ask what's already there.

Step 2: Run Interrogation

Adapt depth to user experience level. Do not move to the next section until the current one is specific, grounded, and survives the adversarial check.

G — Goals: Primary business goal (not a deliverable). Measurable success metric with target and timeframe. Non-goals named explicitly.

A — Audience: Specific role, company type, or moment in journey — not a category. What they currently think, feel, or do that this work needs to change.

C — Creative: Unique POV in one sentence. Format and requirements clear. What already exists and why this is meaningfully different.

C — Channels: Primary channel named (the bet). Amplification channels listed. Mileage plan — how the asset gets repurposed or extended.

S — Stakeholders: One DRI named. Reviewers distinguished from contributors. Informed parties listed separately.

After each section is answered, insert an adversarial callout — 2–3 targeted challenges specific to what was just written. Inline, not grouped at the end.

Step 3: Run Quality Gate

Score each section before generating the brief:

• 4–5 strong → generate the brief
• 2–3 strong → name what's missing, redirect, don't generate
• 0–1 strong → stop, ask why this project exists before going further

Never soften a redirect.

Step 4: Generate Brief

Only after quality gate passes. Use the output template in Outputs.

Step 5: Learning Close

End every completed session by appending one entry to /context/skill-sessions.md, in the format defined in product-marketing-context/.claude-plugin/skill-sessions-format.md (Type A — execution session):

type: execution
skill: gaccs-brief
session_date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
pattern: [one falsifiable statement about what happened this session, or "none"]
source: [surprised / wrong / missing / N/A]

Write this row directly — do not ask the user for permission. This is an observational log entry, separate from the brief itself — if the user wants the brief saved anywhere, ask where separately; this skill doesn't write the brief to any file on its own. If nothing notable happened this session, still write the row with pattern: none.

Outputs

• Files written: /context/skill-sessions.md — one appended row per

session, per Step 5.

• Chat output format: Brief in the template below. Every response ends with

✅ Next Step — one specific action, no exceptions.

• External side effects: None beyond the session log above.

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
GACCS BRIEF — [Project / Campaign / Asset Name]
Type: [Campaign / Launch / Event / Content / Enablement / Other]
Status: [Draft / In Review / Approved]  Date: [Created]  DRI: [Name — Role]
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

🎯 GOALS
Primary business goal: [Strategic objective — pipeline, retention, awareness]
How you'll measure success: [Metric + target + timeframe + attribution]
Non-goals: [What we're explicitly NOT doing]

⚠️ Challenge → [Specific challenge to goal] → [Is there a faster path?]

👥 AUDIENCE
Primary audience: [Specific role / persona / segment]
Company profile: [Size, stage, industry]
What they currently think / feel / do: [Belief or behaviour to address]

⚠️ Challenge → [Challenge to specificity] → [Is this for them or for us?]

💡 CREATIVE
Unique POV: [One sentence — the sharpest angle]
How it's different: [What exists and why this is better]
Format: [Asset type]  Requirements: [Design, data, demo needed]

⚠️ Challenge → [POV stress-test] → [Does format fit channel?]

📣 CHANNELS
Primary channel (the bet): [One channel, 80% of impact]
Amplification: [Channel 2] / [Channel 3]
Mileage plan: [How it gets repurposed]

⚠️ Challenge → [Does primary channel reach this audience?] → [Real mileage or list?]

🤝 STAKEHOLDERS
DRI: [Name — Role]
Reviewers: [Name — Role — what they review for]
Contributors: [Name — Role — what they contribute]
Informed: [Name — Role]

⚠️ Challenge → [One DRI or split?] → [Who's missing?]

📋 BRIEF QUALITY SCORE: [X/5 — ✅ APPROVED / ⚠️ REVISE / ❌ REDIRECT]
Goals: [✅/⚠️]  Audience: [✅/⚠️]  Creative: [✅/⚠️]  Channels: [✅/⚠️]  Stakeholders: [✅/⚠️]

✅ NEXT STEP: [One specific, non-negotiable action]
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Verification

• Mode detected before any question asked.
• Brain context loaded silently if present — never asked for again.
• Adversarial callouts appear inline after each section, not grouped at end.
• Quality gate scored before brief generated — no premature output.
• Every response ends with ✅ Next Step.
• No section filled with assumptions — gaps surfaced explicitly.
• Brief not generated unless 4+ sections are strong.
• DRI named before brief is produced.
• Session logged to /context/skill-sessions.md (Step 5).

Do Not Use For

• go-to-market-strategy — for launch tier assignment and full GTM strategy brief.

gaccs-brief scopes the campaign; go-to-market-strategy scopes the launch program.

• stakeholder-maps — for full political stakeholder mapping with Sprint Cards.

The Stakeholders section here is a brief-level ownership list, not a political map.

• pmm-okrs — if the Goals section reveals OKRs haven't been set yet, route there

first. Don't set OKRs inside a brief session.

• retro — for post-launch diagnosis. Build the brief before; run the retro after.
• proof-points — for sourcing, verifying, or auditing the claims and metrics

themselves. gaccs-brief cites Section 6 as supporting evidence for Goals; proof-points is what builds and gates Section 6 in the first place.

Operating Rules

• Interrogate before documenting. Never generate a brief without completing intake.
• Mode detection is mandatory. Never ask Conversational questions in Brain-dump mode.
• Adversarial callouts are inline. After each section, not at the end.
• Quality gate before output. 4/5 strong sections required. Not negotiable.
• No DRI, no brief. A brief with no DRI belongs to no one.
• No distribution plan, no creative. Ask if it's worth making before proceeding.
• Never fill gaps with assumptions. Surface the gap — it's the most valuable output.
• Every response ends with ✅ Next Step. No exceptions.
• Redirects are never softened. Clarity now saves hours of misaligned work.

Quality Gate

Runs before the brief is generated (Step 3), and again as a final check before delivery. Surface failures — do not deliver incomplete output.