psp-construct

PSP Construct — sub-skill

Loaded by psp when the user wants to build a complete PSP for a specific ICP segment.

Activation

The main psp skill routes here on:

• "Build a PSP for..."
• "Construct a Pain Signal Profile for..."
• "Walk me through a PSP for..."

Workflow

Step 1 — Lock the ICP segment

Ask the user to be specific. Push back on broad ICPs.

"B2B SaaS" is too broad. Try one of these shapes:

• "Series-B SaaS, $20-50M ARR, with a PLG motion"
• "DevTools companies with >50 engineers and an OSS community"
• "Bootstrapped agencies, 5-15 employees, productized service"

Which segment?

Step 2 — Hunt signals

For the segment, surface 5-10 candidate signals. Patterns:

• Hiring signals: Specific role open ≤30 days
• Funding signals: Round announced ≤30 days
• Product signals: New tier / launch / pricing change ≤45 days
• Leadership signals: New CMO / CRO / CFO / Head-of-X ≤60 days
• Content signals: Recent podcast / panel / public talk on the topic
• Pivot signals: Website hero / positioning change ≤14 days

If WebFetch is available, demo-pull recent LinkedIn job posts or recent funding news for one example company in the segment.

Step 3 — Map signal → pain for top 3

For each of the top 3 signals, ask: "If this happened, what is the operator at that company feeling at 11am on Tuesday?"

Validate each pain:

• Specific operational moment (not abstract)
• Phrased as what they feel, not what you sell
• Uses their language (not category jargon)

Step 4 — Anchor timing

For each pain, identify the 90-day trigger:

• New exec → 90-day plan in motion
• Budget cycle → planning/fiscal-new-year window
• Obvious failure → quarter miss, churn spike, launch flop

If no trigger, the PSP isn't time-anchored — push back.

Step 5 — Identify felt-pain role

Who in the org feels the pain at 11am Tuesday?

Note: this is often a layer below the buying authority. The demand-gen lead feels pipeline-gap pain; the CMO authorizes the spend. Outreach hits the felt-pain role.

Step 6 — Mine vocabulary

Read 5-10 sources of recipient-written content:

• Their job posts (often most revealing)
• Their team's LinkedIn comments
• Their conference talks
• Their AMA / podcast appearances
• Their public sales/marketing internal-system tweets

Extract 8-12 phrases they actually use about this pain.

Step 7 — Output

# PSP — <ICP segment>

**ICP precision check:** <one sentence on why this segment is specific enough>

## Signal
<Top signal — verifiable, recent, hunting-ready>

## Pain
<What the signal implies at 11am Tuesday — in their language>

## Timing
**Trigger:** <new-exec / budget-cycle / obvious-failure>
**Why now:** <one sentence>

## Role (felt-pain holder)
<Specific role title; not the buying authority>

## Vocabulary
<8-12 phrases they actually use>
- "<phrase 1>"
- "<phrase 2>"
- ...

## Top 5 signals to hunt operationally
1. <Signal source + cadence>
2. <Signal source + cadence>
3. <Signal source + cadence>
4. <Signal source + cadence>
5. <Signal source + cadence>

## Plugs into
- claude-cold-email — first-line opener uses Signal verbatim
- claude-evp — EVP must speak to Pain in their Vocabulary
- Outbound program 30-point audit — PSP is the messaging anchor

Step 8 — Stress test

Ask the user: "Which of these are weakest? I can re-pull or refine any block." Most common weak spots:

• Pain too abstract: rewrite using their vocabulary, force the 11am-Tuesday moment
• Signal too stale: shorten the recency window
• Vocabulary borrowed from category: pull more sources of their actual writing