Why start here: Every other system in this playbook depends on ICP clarity. Your content will be vague, your campaigns will underperform, and your messaging will miss if you skip this or rush through it. This section comes before everything else.
Time required: 2-3 hours the first time. After that, 30 minutes for quarterly updates.
Before Claude can help you research your ICP, you need to be clear on what category your product belongs to. This matters because ICP research is category-dependent — the same role behaves differently depending on what type of product they're buying.
Run this prompt first:
My product is called [PRODUCT NAME]. Here's what it does: [describe in 2-3 sentences].
Help me define what category this product belongs to. I need to answer three questions:
1. When a buyer looks for a product like mine, what words do they type into Google? Give me 5-8 examples.
2. What category would they call this product if they were telling a colleague about it?
3. Are there 2-3 adjacent categories where buyers might also look? Name them.
For each question, give me straight answers. Do not ask me follow-up questions.
What you'll use the output for: The search terms tell you where your buyers live online. The category name is how you should describe what you do on your website. The adjacent categories tell you who else is competing for attention — even if they're not a direct competitor.
Before you ask Claude to build your ICP, YOU need to input your best guess. Claude can't tell you who your ICP is — it can only help you sharpen what you already know. If you input nothing, you get generic output.
Fill this in before running the prompt:
| Hypothesis field | Your best guess |
|---|---|
| Job title / role | |
| Company size (employees or ARR) | |
| Industry | |
| Stage (early-stage, scaling, enterprise) | |
| Main pain they have right now | |
| What trigger makes them go looking for a tool like ours | |
| What they're using instead of us right now | |
| What a successful outcome looks like for them in 90 days |