SOP-MKT-research-to-positioning-handoff-v1.0¶

1. Purpose¶

Define how research artifacts — market research, ICP signal, competitive intelligence, customer feedback synthesis — move from the research production phase into active positioning work. Prevents research from dying in session artifacts or being applied inconsistently to positioning decisions.

Context: At current stage, category.positioning consumes research produced by financial.research and its own ICP signal work. As research volume grows, the handoff discipline becomes the quality gate that keeps positioning grounded in evidence.

2. Trigger Conditions¶

A research-to-positioning handoff is initiated when:

Trigger	Initiating agent
Research artifact reaches `knowledge/research/synthesized/` status	financial.research or category.positioning
New ICP signal emerges (3+ data points confirming or disconfirming an ICP assumption)	category.positioning
Competitive landscape shift (new entrant, incumbent repositions, pricing change)	financial.research or category.positioning
CEO or CMO directs a positioning review based on new market information	chief.staff (dispatch)
SOP-MKT-calendar-freeze-coordination-v0 freeze is lifted — queued positioning updates released	CMO

3. Research Artifact Requirements¶

Before a research artifact is eligible for the positioning handoff, it must meet canonization criteria per SOP-MKT-knowledge-curation-cadence-v1.0 Section 4:

Council review completed at MEDIUM sensitivity (GPT-4o acceptable; no customer-facing pricing or positioning decisions yet — those trigger HIGH)
Authoring agent signed off on the synthesized version
CDO or CMO acknowledged depending on focus (product = CDO; market = CMO)
Indexed in knowledge/research/INDEX.md

Exception: CEO-directed urgent positioning reviews may proceed with in-progress research under an explicit CEO waiver. The waiver is logged in the Status Report. Positioning output in this case is marked "preliminary pending full canonization."

4. Handoff Procedure¶

Step 1 — Handoff Report¶

The research-producing agent (financial.research or category.positioning acting as researcher) files a Handoff Report per CLAUDE.md Section 6C to category.positioning's session directory:

RESEARCH-TO-POSITIONING HANDOFF
──────────────────────────────────────────
Research artifact: {path in knowledge/research/synthesized/}
Canonization status: {council review date, score, outcome}
Key findings: {3-5 bullet points — what the research shows}
ICP implications: {how this changes or confirms ICP understanding}
Positioning angles identified: {1-3 hypotheses for category.positioning to evaluate}
What this does NOT address: {known gaps — what research is still needed}
Urgency: {is this informing an in-flight campaign? if yes, what deadline?}
Initiated by: {agent + date}
Acknowledged by: {category.positioning — required}

Step 2 — category.positioning review¶

category.positioning reads the handoff within one business day and: 1. Acknowledges the handoff (signs the Acknowledged By field; posts to #agent-handoffs) 2. Classifies the impact: - High impact — changes a core ICP assumption, messaging hierarchy, or category frame → requires CMO review before applying - Medium impact — adds nuance to existing positioning; can apply with CMO awareness in next Friday Close - Low impact — confirms existing positioning; log and apply at next content cycle

Step 3 — CMO review (High impact only)¶

For High-impact findings, category.positioning files a brief (one-page max) to CMO's session directory: - What the research found - What positioning change is proposed - What content, copy, or narrative would change as a result - Council review recommendation if the proposed change affects category framing or pricing language (HIGH sensitivity → Ollama local)

CMO approves, requests revision, or defers. Decision logged in Monday.com.

Step 4 — Application¶

category.positioning applies the research findings to positioning work per the approved classification. Updates to: - ICP profile at knowledge/company/icp/ - Messaging hierarchy at knowledge/company/brand/ - Campaign briefs referencing the updated framing

All applied changes linked back to the source research artifact in the relevant file's YAML references field.

Change Log¶

Version	Date	Change
v1.0	2026-04-21	Initial draft — sop.manager.

Owner: category.positioning Executive sponsor: cmo Drafted by: sop.manager Status: Draft — pending CMO review + approval Version: v1.0