Use this skill when users need to define their ideal customer profile, identify target personas, map buying centers, or understand who they're selling to. Activates for "who is my customer," "define ICP," "target audience," or persona questions.
The Startup ICP Definer skill helps marketers and founders clearly identify their ideal customer profile by breaking down company characteristics, buyer and user personas, and the full buying center involved in purchasing decisions. It guides users through a structured process that captures industry, company size, buyer roles, user pain points, and decision-making dynamics, ensuring targeting is specific and actionable. The skill also includes a validation step—the 50-company test—to confirm the ICP’s real-world applicability and focus.
This skill is designed for startup founders and growth leads who need to sharpen their go-to-market strategy by pinpointing precisely who they are selling to. It suits performance marketers and agency strategists tasked with audience segmentation and messaging refinement for complex B2B sales cycles. It is especially valuable when initial targeting is too broad or when sales conversations lack focus due to unclear customer definitions.
Practitioners start by detailing the company profile, including industry, size, stage, geography, and tech stack. Next, they define the buyer persona by specifying role, seniority, goals, and decision authority, followed by outlining the user persona’s daily activities, pain points, and tech comfort. The process continues with mapping the buying center, identifying key roles like champion, economic buyer, and influencers. Finally, users score pain points by urgency, cost, frequency, and current solutions, focusing on top pains scoring 8 or higher to prioritize messaging and outreach.
How specific does my ICP need to be? The ICP should be narrow enough to name 50 target companies and identify decision-makers at 20 of them to ensure focused outreach. What if I can’t find enough people to interview? This usually signals the ICP is too broad or incorrectly defined and needs refinement before scaling. Should I include both users and buyers in my personas? Yes, mapping both user and buyer personas alongside the buying center clarifies who influences and makes purchasing decisions, improving targeting and messaging.
Attach the Startup ICP Definer skill to any agent task where users ask questions like “Who is my customer?” or “Define my ICP.” The skill will prompt a step-by-step breakdown of company, buyer, and user characteristics, then guide through buying center mapping and pain prioritization. Expect clear outputs that help validate and sharpen ideal customer profiles, setting a foundation for further GTM activities like offer design and outreach optimization. You can then build on this foundation with complementary skills that extend the customer validation process...
For broader context, see our roundup of claude marketing skills, and read ultimate guide to Claude marketing skills for related setup guidance.