creative-production-positioning-explorer

Positioning Explorer

Use this skill when the user wants to decide what kind of demand a business should try to own before generating visuals.

This is an Explore-stage skill. It does not create final production assets. It turns a business brief into a small set of commercially distinct positioning routes that can feed mood boards, scene exploration, style routes, and asset production.

Read references/experience-contract.md before writing the user-facing handoff.

Read references/artifact-contracts.md before creating, repairing, or reporting artifacts.

Read references/codex-exec-image-generation.md before generating image-led route tiles.

Read references/image-building-strategy.md alongside the Codex exec contract for first-pass imagery rules.

Role In The Journey

Use positioning-explorer after explore when the user chooses Positioning, or whenever the brief needs a sharper business angle before visuals.

The skill should answer:

• Who are we trying to attract?
• What occasion or buying moment are we trying to own?
• What business outcome should improve?
• What proof makes the route believable?
• What should the visuals make the audience believe?
• Which next visual path or business asset does the route unlock?

This skill should feel like a creative strategy checkpoint for business visuals, not a strategy deck, quality review, research report, or generic marketing plan.

Intake Gate

Run a compact intake before generating routes unless the user has already provided enough information about goal, audience, occasion, proof, and constraints.

Use both chat and the widget:

• The chat asks the open questions that chips cannot capture.
• The widget captures common structured choices quickly.

Default chat frame:

Before I create positioning routes, I need the hard facts and the growth bet.
Use the quick picker for the common choices, and add anything specific in chat: what is already true, what kind of upscale audience you want, and anything I should not invent.

Ask at most 2-3 open questions in chat:

• What is already true about the business that we should not invent?
• What kind of upscale are you aiming for: discreet, romantic, social, culinary, local, corporate, or something else?
• What do you already know you do not want?

When MCP widgets are available, render render_moodboard_board_widget with no images and a positioning-focused intake payload. Set intake.mode to positioning so the shared surface submits back to positioning-explorer. Keep this inside the shared inline mood-board surface.

The default widget groups are:

• "What are you trying to improve?"
• "Who are you trying to attract?"
• "What occasions should this be known for?"
• "What can we credibly build on?"
• "What should we avoid or exclude?"

Do not include a production-choice group in the intake payload. Production paths belong after routes exist.

After rendering the empty mood-board intake surface, stop and wait for the user selection or widget follow-up. Do not generate routes in the same step unless the user explicitly asks to skip intake.

When the request is already a widget follow-up such as "Continue with this qualified brief and create positioning routes," treat intake as complete.

Route Generation

Generate 4-6 routes. Each route must combine at least three of these:

• audience;
• occasion;
• business outcome;
• believable proof;
• visual implication.

Strong route names are concrete and commercially legible:

• Client Hosting & Private Dining
• Grand Date-Night Reservation
• Wine-Led Regulars
• Premium Business Lunch
• City-Center Tastemakers

Weak route names are abstract:

• Premium Experience
• Brand Elevation
• Creative Strategy
• Upscale Positioning

Output Shape

The main output should be image-led positioning route tiles, not a text-heavy board.

Each route tile should include:

• one real or generated image that immediately expresses the environment, audience, and occasion;
• a short route name;
• a one-line commercial promise;
• compact chips for audience, occasion, business goal, and proof;
• a simple select/approve action.

Avoid SVG abstractions, strategy-card illustrations, palette-first visuals, or large text blocks. The user should feel the route before reading the details.

The route metadata should include:

Selected positioning route:
Audience:
Occasion:
Business goal:
Value signal:
Proof needed:
Visual implications:
Assumptions:
Watch-outs:
Handoff paths:
Avoid:

Use a comparison table only as a secondary aid when it helps a business user decide. The table should not replace the image-led route tiles.

Image Rules

Each route image should be one plausible environment or moment. It should not be a collage, mood board, grid, strategy diagram, or fake UI.

The image prompt must preserve source truth:

• Do not invent private rooms, lunch service, awards, press, wine programs, chef reputation, menu items, capacity, or location details.
• If a fact is unverified, label it as an assumption or ask before using it.
• Avoid fake readable text, logos, awards, or claims.
• Avoid generic luxury hotel restaurant visuals unless that is explicitly the desired route.

For restaurants, route images should show actual-feeling hospitality moments: a private table, client dinner, candlelit reservation, wine service, daylight lunch, local neighborhood arrival, or dining-room atmosphere.

Handoff

After the user approves one or more routes, hand off to the next Explore or Build skill:

• moodboard-explorer for broad visual territories around the selected route.
• scene-explorer for restaurant, product, service, or offer-in-context images.

The handoff prompt must preserve the approved route:

Use the same lightweight handoff wording as the other explorers: selected direction, preserve, avoid, focused next owner, and artifact path when a route board or generated asset exists.

Selected positioning route: Client Hosting & Private Dining
Audience: executives, founders, client hosts
Occasion: private dinners, board meals, team celebrations
Business goal: increase high-value bookings
Proof needed: private room, service, wine, prix fixe/event inquiry
Visual direction: discreet, polished, low-light, linen, brass, restrained type
Avoid: fake awards, discount framing, generic luxury hotel look
Next assets: private dining one-pager, LinkedIn ad, reservation card

Exit Criteria

A successful positioning run ends with:

• a completed intake or explicit decision to skip intake;
• 4-6 commercially distinct route options;
• image-led route tiles or a clearly specified image-led route artifact;
• assumptions and proof needs called out;
• one or more selected routes;
• a concrete handoff into mood, scene, style, or asset production.