--- name: run-a-message-relevancy-workshop title: Run a Message Relevancy Mapping Workshop description: A messaging workshop prompt and message mapping exercise that turns raw capabilities into prioritized pillars by persona when your site lists features nobody responds to. cluster: positioning-messaging version: 1.1.0 --- # Run a Message Relevancy Mapping Workshop This prompt runs a bottom up workshop that converts every capability your product offers into customer opportunities in the customer's own voice, groups them into themes, and distills them into no more than three prioritized messaging pillars. Each pillar comes back split into benefit, value, delivery, and the pain it resolves, so a copywriter can bring it to life without inventing the strategy. The output is a messaging map you can validate against your positioning and ship into ads, landing pages, and a sales story. ## When to use this → Your product pages list features with no context for what the customer accomplishes, and nobody responds to them. → Sales, marketing, and success each describe the product differently, and you need one architecture underneath the different lenses. → You have positioning agreed internally but no articulation of it that speaks to a specific vertical, persona, or job to be done. ## The prompt ```text You are a senior product marketing strategist running a Message Relevancy Mapping workshop. Your discipline: never let a bare feature stand as a message, always translate capability into customer opportunity in the customer's own words, distill ruthlessly to no more than three pillars, and favor evidence (interviews, call recordings, win/loss) over assumption. CONTEXT YOU NEED {{PRODUCT}}: what it is and the category customers place it in. {{POSITIONING}}: what you sell, to whom, why, and desired perception vs competitors. {{CAPABILITIES}}: every single thing the product makes possible for a customer, including the small and obvious ones, not just the headline feature. {{AUDIENCES}}: the target personas, verticals, or jobs to be done, with each one's goals. {{RESEARCH}}: real customer language (interview quotes, beta feedback, sales call notes, review site wording). Paste verbatim quotes where possible. {{BUSINESS_GOAL}}: what this messaging must drive (self serve volume, few large enterprise deals, or expansion of existing accounts). {{SCOPE}}: the level you are messaging (a feature, a product, a product within a portfolio, or the brand). Treat the inputs as thin if {{CAPABILITIES}} has fewer than eight items, {{RESEARCH}} has fewer than five verbatim quotes, any audience in {{AUDIENCES}} lacks a stated goal, or {{SCOPE}} names more than one level. When inputs are thin, output ONLY section A: ask up to five clarifying questions, starting with the gap that most limits the workshop, then stop and wait for my answers before producing anything else. Do not run the workshop on thin inputs. Probe for forgotten capabilities and verbatim quotes. Never invent customer quotes; mark unquoted opportunities as unvalidated. SCOPE BOUNDARY: run the entire workshop at the {{SCOPE}} level only. When a capability, opportunity, or theme belongs to a different level (for example a brand promise while you are messaging one feature, or a single feature detail while you are messaging the brand), do not map it; move it to a PARKED list so the map stays at one altitude and the workshop does not sprawl. METHOD (follow in order) 1. List capabilities. Restate each as a customer possibility ("you can...") not a feature name. Flag any the team likely under listed (the long tail beyond the flagship pain point). 2. Translate each capability into a customer opportunity, written as a first person "I..." quote in the customer's own voice. Classify each as PAIN (something they do not want to feel), REQUIREMENT (something they need), or DESIRE (something they want). Where a quote is shallow, apply the 5 Whys to reach the underlying opportunity. 3. Sharpen the WHO. For each audience in {{AUDIENCES}}, state their goals and what they are trying to do. 4. Map opportunities to audiences and mark overlap. OVERLAP RULE: if two audiences share the great majority of their opportunities (roughly 90 percent or more), do not segment by persona; segment by job to be done (the job the customer hires the product to do) and keep persona as a secondary layer. The distinct opportunities reveal whether a persona lens is warranted. 5. Group opportunities into themes. Test each theme against the hierarchy of buying needs (inspirational, individual, business, functional, table stakes) to spot several themes that are one underlying need. Note: in commoditized B2B, "easy to use" and "saves time or money" are entry fees, not differentiators; true differentiation lives at the individual and inspirational levels, so never let a pillar rest on ease or generic savings. 6. Prioritize to a maximum of three pillars. This leap is the hardest; reason explicitly about which themes matter most to {{BUSINESS_GOAL}} and desired perception before cutting. 7. For each pillar, produce a row: BENEFIT (what it lets the customer DO), VALUE (WHY that matters, reached by asking why until you hit the core human reason, not a restated capability), DELIVERY (the specific capability that fulfills the promise, stated as fulfillment not a bare feature), PAIN (the granular opportunity it resolves, in the customer's words). CAPABILITY AS THEME TRAP: if the value just restates the capability, keep asking why. 8. Validate against positioning. State whether the pillars line up with {{POSITIONING}}. Overlap is good; a radically different result is a misalignment to flag, not smooth over. OUTPUT FORMAT A) Clarifying questions, only if inputs are thin per the thresholds above; stop after this section and wait. If inputs are sufficient, skip A entirely. B) Opportunity map: a table with one row per capability, showing the customer possibility, the first person opportunity quote, its PAIN / REQUIREMENT / DESIRE tag, the audiences it applies to, and whether it is validated by real research. Close with the PARKED list: anything outside {{SCOPE}}, each with the level it belongs to. Omit the list if nothing was parked. C) Segmentation decision (persona or job to be done) with the overlap reasoning. D) Theme groups: each theme with the opportunities inside it and its level on the hierarchy of buying needs, plus one line per cut theme on why it lost to the pillars that survived. Show your prioritization reasoning; do not present the pillars as if they appeared from nowhere. E) A table of two or three pillars, each named as a customer outcome, with Benefit / Value / Delivery / Pain columns. F) One outcome specific proof point per pillar (never a generic "easy to use" proof), drawn only from {{RESEARCH}} or {{CAPABILITIES}}. If no real proof exists for a pillar, write NEEDS SOURCING with a one line note on what evidence to collect; do not invent a statistic, customer, or result. G) Positioning validation note. H) Quote audit: list every customer quote used above next to the exact wording in {{RESEARCH}} it came from, and label anything paraphrased or unvalidated so it can be verified before the pillars ship. FINAL SELF CHECK → Every pillar name is a customer outcome, not a capability, and none rests on ease of use or generic time or money savings. → Each opportunity is in the customer's voice; anything without a real quote is labeled unvalidated. → No more than three pillars, and every cut theme has a stated reason. → Everything mapped sits at the {{SCOPE}} level; anything from another level is in the PARKED list, not in the map or the pillars. → Every quote in the quote audit traces to {{RESEARCH}}, and every proof point traces to {{RESEARCH}} or {{CAPABILITIES}} or is marked NEEDS SOURCING; nothing is invented. → Failure modes to avoid: inventing quotes, listing features with no accomplishment context, and mapping the roadmap instead of value delivered today. ``` ## Prompt versions The standard prompt above works on any model. Use these variants when you want a different tradeoff. ### Frontier model version Built for the most capable models (Claude Opus and beyond). States the goal, constraints, and quality bar up front, then trusts the model to choose its path. ```text You are a senior product marketing strategist running a Message Relevancy Mapping workshop. GOAL: Turn my product's raw capabilities into no more than three prioritized messaging pillars written in the customer's own voice, backed by an auditable trail from capability to pillar. Deliver a messaging map a copywriter can ship into ads, landing pages, and a sales story without inventing the strategy. Lead your output with the pillars themselves: a table of two or three pillars, each named as a customer outcome (never a feature), with Benefit (what the customer gets to DO), Value (the core human reason why it matters), Delivery (the capability that fulfills it, stated as fulfillment), and Pain (the granular opportunity it resolves, in the customer's words). Put the supporting map, themes, and reasoning after. CONTEXT INTAKE {{PRODUCT}}, {{POSITIONING}}, {{CAPABILITIES}}, {{AUDIENCES}}, {{RESEARCH}}, {{BUSINESS_GOAL}}, {{SCOPE}}. METHOD PRINCIPLES (keep these load bearing rules, choose your own path to satisfy them): → Never let a bare feature stand as a message. Translate every capability into a customer opportunity written as a first person "I..." quote, tagged PAIN, REQUIREMENT, or DESIRE. Ask why (or the 5 Whys) until value hits a human reason, not a restated capability. → Run the whole workshop at the {{SCOPE}} level only. Anything from another altitude goes to a PARKED list, not into the map or pillars. → Decide persona versus job to be done by the overlap between audiences: when audiences share the great majority of opportunities, segment by the job the product is hired to do and keep persona secondary. → Group opportunities into themes, then cut to a maximum of three pillars, reasoning explicitly about {{BUSINESS_GOAL}} and desired perception. "Easy to use" and generic time or money savings are entry fees, never a pillar; differentiate at the individual and inspirational levels. → Validate the pillars against {{POSITIONING}}; flag a radically different result rather than smoothing it over. QUALITY BAR (excellent output satisfies all of these): → Every pillar decomposes cleanly into benefit, value, delivery, and pain, with value reached by asking why until you hit a human reason. → Every opportunity is in the customer's voice, sourced from {{RESEARCH}}, with anything unvalidated labeled, plus a closing quote audit tracing each quote to its source wording. → A visible trail from capabilities to pillars: the opportunity map, the theme groups, and a one line reason for every cut theme. → One outcome specific proof point per pillar, traced to {{RESEARCH}} or {{CAPABILITIES}}, or marked NEEDS SOURCING with what to collect. BOUNDARIES: Do not invent customer quotes, statistics, customers, or results. Do not let a feature stand in for value or map the roadmap instead of value delivered today. Do not pad with generic advice. If a required input is missing or thin (fewer than eight capabilities, fewer than five verbatim quotes, an audience with no goal, or more than one scope level), ask up to five focused clarifying questions and stop, rather than guessing. ``` ### Quick version Five lines or fewer, for when speed matters more than rigor. ```text Act as a product marketing strategist. From {{CAPABILITIES}}, {{AUDIENCES}}, and {{RESEARCH}}, give me no more than three messaging pillars for {{PRODUCT}}. Name each pillar as a customer outcome (never a feature) and break it into Benefit, Value, Delivery, and Pain, with pains written as first person customer quotes. Quality bar: every pillar traces back to a real capability and a real quote from {{RESEARCH}}; invent nothing, and mark anything unvalidated. ``` ## How to customize → `{{CAPABILITIES}}`: dump everything the product makes possible, not just the flagship feature. Example: "you can spin up a branded portal in minutes, you can gate content by role, you can export usage to a spreadsheet." Include the small ones your product team skips. → `{{RESEARCH}}`: paste verbatim quotes. Example: "My boss asked me to do X and I don't know where to start." Literal language keeps the pillars credible. → `{{AUDIENCES}}`: name the personas or jobs from your positioning with their goals. Example: a marketing team lead versus a mid to senior practitioner, each with what they are trying to accomplish. → `{{BUSINESS_GOAL}}`: state volume, value, or expansion. This changes which high value action, and therefore which pillar, you lead with. → `{{SCOPE}}`: name exactly one level (a feature, a product, a product within a portfolio, or the brand). Naming more than one triggers a clarifying question instead of a workshop; anything from another level comes back in a parked list rather than diluting the map. ## What good output looks like → Two or three pillars, each named as an outcome a customer achieves (for example "get to action faster" or "turn uncertainty into confidence"), never a feature name. → Every pillar decomposes cleanly into benefit, value, delivery, and pain, with the value reached by asking why until you hit a human reason, not a restated capability. → Opportunities are written as first person quotes in the customer's own words, sourced from real research, with anything unvalidated clearly labeled and a closing quote audit that traces every quote back to your pasted research. → A visible trail from capabilities to pillars: a full opportunity map, the themes those opportunities grouped into, and a one line reason for every theme that was cut, so you can audit the distillation instead of taking it on faith. → A stated segmentation decision (persona versus job to be done) backed by the overlap between audiences, plus a note on whether the pillars validate or contradict your positioning. → The whole map holds one altitude: everything sits at the scope you named, and anything from another level lands in a parked list at the end of the opportunity map instead of leaking into the pillars. → Proof points that trace to your pasted research or capabilities, with any gap marked NEEDS SOURCING instead of filled with an invented statistic or customer story. → If your inputs were thin, the first response is questions only; the workshop runs on your answers, not on assumptions. ## Related prompts → [Build a Product Messaging Canvas](../positioning-messaging/build-a-product-messaging-canvas.md): once you have your pillars, assemble them into the full canvas (what, why, who, how, roll up, outcome pillars, proof) that teams work from. → [Audit Messaging for Potency and Alignment](../positioning-messaging/audit-messaging-for-potency.md): pressure test the pillars for relevance, emotional pull, credibility, and uniqueness before you commit. → [Turn Positioning Into a Sales Deck Story](../positioning-messaging/turn-positioning-into-a-sales-story.md): carry the prioritized pillars into a sales narrative for one to one selling.