Five-Dimension Target Customer
What this does
Runs Ch 11's 5-Dimension Target Customer framework. Returns a customer dossier across Role, Persona, Objectives, Sharp Problems, JTBD + Workflow, plus the value-chain extension (preceding workflow + succeeding workflow). Replaces thin demographic personas with a structured definition that the rest of the agent's skills depend on.
When to use
Trigger when the user:
- Has only a demographic persona ("VP Engineering, 100-500 employees") and needs a usable target customer
- Is shipping a new product or feature and needs to anchor it to a specific buyer
- Has multiple candidate segments and needs to choose one
- Is writing positioning, pricing, or roadmap and lacks a clear "who"
When NOT to use
- User already has a defined target customer; jump to
sharp-problem-testoraha-mapper - User wants to discover the customer from scratch — run
customer-discovery-weekfirst to gather the raw material - User is segmenting a quantitative cohort for analytics — different problem; this skill builds qualitative dossiers
The 5 dimensions (from Ch 11)
1. Role
Job title plus the organizational position and level of authority. "VP Engineering at a 200-person Series C company" is a role. "VP Engineering" is a label.
2. Persona
Background, experience, what they value, how they think. The behavioral and cognitive layer. Includes anti-persona — what this customer is not.
3. Objectives
What this person is trying to achieve THIS QUARTER and THIS YEAR. Not mission statements — concrete goals tied to their performance review, team's roadmap, or company's stage. Surface 3–5.
4. Sharp Problems
The 1–3 sharp problems THIS role experiences, named in the customer's
words, with frequency and intensity. If you cannot name the sharp
problems, the role isn't a viable target — back up to
customer-discovery-week.
5. JTBD + Workflow
Jobs to be Done + the workflow that produces them. The JTBD frames WHY the customer hires a solution; the workflow shows WHEN and HOW the hiring decision happens. Include:
- The target workflow your product would replace
- The preceding workflow that triggers it
- The succeeding workflow that comes after
The preceding/succeeding extension is what separates this framework from generic persona work. It surfaces the value-chain coupling that makes integrations, distribution, and pricing decisions clear.
The decision rule
A 5-dimension target customer is COMPLETE when:
- All 5 dimensions are populated with specifics, not generalities
- The Sharp Problems dimension has at least 1 problem the user could
pass to
sharp-problem-test - The JTBD + Workflow includes both preceding AND succeeding workflows (not just the target one)
Anything less is DRAFT: the dossier exists but key fields are too generic to use downstream.
Refusal mode
If the user provides only a job title and demographics, return DRAFT and name the missing dimensions. Refuse to fill them with plausible- sounding fiction — the agent doesn't have access to the user's customer interviews and must not invent objectives or problems.
If the user provides multiple plausible target customers, pick the one with the sharpest problem and document why the others were deprioritized — don't return a dossier per customer; the skill is about choosing.
Inputs
- Candidate role / segment (one or several to choose from)
- Any prior research, interviews, or quotes
- The product or product idea being built
- (Optional) constraints — must be enterprise, must be consumer, etc.
Output structure
## 5-dimension verdict: [COMPLETE | DRAFT] ### Role [Title + organizational position + authority level] ### Persona [Background + values + thinking style + anti-persona] ### Objectives - [Quarter / year objective 1] - [Objective 2] - [Objective 3] ### Sharp Problems - [Problem 1 in customer's words + frequency + intensity] - [Problem 2] ### JTBD + Workflow - **JTBD**: [the job the customer hires a solution for] - **Target workflow**: [the workflow your product replaces] - **Preceding workflow**: [what triggers the target] - **Succeeding workflow**: [what comes after] ### Coverage gaps [Specific missing inputs, if any] ### Recommendation [Concrete next step — typically 'pass Sharp Problem #1 to sharp-problem-test'] ### Analogous case from the book [A named example]
Worked example from the book
Calendly's target — sales rep at mid-market SaaS (Ch 11)
- Role: Account Executive at a 50–500 employee SaaS company; quota- carrying; owns external pipeline
- Persona: 3–8 years sales experience; values speed over polish; comfortable with tools but not a tinkerer; anti-persona = inside- sales SDR (doesn't own the meeting)
- Objectives:
- Q: hit 110% of quota
- Y: convert pipeline 5pp faster than last year
- Sharp Problems:
- "I lose 2-3 deals a month to scheduling friction" (~weekly, high intensity)
- "My calendar is held hostage by anyone who can email me a meeting request" (~daily, moderate)
- JTBD + Workflow:
- JTBD: "book the meeting before the prospect's interest cools"
- Target workflow: external meeting scheduling
- Preceding: cold outreach reply expressing interest
- Succeeding: CRM update + prep notes
Gotchas
- "VP Engineering" is not a role; it's a title. Add company stage, team size, what they own, what they don't.
- Objectives must be time-bound. "Hit quota" isn't an objective; "hit 110% of Q4 quota" is.
- The succeeding workflow is the most-skipped dimension. It's where integrations, exports, and analytics fit. Don't drop it.
- Anti-persona is load-bearing. Naming who this is NOT prevents the most common positioning failure: trying to serve everyone.
Anti-patterns to flag
If the user's dossier has any of these, surface them:
- Only demographics, no behavior or workflow — that's a marketing persona, not a target customer
- Sharp Problems section is empty — refuse to call the dossier
COMPLETE; route to
customer-discovery-week - Three+ dimensions filled with the founder's guess vs. customer quotes — flag the assumption risk
- "Our target is everyone" — return DRAFT and require a single primary
Source
Ch 11: The 5-Dimension Target Customer.
About this skill
This skill is part of the ProductMind Skills catalog — open-source product-judgment skills for AI coding agents.
Source: Building Rocketships by Oji and Ezinne Udezue — Chapter 11. This skill applies one named framework from the book. It works standalone in any agent that supports the SKILL.md standard.
Want the orchestrated version? The RocketshipsGPT agent runs all 13 book skills together, with persistent memory, framework-fidelity evals, voice-checked output, and the book's anti-pattern catches built in. → rocketshipsgpt.productmind.co
License: Skill content licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Attribution required; derivative works must share alike. See ADR 0005 for rationale.
Skill version: 1.0.0 · Published: 2026-06-05
