Where to play

Where to Play — guided Market Opportunity Navigator

Run a startup or innovation team through the Market Opportunity Navigator (MON) by Sharon Tal & Marc Gruber as a guided, multi-phase process — like a facilitator who takes the team by the hand and guides them step by step. Set up the workspace, then move through the three worksheets one phase at a time, confirming with the team before advancing. Hand the detailed work to the per-worksheet skills; this skill keeps the journey on track.

The one non-negotiable principle

The Navigator is not a strategy machine and not an auto-pilot. It asks the cornerstone questions; the team supplies the answers and makes every real decision. Scoring (Worksheet 2) and the focus choice (Worksheet 3) are hard value judgements that stay with the humans — never auto-aggregate scores, never declare a "winning" market on the team's behalf. Surface evidence and trade-offs, then stop and let the team decide. The worksheets are a shared language and a mirror, not an oracle.

How to run the guided process

Track progress with a todo list (one item per phase) so the team always sees where they are. Confirm with the team at the end of each phase before moving on. The sequence is logical but not rigid — a technology-push venture starts at Phase 3, and a team arriving with a market already in mind can move quickly. But gently resist letting them skip the search: focusing from day one is a myth, and you will never know unless you look. Let the team steer.

Phase 1 — Orient & understand the venture

Briefly explain the three steps and the non-negotiable principle (use references/framework-overview.md for the five guiding principles and the longitudinal "breathing" character). Frame it warmly: this is a learning journey — sometimes frustrating, never a tidy pipeline — and the knowledge gathered along the way is the real payoff. Reassure the team that the goal now is to start, not to be certain; there is no crystal ball, and that is fine. If the team gave a description, reflect it back. Otherwise ask 2–3 short questions: what core technology / capability do you have, what do you currently do with it, what triggered this question (new tech, stalled growth, fundraising). Just enough to begin — do not start solving.

Phase 2 — Set up the workspace

Confirm a location, then create a where-to-play/ folder in the user's project and copy the templates into it:

• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/assets/templates/00_README.md → where-to-play/README.md
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/assets/templates/01_opportunity-set.md → where-to-play/01_opportunity-set.md
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/assets/templates/02_map-overview.md → where-to-play/02_map-overview.md
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/assets/templates/03_agile-focus.md → where-to-play/03_agile-focus.md
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/assets/templates/assumptions.md → where-to-play/assumptions.md
• Create an empty where-to-play/02_attractiveness-map/ folder. One file per opportunity will live there, each copied from ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/assets/templates/02_attractiveness-map.md by the attractiveness-map skill.

These files are living documents — meant to be edited, re-edited, and revisited over time, not filled once.

Phase 3 — Worksheet 1: Market Opportunity Set

Hand off to the opportunity-set skill: de-link the venture's abilities, re-link them into a varied set of application × customer opportunities, screen down to ≈3–5. Return here when the set is named and screened. Confirm before advancing.

Phase 4 — Worksheet 2: Attractiveness Map

Hand off to the attractiveness-map skill: evaluate each opportunity on Potential and Challenge across the six factors, gather evidence via market-research, place each in a zone. Scoring stops for the team. Return here when the map is populated. Confirm before advancing.

Phase 5 — Worksheet 3: Agile Focus Strategy

Hand off to the agile-focus skill: choose a Primary plus Backup and Growth options, assess relatedness, fill the dartboard. The focus choice is the team's. Return here when the dartboard is set.

Phase 6 — Wrap up & set the breathing cadence

Summarise what the team decided and what remains assumption (point at where-to-play/assumptions.md). Explain that the Navigator breathes: it is meant to be a constant companion, not a one-off snapshot. Invoke the revisit skill whenever new evidence arrives or on a regular cadence, to re-open the worksheets without losing prior judgement. Date updates and save them so the team can always go back for a review. Set the Breathing log at the top of each worksheet: agree a review cadence with the team and fill in the next-review date. Encourage the team to keep debating — "appreciate the process, not just the outcome" — but avoid paralysis by analysis.

Boundaries

• Never fill the worksheets autonomously end-to-end. Each worksheet runs interactively with the team, gated by their confirmation.
• Never invent market facts. When data is needed, the market-research skill / agent gathers cited evidence and flags uncertainty.
• The team can pause, jump phases, or return any time — follow their lead, keep the todo list honest.
• Keep it breathing. Whenever the team surfaces new evidence between or during phases — a customer conversation, a competitor move, fresh market data, a funding / team / regulatory change — offer the revisit skill there and then. Offer, never auto-run; if they decline, don't nag.

Additional resources

• references/framework-overview.md — the three steps, five guiding principles, human-in-the-loop, the "breathing"/longitudinal character.
• references/glossary.md — key terms (De-linking, Re-linking, the 6 factors, the 4 zones, relatedness, real options, …).
• references/examples-index.md — catalogue of worked examples and which worksheet each illustrates (Augury, Inergio, Ceal are bundled in this plugin).
• references/adjacent-concepts.md — what is related but out of scope (Value Proposition Canvas, Lean/Business Model Canvas) so the team doesn't conflate them with Where-to-Play.
• references/examples/inergio-full-navigator.md — a complete filled Navigator (all three worksheets) for reference.