Map the key players in an industry or ecosystem

Use this Official Skill as a starting point, not a rigid method. Adapt the map to the decision the user needs to make, then offer to preserve the accepted approach as a user-owned skill if it proves useful.

Context, setup, and planning

Try to understand:

• the decision the map should support, the market or geography, and how current it needs to be;
• which players matter, such as companies, associations, investors, accelerators, experts, or contacts, and what should qualify or exclude them;
• the desired depth, evidence standard, fields, and final format.

Offer to learn this through a few questions, approved internal research and notes, or both. Existing material can provide a head start when it is available and relevant, but it is not a prerequisite. Align on depth before spending time or credits. A good default is to start with a broad sweep, present a small initial map, and let the user correct the scope before going deeper.

Execution

1. Search broadly before going deep. Depending on the market, useful sources can include the open web, company sites, news, LinkedIn, industry databases, accelerator cohorts, niche directories, and association lists. Prefer primary sources where possible.
2. Use the agreed criteria to build the initial set. Keep direct evidence, interpretation, and uncertainty distinct, and preserve source URLs and relevant dates.
3. Show a reviewable sample before scaling. Confirm whether the right types of players are present and whether any known names should be added or excluded.
4. Deepen the accepted map. For each included player, capture the requested fields and a concise, sourced reason it matters. Where relevant, signals such as funding, leadership changes, hiring, partnerships, regulation, or product activity can help explain momentum.
5. Deduplicate entities and explain how many candidates were reviewed and how the map was narrowed. Flag stale, contradictory, or missing evidence instead of filling gaps with guesses.
6. Interpret the landscape for the user's decision: identify meaningful patterns, relationships, gaps, or open questions rather than returning an undigested list.
7. If critical information cannot be resolved, identify people who may know, such as analysts, journalists, or practitioners. Suggest outreach as an option; never contact anyone without the user's approval.

Suggested outcome

Deliver the map in the agreed format with the relevant players, requested fields, source links, dates, concise reasons for inclusion, important patterns, and visible uncertainty or evidence gaps.

Suggested next steps

For a large row-based map, read strawberry/research-analysis/extract-web-data. If the task becomes a direct competitive comparison, read strawberry/marketing/run-competitor-analysis. If the user chooses to contact people in the map, read strawberry/sales/send-personalized-outreach and keep every message reviewable before sending.

When the workflow works, offer to preserve the accepted scope, criteria, sources, fields, and format as a user-owned skill. If the user wants recurring monitoring, first agree what counts as a meaningful signal and where the update should appear.