Product messaging strategy skill

Turn a product into a coordinated messaging system — not a pile of one-off notifications. This skill operationalizes The product leader's guide to effective messaging into agent steps that produce Knock-ready plans and resources.

Complementary manuals:

• In-app messaging best practices
• Transactional email
• Notification infrastructure

Output contract (hard)

Write the full plan to knock-plan.md (repo root). Keep chat minimal — status + confirmation only. Follow rules/knock-plan-file.md.

Do not paste full recommendation briefs, taxonomies, or checklists into chat. Rely on the plan file as the source of truth for context and for handoff to knock-setup.

Overview

Work through these rule files in order when designing or auditing a messaging system. Put detailed findings in knock-plan.md as you go; do not narrate them in chat.

1. Data foundation and triggers — meaningful product moments and event payloads
2. Recipients and ownership — who should get the message and why
3. Delivery strategy — channels, escalation, timing, stop conditions
4. Volume and batching — frequency controls and digests
5. Relevance and preferences — personalization and preference taxonomy
6. Measurement and review — outcomes, fatigue signals, launch checklist
7. Apply in Knock — map the plan to workflows, guides, audiences, and preferences

How to use this skill

Designing a messaging system for a product

1. Learn the product (codebase, events, roles, lifecycle). Ask at most 3 clarifying questions if needed.
2. Follow rules/data-foundation-and-triggers.md to list meaningful moments and required event data — write them into knock-plan.md.
3. For each high-value moment, complete recipient, delivery, volume, and preference decisions using the next rule files — update the plan file, not chat.
4. Prioritize by growth outcome: activation, retention, revenue recovery, then nice-to-have alerts.
5. Run every candidate through rules/measurement-and-review.md before marking build-ready in the plan.
6. Use rules/apply-in-knock.md to enrich Knock shapes in the plan (or create resources only if the user explicitly asks). Prefer Knock MCP / CLI when connected.
7. In chat: one status line pointing at knock-plan.md, then ask which items to build. Confirmation question last, bolded.

Auditing an existing notification program

1. Inventory current workflows, guides, channels, and preference categories into knock-plan.md (Audit section).
2. Score each against the review checklist in rules/measurement-and-review.md.
3. Flag missing stop conditions, broad recipient rules, channel spam, and preference gaps in the file.
4. Chat: one status line + ask which Fix/Merge/Kill items to act on next.

Handing off into setup or implementation

• For greenfield Knock setup after strategy is approved, continue with knock-setup.
• For copy and channel formatting, use knock-notification-best-practices.
• For in-app guides UI, use knock-in-app-ui.
• For local resource management, use knock-cli.

When handing off to knock-setup, update Setup handoff in knock-plan.md and pass the same lists in chat (no re-ranking unless the user asks):

### Setup handoff
- **plan.** knock-plan.md
- **confirmed.** [names or indexes]
- **skipped.** [names or indexes]
- **deferred / blocked.** [names + reason]

knock-setup must treat confirmed as authoritative, read detail from knock-plan.md, and skip rediscovery.

Rule files reference

• rules/knock-plan-file.md — plan file path, structure, and chat brevity rules
• rules/data-foundation-and-triggers.md — events, payloads, and moment types
• rules/recipients-and-ownership.md — recipient selection and escalation
• rules/delivery-strategy.md — channel progression and timing
• rules/volume-and-batching.md — frequency, cooldowns, digests
• rules/relevance-and-preferences.md — context, personalization, prefs
• rules/measurement-and-review.md — outcomes, fatigue, launch standard
• rules/apply-in-knock.md — map decisions onto Knock primitives

Quick reference

Four moment types

1. User-requested outcomes — export done, payment submitted (usually immediate)
2. Collaborative activity — mention, assignment, approval (immediate or batched)
3. Product or account state changes — integration down, usage limit, payment failed
4. Time-based conditions — trial ending, incomplete onboarding, overdue approval

Non-negotiables before building

• Trigger represents a meaningful state change, not a vague inactivity heuristic alone
• Recipient is the person responsible for the next action
• Primary channel + escalation path defined
• Stop / cancel condition defined and re-checked after delays
• Preference category assigned (or explicitly marked transactional/service-critical)
• Success metric is a product outcome, not only an open rate

Growth priority order

1. Activation / time-to-value
2. Core loop engagement (collaboration, habit)
3. Revenue protection (failed payment, trial, limits)
4. Re-engagement / win-back with precise state
5. Announcements and education (lowest interrupt)