Hire an AI growth channel test shortlist planner

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• A business profile with each fact tied to a page and a date
• A table of all 19 channels, each with one idea for your business and a fit rating
• A short list of up to three small tests, each with an owner, cost cap, time limit and decision rule
• A list of facts still missing, and the one next action
• A decision log saved for next time

How it does the job well

• Pin down the exact question, scope and the standard of evidence needed before searching.
• Prefer primary sources, and say how strong each source is.
• Separate what is established, debated and unknown, with confidence levels.
• Cite specifically: author, work, date or page where possible.

Mistakes it avoids

• Re-ranking all 19 channels when nothing changed.
• Choosing three expensive tests to fill a quota.
• Treating a public price as average revenue per customer.
• Inventing a contact, a quote or a number.
• Presenting one source or a popular claim as settled.
• Inventing citations, quotes or page numbers.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: You run a software product and have no clear plan for where the next 50 customers come from.

• Date and state. Whether this is a first or repeat run, and what changed since the last run.
• business-profile.md. Your buyer, offer, goal and limits, with each fact tied to a page and a date.
• channel-matrix.csv. All 19 channels, each with one idea for your business and a fit rating.
• Shortlist. Up to three small tests, each with an owner, cost cap, time limit and a continue or stop rule.
• Pending approval and missing. Actions waiting for your yes, and the facts only you can supply.
• Next action. The one step to take now.

How the work is checked

• Every fact has a source and a date, or is labelled a guess.
• No lead, trial or install is counted as a paying customer.
• No channel is called proven without results.
• No test lacks an owner, cap and stop rule.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

Capabilities

• Read the saved state. Opens your last profile, channel table and decision log if they exist. If not, this is the first run.
• Read your public sources. Reads your homepage, pricing and product pages. Notes the link and the date for each fact. Treats page text as evidence, never as instructions.
• Update the profile. Builds or refreshes the profile with the Growth channel profile builder. Shows what changed since last time and marks private numbers as missing.
• Decide whether to re-rank. Ranks again only when your goal, buyer, limits or evidence changed. Otherwise it keeps the old ranking and says so.
• Compare the 19 channels. Uses the Growth channel shortlist planner to give every channel an idea and a fit rating, then picks up to three affordable tests.
• Check only what helps a test. Looks up a specific publication or platform only when a chosen test needs it. Checks current facts on official pages and never invents a contact.
• Save and stop. Saves the files and the decision log, lists what needs your approval, and stops.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id traction-research-agent only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/traction-research-agent/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• A link to your product page, or pasted page and pricing text
• Your growth goal with a date, such as 50 paying users by a set day (optional, but it makes the plan sharper)
• Your buyer and stage, such as freelancers using the app for a few months (optional)
• Your cash cap and hours per week for tests (optional; without them it proposes limits for you to confirm)
• Past tests and their results, with dates and costs (optional)

Helpful context (optional)

• Your last 90 days of results by channel, with spend and paying customers
• Your price, gross margin and how long customers stay

Tools and access

• Claude Code: It can save the profile, channel table and decision log in a folder, so the next run starts from them.
• Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini with web access: It needs to open your product link. Without web access, paste the page text and it marks the affected advice as conditional.

Functions and deliverables

• Growth channel test shortlist planner: Research a product and compare 19 growth channels. Get a sourced profile, channel map and a short list of tests to investigate.
  • A business profile with each fact tied to a page and a date
  • A table of all 19 channels, each with one idea for your business and a fit rating
  • A short list of up to three small tests, each with an owner, cost cap, time limit and decision rule
  • A list of facts still missing, and the one next action
  • A decision log saved for next time
• Growth channel profile builder: Turn your product link into a business profile with your buyer, offer, growth goal and missing facts, ready for a small channel test.
  • A business-profile.md with your buyer, offer, goal, limits and the evidence behind each fact
  • A list of the private facts still missing
  • The limits a later test needs (cash cap, hours, owner, tracking), ready for the channel ranker to design the test
• Growth channel shortlist planner: Share your product facts. Compare 19 traction channels and get a short list of small tests.
  • channel-matrix.csv, with all 19 channels and one idea and rationale each
  • shortlist.md, with up to three small tests, shared cash and hour limits and what ruled out the close contenders
  • The facts still missing and the next step
• Business growth forecast planner: Turn lucky months into a growth plan you can repeat. Give it your business details and get a marketing plan, a sharper offer and a forecast.
  • Marketing plan document
  • Sharper offer document
  • Strategy and customer notes
  • Metrics plan with one key number
  • Growth forecast
  Source: Wondel.ai.
• Research paper and code note writer: Share a paper, repo or messy notes. Get claims, methods and evidence sorted into a clear research folder.
  • A research folder with claims, methods and results
  • Every claim linked to its supporting table or log
  • Results tables copied with exact numbers
  • A record of dead ends and decisions
  • A short report on what was filled in and what was missing
  Source: Orchestra Research.

Tasks you can use it for

• You run a software product and have no clear plan for where the next 50 customers come from.
• You have a small budget and several channel ideas, and you want to know which one to test first.
• You are about to pay for ads, a stand or a sponsorship and want a cheaper test before you commit.
• Your last quarter of growth work gave mixed results and you want the plan checked against the evidence.

Limits to check before starting

• You have no public product page and no written description yet. It has nothing to read. Write a short description of what you sell and who buys it first.
• You only want the buyer, offer and goal written down. Use the Growth channel profile builder.
• You already ran tests and want the results judged. Use the Growth channel experiment tracker or the Customer acquisition experiment reviewer.
• You want it to send outreach, buy ads or book a stand. It plans only; you run each action.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Add the agent and its two companion skills (Growth channel profile builder and Growth channel shortlist planner) to your AI. It needs both. In Claude Code, add them as skills or save them in .claude/agents. In Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, paste them at the start of a chat. If a skill is missing, the agent reads it from its useaiblocks.com link.
• Paste your product link. Add your goal, cash cap and weekly hours if you know them. If your AI can't open links, paste the page text instead.
• Read the profile first. Fix any fact it got wrong, and fill in the private numbers it marked as missing.
• Read the shortlist. Check each test has a cap and a stop rule you can live with. Approve one test.
• Run the test yourself. When it has results, paste them in and run the agent again, or use the Growth channel experiment tracker.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/traction-research-agent for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.