bbs-case-research

BBS Case Research

This skill mines a public brand's scaling story (or failure story) from the web, filters it through the Oblique branding-and-marketing lens, writes a structured case study, and saves it to the Case Study Library with full citations and three ready-to-ship content angles.

The output is research-based. It complements the first-hand entries from bbs-story-mine. Both live in the same Case Study Library, distinguished by the source_type frontmatter (research vs first-hand).

Cardinal Rules (must fire every run)

1. No fabricated numbers or quotes. Every revenue figure, valuation, market share, growth rate and founder quote traces to a cited source. Widely-reported-but-unverified numbers get marked "[reported, unverified]." No paraphrased quotes presented as direct.
2. Minimum 5 cited sources, mixed types (aim 8-12). Citations follow the research-sourcing protocol: every non-common-knowledge claim gets a URL in the Sources section with a one-line note on what it added.
3. Operator angle, not commentator angle. Sean is a 10-year operator analysing what to copy or avoid, not a journalist reporting what happened.
4. Lead with brand and marketing, not the spreadsheet. Filter through the four-layer Oblique lens (brand strategy → marketing → PMF → scale levers). Financial and operational context is background only.
5. Copywriting gate before save. Run the copywriting skill over the full entry. Then run grep -c "—\|–" on the file. If matches > 0, fix and re-check.
6. Save right, tag right. Save to 50 - Knowledge Base/Case Study Library/, set source_type: research, set pillar (local = 2, international = 3), and append a row to _Library Index.md.
7. Sensitive failure stories handled with care. When founder or stakeholders are still active, lead with the lessons not the gossip. Public sources only, no speculation about internal politics.

Composed Skills

• Layer 1 primitives: none, by design. Output is a Markdown case-study entry written directly into the vault, not a generated asset (no deck, doc, sheet or image).
• Gate skills called: copywriting (full framework over the entire entry before save) and research-sourcing (citation protocol for every web-sourced claim).

When to invoke

Trigger on any of:

• "Case study on [brand]" / "research [brand]" / "scale story for [brand]"
• "How did [brand] scale" / "how did [brand] fail"
• "Post-mortem on [brand]" / "failure story on [brand]"
• "Branding case study" / "marketing case study"
• Sean references a brand name + wants the scaling or failure story captured

If Sean says "I want to do a case study on [brand]" without specifying success/failure, ask: "Success story or failure story?" Don't assume.

What this skill does NOT do

• First-hand interviews. That's bbs-story-mine.
• Generic competitor research. This skill is specifically for content-library entries, not for client work or sales pitches.
• Finished carousels or Reels. Output is research-grade input for the content engine, not the final post.

Workflow

State the plan at the start of every run:

1. Confirm brand + angle (success / failure / neutral) → verify: brand named, angle confirmed
2. Run the web research pass → verify: 5+ sources surfaced, mix of types
3. Filter through Oblique lens (brand strategy → marketing → PMF → scale levers) → verify: each lens produces specific findings
4. Write the case study using the template → verify: every section populated, no placeholder text
5. Generate the 3 content angles → verify: hook, opener, tweet drafted
6. Run Copywriting Framework pass → verify: no em dashes, no antithetical pivots, no AI tells
7. Save to Case Study Library + update _Library Index.md → verify: file exists, index updated

Step 1: Confirm brand + angle

Ask:

• "Which brand?"
• "Success story (how they scaled), failure story (what killed them), or neutral analysis (the full arc)?"
• "Any specific question you want the case study to answer?" (Optional. If Sean has a specific angle, lock it in. If not, the default frame is "what branding and marketing decisions made this brand the brand it is today.")

Step 2: Web research pass

Run a multi-source search. Required diversity:

• Founder / CEO interviews (podcasts, YouTube, written long-form)
• News coverage (especially around inflection moments, funding rounds, IPOs, controversies)
• Wikipedia (for the structured timeline)
• Industry reports / research (where available)
• Reddit / forums (where the brand has community discussion)
• The brand's own owned channels (their social posts, blog posts, About page)

For the per-region and per-type source list (Malaysian/SEA outlets, international podcasts, failure-analysis sources), see the "Sources guidance for common research types" section below.

Minimum 5 sources cited. Aim for 8-12 for a strong entry.

For failure stories, deliberately seek:

• Post-mortem coverage
• Reddit / forum threads where customers / investors / employees discuss what went wrong
• Bankruptcy filings (if public)
• Founder retrospective interviews (if available)
• News coverage around the breaking point or wind-down

Step 3: Filter through Oblique lens

The Oblique lens has four layers, ordered by importance for BrandedbySean's audience:

1. Brand strategy decisions. Positioning, naming, narrative, visual identity, voice, audience targeting. The decisions that defined what the brand IS in the market.

2. Marketing playbook. Channels, creative, partnerships, distribution, founder content, owned vs paid mix. The decisions that drove how the brand grew.

3. Product-market fit moment. When did demand outstrip supply? What signal told them they had it? What did they double down on after?

4. Scaling levers. What pulled the trajectory from steady-state to breakout? Channel discovery, geographic expansion, SKU expansion, retail entry, exit windows.

Financial and operational context (funding, margins, headcount, supply chain) is BACKGROUND only. The audience is brand and marketing operators. Don't lead with the spreadsheet.

For each layer, capture:

• The specific decision made
• The contrarian angle (what most others did vs what they did)
• The result attributable to that decision
• The replicable pattern

For failure stories, the lens inverts:

• Brand strategy errors (positioning drift, naming problems, narrative gaps)
• Marketing playbook errors (channel over-dependence, creative decay, distribution gaps)
• Product-market fit failures (false signals, premature scaling)
• Scaling errors (raised too much, expanded too fast, ignored unit economics)

Step 4: Write the case study

Use the Case Study Template at _Templates/Case Study Template.md.

Sections to populate:

• Backstory — one paragraph, who, when, why
• Market context at the time — why timing mattered
• Branding decisions that worked (or "errors" for failure stories)
• Marketing playbook
• Inflection moment — the single decision or window that flipped the trajectory
• Result — specific numbers
• Replicable pattern (or failure lesson) — the one-liner principle
• Sources — every URL with one-line note on what it added
• Content angles — three pre-generated lines
• Notes — open questions, follow-ups, cross-references

Step 5: Generate content angles

Three angles required:

• Carousel hook — one line, fits in 5-12 words for the cover slide
• Reel opener — one line, conversational, the thing Sean would say on camera in his off-the-cuff voice
• Tweet — one line, no hashtags, no hook tropes ("Most people think..." overuse)

For failure stories, the hooks change:

• Carousel: "What killed [Brand]" / "The 3 mistakes that ended [Brand]"
• Reel: "Last year I watched [Brand] collapse. Here's what most people missed."
• Tweet: "[Brand] didn't fail because of [obvious cause]. They failed because [actual cause]."

Step 6: Copywriting Framework pass

Run the copywriting skill over the full entry before save. It owns the framework (em dashes, antithetical pivots, filler openers, hollow power words, fragment stacking, bullet abuse, operator vocabulary, specific numbers).

Then run grep -c "—\|–" on the file before save. If matches > 0, fix and re-check.

Step 7: Save to Case Study Library

Filename: [Brand Name] — [Inflection Phrase].md

Examples:

• Liquid Death — Positioning Genius in a Commodity Category.md
• FashionValet — What Killed the Brand.md
• Aesop — Price Ladder and Retail Experience as Moat.md

Save location: 50 - Knowledge Base/Case Study Library/[filename].md

Frontmatter must include:

• source_type: research
• status: researched (move from stub to researched)
• source_skill: bbs-case-research
• pillar: 2 (local) or 3 (international)
• case_type: success | failure | neutral
• created and last_updated in DD/MM/YYYY format

After save:

1. Append a row to Case Study Library/_Library Index.md
2. Return:
   • File path
   • Source count + types
   • The 3 pre-generated angles
   • "ready-to-ship as carousel" flag (only if the entry has 5+ specific numbers, dated moments, and named decisions)

Hard rules

1. No fabricated numbers. Every revenue figure, valuation, market share, growth rate must trace to a cited source. If a number is widely reported but unverified, mark it as "[reported, unverified]."
2. No fabricated quotes. Founder quotes must be direct from cited interviews. No paraphrased quotes presented as direct.
3. Sensitive failure stories handled with care. When the founder or stakeholders are still active, lead with the lessons, not the gossip. Cite public sources only. Avoid speculation about internal politics.
4. Citations follow research-sourcing skill protocol. Every claim that's not common knowledge gets a citation. URLs in the Sources section, one-line note on what each added.
5. Apply the Copywriting Framework on every word of output. Per Cardinal 5: run the copywriting gate, then the em-dash grep, before save.
6. Operator angle, not commentator angle. Sean is positioned as a 10-year operator analysing the brand, not as a journalist reporting on it. The voice is "here's what they did and what to copy / avoid," not "here's what happened."
7. Update the library index after save. Per the standing CLAUDE.md rule.
8. Pillar tagging matters. Local brands → Pillar 2. International brands → Pillar 3. Get this right at save time so the carousel skill can pull from the correct pillar later.

Eval cases (seed)

1. "Case study on Oriental Kopi" → triggers, asks for angle (success/failure), runs research, saves to Case Study Library, Pillar 2
2. "How did Liquid Death scale" → triggers, runs research, saves to Case Study Library, Pillar 3, success
3. "Post-mortem on FashionValet" → triggers, runs research with failure framing, saves to Case Study Library, Pillar 2, failure
4. "Research the brand Inside Scoop" → triggers, asks for angle, runs research, saves
5. "Case study on Aesop, focus on the price ladder" → triggers, runs research with specified angle, saves with hook focused on pricing

Sources guidance for common research types

Malaysian / SEA brands:

• BFM podcasts (Live & Learn, The Bigger Picture, Front Row)
• The Edge Malaysia archive
• Vulcan Post
• KopiTalk podcast
• The Star Business
• Free Malaysia Today
• LinkedIn posts from founders (look for retrospective threads)

International brands:

• My First Million (Shaan Puri / Sam Parr) — esp. for breakdowns of viral / fast-scale brands
• Acquired podcast — for deep historical company analysis
• How I Built This (NPR) — for founder origin stories
• Lenny's Newsletter — for SaaS / tech-brand depth
• Stratechery — for tech business strategy
• Modern Wisdom — for founder interviews
• Wikipedia — for structured timelines

Failure analysis:

• Industry post-mortem coverage (Failory, Kill Pile)
• Reddit r/business, r/startups for ground-truth perspective
• Bankruptcy filings (PACER for US, Companies Commission of Malaysia for local)
• Founder retrospective interviews (often appear 1-2 years after the failure)

Post-run

After saving, suggest:

• Whether this case study is ready to ship as a carousel today (based on the flag).
• If a related entry already exists in the library that this should cross-reference.
• If this case study would pair well with a Mindset entry (e.g., "Liquid Death" pairs with the "branding is the moat" mindset entry).
• If this case study would benefit from a follow-up bbs-story-mine interview where Sean adds his own commentary on the brand from his operator perspective.

Maintenance

• After any change to the workflow, update this SKILL.md.
• After adding new source types or research patterns, update the "Sources guidance" section.
• After any change, update Skills Map.md per the standing CLAUDE.md rule.