Niche Map

# Goal: Niche Map

Mission: Map the selected niche so later research targets the same buyers and buying process.

Read repo instructions, CHARTER.md and relevant notes/reports at root and in reports/. Charter constraints bound recommendations. In a conductor, read INDEX.md and venture-run.json for scope, criteria, decisions and input versions; otherwise record these in this report. Your only write is this report. No outreach, purchases or code changes.

## Phase 1 — Anchor
- Fix one venture ID, buyer, pain, solution hypothesis and geography from explicit selection or reviewed OPPORTUNITIES.md. If several candidates remain, obtain selection or exercise recorded delegation before mapping.
- Bound what is inside and adjacent-but-out. Check prior reports for conflicting scope or stale evidence; identify missing inputs rather than borrowing a different venture.

## Phase 2 — Investigate
1. **People** — buyers versus users, budget owners, incumbents and substitutes.
2. **Money** — who pays whom; price, billing unit, contract and margins from primary pages.
3. **Gathering places** — linked forums, communities, newsletters, associations and events; rank by observed activity and date.
4. **Language** — jobs, terminology and beliefs supported by examples.
5. **Buying process** — trigger, trial, approval, procurement and switching obstacles.
6. **Access** — channels and gatekeepers; distinguish reachable audiences from theoretical headcount.
7. **Practices** — norms entrants must respect and hypotheses worth challenging.
8. **Change** — dated funding, consolidation, regulation and platform shifts relevant to this buyer.

## Phase 3 — Decide
- Distill three constraints entrants must respect and three promising observations, each with confidence and reason.
- Identify what public sources cannot establish and the cheapest customer questions that resolve it.

## Phase 4 — Report
Create `NICHE.md` at repo root:
1. **Map** — scope, cast, money flows and channels in tables.
2. **Directory** — gathering places, links, activity evidence and access constraints.
3. **Unwritten rules** — supported norms versus assumptions, with counterevidence.
4. **Next steps** — open questions, proposed interviews and success/stop criteria; no messages sent.

Start with today's date. If `NICHE.md` already exists, read it first and lead with what changed; preserve prior work before an authorized replacement. Include scope, input versions, stable finding IDs, evidence, counterevidence and next steps; use the conductor's metadata when supplied.

## Rules
- Separate direct evidence, proxies, inference and assumptions. Material factual claims need source links and access dates; date events too. Repeated citations are not independent evidence. Disclose inaccessible sources and shortfalls; never invent quotes or numbers.
- Include meaningful counterevidence and what would change the recommendation. Stop at the agreed research budget; if none, state a bounded search plan and unresolved gaps.
- If a `reports/` directory exists at the repo root, write the report there instead of the root.
- Before asking, present the top findings as a ranked list in plain words.
- No selected niche after resolving scope? Write a one-paragraph null report naming the missing selection and affected downstream work.
- Report only — end by asking which unresolved niche question matters next; routine conductor continuation follows recorded authority.