Messaging-Positioning-Pivot.md
Messaging & Positioning Pivot — Algolia Central
Vault file purpose: holds directional commitments, research gate, workstream roster, pilot targets, production-readiness requirements, and critical open questions. Cross-references the repo scratch files for full depth.
Live scratch (verbatim Arijit, unedited):
rc3-phoenix/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-22-messaging-positioning-pivot-scratchpad.mdLive structured plan (full detail, §1–§18):
rc3-phoenix/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-22-messaging-positioning-pivot.md
1. Forcing Function
Adobe Summit 2026, Apr 20–22. Pilots on the table (Adobe Brand Concierge want-in, MasterCard very interested, direct customers + SI partners curious). Story resonates ("nobody said no, nobody said a lot"). Pilot package must exist to convert interest → pilots → productized offering.
Arijit framing: "That will be my legacy here. POC is done. The story is resonating. How do we take this to market and productize it into an Algolia product offering?"
2. Directional Commitments (declared)
These are operating commitments — not fully specified decisions, but the direction is locked.
- POC → Product transition. rc2-algolia + Maverick/Elena/Bruno = Phase 0 Bootstrap Baseline. The product is built from research-grounded layers, not incremental v2.
- Native Algolia as the refactor target. Anything rc2-algolia reinvents that Algolia provides natively — delete.
- Reference implementation = the product. Prescriptive, opinionated, per-use-case. Not a toolkit.
- Neural-search configuration is proprietary IP. Internal tuning expertise is the moat.
- Category expansion beyond "product search." "Content search" was rejected by Arijit as insufficient framing. New category name TBD (R9).
- Agent Factory before product. Build the army of specialized agents; the factory produces Algolia Central.
- Live refactor, no big-bang. Availability preserved throughout. Per-layer cutover.
- Production-readiness is architectural, not QA. Guardrails, security, brand, zero-hallucination baked into every layer.
- Shared-responsibility delivery model. Algolia ships data + guardrails; customer owns front-end + audit.
- Research is the gate. R1–R12 closes before agents are re-specified.
3. Research Gate (R1–R12)
| # | Topic | Owner | Deliverable | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Algolia Connector inventory | TBD | Source × availability × maturity × gap matrix | open |
| R2 | Normalization into index (schema + weights) | TBD | Canonical schema + weight rubric | open |
| R3 | Enrichment (must/can/should per field) | TBD | Enrichment matrix | open |
| R4 | Crawler strategy (web/wiki/Confluence) | TBD | Crawler playbook + source-type coverage | open |
| R5 | Transformation engine deep-dive | TBD | Transformer feature-truth + decision tree | open |
| R6 | Enrichment engine deep-dive | TBD | Fetch feature-truth | open |
| R7 | Canonical data structure + per-source normalization | TBD | Canonical schema + per-source rules | open |
| R8 | Neural-search configuration mastery | TBD | Tuning cookbook + baseline config | open |
| R9 | Category framing / positioning naming | TBD | Named category + JTBD + 5 tested phrases | open |
| R10 | Use case spec (FS/MasterCard + BC-feed) | TBD | One brief per pilot | open |
| R11 | Production readiness (guardrails/sec/brand/zero-hallucination/legal) | TBD | Per-layer spec + contract templates | open |
| R12 | Bootstrap defect inventory (Maverick, handoff) | TBD | Defect inventory with severity + fix-when | open |
Full detail on each R-item: rc3-phoenix/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-22-messaging-positioning-pivot.md#13-research--feasibility-markers
4. Workstream Roster (WS1–WS9)
| # | Workstream | Depends on | Enables | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WS8 | Agent Factory / Dev Engine | — | all other WS (parallelism) | TBD |
| WS1 | Architecture | R1–R11 | WS2, WS3, WS4, WS7 | TBD |
| WS2 | Design | WS1 | WS3 | TBD |
| WS3 | Refactoring (humongous) | WS2 | Pilot-readiness | TBD |
| WS4 | Use Case Definition | WS1 + partial R | Pilots | TBD |
| WS5 | Story / Story Building | (parallel — no blockers) | WS6 | TBD |
| WS6 | Presentation (landing, decks, campaign) | WS5 | Pilot outreach | TBD |
| WS7 | Production Readiness | WS1, WS2 | Pilot trust | TBD |
| WS9 | Bootstrap Defect Remediation | R12 | Demo stability | TBD |
Dependency graph + agent assignments: rc3-phoenix/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-22-messaging-positioning-pivot.md#15-workstreams
Assignment principle: Each workstream gets a human owner (Arijit or delegate) + a specialized agent (per §17 factory). Start WS8 (factory) first — all others accelerate once it's online.
5. Pilot Targets (stated so far)
- Adobe Brand Concierge — direct pilot, want-in confirmed at Summit.
- MasterCard — very interested (verify spelling — dictation "MasterGard"). Financial services vertical.
- 1–2 direct customer pilots — TBD (curiosity expressed at Summit).
- 1 Adobe-partnered pilot — 2 customers inside, Adobe as distribution partner.
Objective: prove it out → build the package.
6. Production Readiness — Four Pillars + Two Vulnerability Axes
| Pillar | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Guardrails | Input/output filters, prompt injection defense, policy enforcement, content safety |
| Security | Auth/authz, tenant isolation, encryption, audit logging |
| Brand Protection | Voice/tone, forbidden topics, competitor handling, crisis patterns |
| Zero Hallucination | Retrieval grounding, confidence thresholds, "I don't know", citation discipline |
Vulnerability axes: Legal (contracts, liability, audit-trail) + Technical (exploit paths, SLOs, incident response).
Shared-responsibility matrix (Algolia ↔ Customer): see ...plan.md#16-production-readiness — scribe-drafted, pending legal validation.
7. Critical Open Questions
These must resolve before heavy execution on dependent workstreams.
| Q | Question | Blocks |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 | Current pitch verbatim — needs capture | WS5 |
| Q8 | Mode A vs Mode B narrative weight in pitch | WS5, WS6 |
| Q11 | Does Maverick/Elena/Bruno roster survive refactor? | WS1, WS2 |
| Q13 | What replaces "content search" framing? | WS5, WS6, WS4 |
| Q14 | FS/MasterCard use case shape | WS4, R10a |
| Q15 | Brand Concierge data architecture + integration points | WS4, R10b |
| Q16 | What survives from current bootstrap data layer? | WS3 |
| Q18 | Agent factory starting roster | WS8 |
| Q19 | Live refactor cutover strategy | WS3 |
| Q20 | Fix Maverick-skips-follow-up now or in refactor? | WS9 |
| Q21 | Shared-responsibility boundaries per risk class | WS7 |
| Q22 | How many parallel Claude instances is realistic? | WS8 |
Full list: ...plan.md#4-open-questions
8. Dictation Decodes (confirm when convenient)
- "MasterGard" → MasterCard ?
- "AAP" → AEP (Adobe Experience Platform) ? Or AAM?
- "AP market oh" → AEP, Marketo ?
- "Alina", "Bruna" → Elena, Bruno ? (per agent roster)
- "Leah central" → Algolia Central ✓ (confirmed contextually)
- "content concentrates" → "content concentrations" / "content silos" / "content sources" ?
- "three slider or two slider" → 3-slide / 2-slide pitch decks ?
9. Paused Work
- Pipeline audit Phase 3 —
rc2-algolia/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-16-pipeline-audit-and-cleanup.md. Browser trace capture paused. Folds under WS3 + WS9 going forward.
10. Cross-References
- Live scratch (verbatim):
rc3-phoenix/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-22-messaging-positioning-pivot-scratchpad.md - Live structured plan (§1–§18):
rc3-phoenix/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-22-messaging-positioning-pivot.md - Paused pipeline audit plan:
rc3-phoenix/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-04-16-pipeline-audit-and-cleanup.md - Project TODO:
Projects/Algolia-Central/TODO.md
11. Vault Update Protocol (for this file)
- Frequency: After each major capture checkpoint in the plan doc, or when Arijit confirms a new directional commitment.
- Content rule: directional commitments + research gate + workstream roster + critical open questions only. No scratch, no raw dumps — those live in the repo.
- Update trigger phrases: "commit this", "lock it in", "add to vault", or scribe-surfaced at end of session with Arijit's ack.