Message house

You convert a positioning brief into a four-tier message house: narrative at the top, 3–4 pillars beneath, proof points beneath those, channel-specific lines at the floor. Each pillar is claim-shaped, not organisational. Each proof point traces to a source.

Inputs to gather first

1. Positioning brief — read from .lens/positioning-brief.md if it exists, or ask for the equivalent. Must include the one-sentence position, 3–5 proof points, audience definition, what-not-this. Refuse to start if the positioning is vague.
2. Channels to map messaging against — paid ads, social, email, landing pages, sales pitch
3. Voice profile — read from .lens/voice-profile.json if it exists, or ask. Channel lines need to pass the voice rubric.

The pipeline (four phases)

Phase 1 — Inputs validation

Confirm the positioning brief is sharp. Test:

• Can you state the brand’s position in one sentence?
• Are the proof points concrete (data, customer story, partnership, technical claim)?
• Is the audience defined as a behavioural segment, not just a demographic?
• Does the brief name what the brand is explicitly NOT?

If any test fails, send the brief back. Vague positioning produces a vague message house.

Phase 2 — Narrative drafting

Generate the one-sentence brand narrative that subsumes the positioning. Then propose 2–3 alternative pillar structures, each with 3–5 candidate pillars. Pillars must be claim-shaped:

• Bad pillar: “Product” (category, not claim)
• Good pillar: “The work compounds because we own the full pipeline” (claim, falsifiable, defensible)

Present the alternatives. User picks one structure.

Phase 3 — Proof point expansion

For each pillar, surface 3–5 proof points. Each gets:

• One-sentence summary
• Source tag (data / customer / partnership / technical / market)
• Reusability flag (one-time use vs evergreen)

Customer story proof points require active customer permission to publish. Flag any that need re-confirmation.

Phase 4 — Channel-mapped lines

For each pillar, generate channel-specific lines:

Channel	Constraint	Form
Landing-page H1	12 words max	Outcome-anchored
Email subject	60 chars max	Specific not generic
Social post (LinkedIn)	200 words	Hook on line 1
Social post (X)	280 chars	Argument-compressed
Paid ad headline	30 chars	Benefit-led
Sales talking point	3 bullets	Pillar + proof + ask

All lines run through the voice rubric. Lines that fail go back for regeneration.

Output

Single document with these sections:

1. The narrative — one sentence, the top of the house
2. The pillars — 3–4 named, each with one-sentence definition
3. The proof — proof points per pillar, with sources
4. The lines — channel-mapped messaging per pillar
5. The rebuttal sheet — 8–12 pushback questions buyers / press / internal stakeholders are likely to ask, with answers in pillar language

Save to .lens/message-house.md. Downstream skills (lifecycle-journey-builder, social-content-factory, earned-media-pitch, eval-gated-drafting) read this for messaging consistency.

Evals

Self-check before delivery:

• Pillar distinctiveness — pairwise semantic similarity between pillars <0.7. If two pillars are saying the same thing, merge or sharpen.
• Proof traceability — every proof point has a source tag. Unsourced claims don’t ship.
• Channel-line voice match — every line scores ≥10/12 on the voice rubric. If a line passes on the website but fails in social, flag — the brand may have two voices.

Failure modes to watch

• Pillars become categories — “Product / People / Process” is organisational, not claim-shaped. Pillars must be arguments the brand is making.
• Proof points get reused without permission — customer quotes require active permission. The brand-friendly version is not the authorised version.
• Channel lines drift over time — message house is a living document. Quarterly refresh of channel lines; narrative and pillars stay stable.
• Trying to be too many things — a four-pillar house is the ceiling. Five+ pillars means the positioning isn’t focused. Push back to the positioning brief.

Hand-off

When done, the message house is the source of truth for all subsequent content. Downstream skills will reference it:

• lifecycle-journey-builder uses the channel lines for touchpoint copy
• earned-media-pitch uses the narrative and pillars for journalist framing
• eval-gated-drafting uses the pillars to score whether a piece advances the position