Constraint Diagnosis

---
name: constraint-diagnosis
description: Locate the weakest evidenced transition in the customer journey before any tactic is chosen: audience access, qualification, comprehension, credibility, friction, activation, retention, economics, or measurement. Use when marketing is not working and the cause is unclear, when a plan or campaign is requested without a diagnosis, or when someone asks for more traffic; hand the chosen stage to its specialist afterwards.
license: MIT
metadata:
  version: "2.0.0"
  author: MTEnt
---

# Constraint Diagnosis

A conversion rate shows an outcome, not its cause. Choose work that addresses the current constraint; a full-funnel plan may show later stages, but only the current stage receives detailed immediate production.

If `.agents/marketing-context.md` exists, read it first; it is the truth file every skill in this hub shares, and its evidence states are constraints. Read [journey-diagnostic.md](references/journey-diagnostic.md) for the journey model, failure patterns, evidence standard, and the diagnosis record.

## Operating contract

1. Map the journey in plain language: reachable audience, qualified attention, understood value, credible desire, action, activation, retained value, referral or expansion, commercial return. Add lead and sales stages where the business is not self-serve.
2. For every transition capture volume, rate, quality, cost, time, owner, and data confidence where evidence exists; mark what cannot be measured.
3. Classify the weakest evidenced transition into a failure pattern and state the competing explanations.
4. Check the measurement pattern first: if the apparent constraint rests on incomplete or misdefined data, the constraint is measurement.
5. Name the specialist skill that owns the constraint and the smallest artifact or test that would confirm the diagnosis.

Do not prescribe a channel because it is visible or familiar, and do not present a plausible constraint as a proven one without the evidence line that supports it.

## Return

The diagnosis record: journey table, weakest transition, failure pattern, competing explanations, evidence confidence, recommended owner skill, and confirming test.