brainstorming
brainstorming
You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, modifying behavior, or planning anything new, in software or out of it (a talk, a business, a renovation).
linkedin-engagement-analyticsSegments who reacted to and commented on a post from a CSV or JSON export, and says whether it reached the intended audience. Use when reviewing a post's engagers, checking audience fit, or building a baseline.
Independent GitHub snapshot · Automated classification · Original documentation governs
A post gets two hundred reactions and the author concludes it worked. Nobody checks who the two hundred were. Often a third are colleagues, a third are recruiters and vendors, and the people the post was written for are a handful. The next post is modelled on the "successful" one, and the account drifts toward whatever earns the most reactions from the widest crowd, away from the readers it was meant to reach.
This skill answers a narrower question than "how did it do": of the people who responded, what share were the people it was for, and is that better or worse than this author's own recent posts? It classifies each engager's headline into a seniority band and a function, sets aside colleagues, compares the mix with a target audience written beforehand, and states the result with an interval so that noise is not reported as a change. It works offline, from an export the user supplies. It does not collect engagement data, log in to anything, or call any service.
Personal data. An export contains real people's names, job titles and
employers. Keep it local, remove columns the analysis does not need, report
segments and never individuals, add nothing about anyone from another source,
and delete the file once the readout is written. The scripts print aggregates
only. The agent does not produce contact lists, per-person notes or lookups
from an export, whoever asks. Full rules: references/data-handling.md.
Scope boundary. This skill describes the audience of a post after the
fact. It does not write or polish posts (linkedin-post-writer,
linkedin-humanizer), assess opening lines (linkedin-hook-analyzer), or
write comments and replies (linkedin-comment-writer,
linkedin-reply-manager). It does not follow conversations over time
(linkedin-thread-tracker), plan or reuse content (linkedin-content-planner,
linkedin-content-repurposer), or interview for stories
(linkedin-story-interviewer). Profiles are linkedin-profile-optimizer;
team programmes and their measurement are linkedin-employee-advocacy. Each
is independent of this one.
references/segmentation-method.md §2 lists accepted column names)Before analysing, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume:
Stop rule: ask only the 2-3 that most change the output. If the user says "just draft it," proceed and list your assumptions at the top of the artifact.
assets/target_audience_template.json and describe the intended
reader. Check the band and function names with --list-rules.python3 tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/scripts/engager_segmenter.py \
--input tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/assets/sample_engagers.csv \
--target tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/assets/sample_target_audience.json
baseline in the target file
and in the baseline log of assets/post_readout_template.md.python3 tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/scripts/engager_segmenter.py \
--input tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/assets/sample_engagers_earlier_post.json \
tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/assets/sample_engagers.csv \
--target tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/assets/sample_target_audience.json \
--format json
references/segmentation-method.md §11).assets/post_readout_template.md. Verify that no cell describes a
single person and that the wording of the verdict matches where the
baseline sits relative to the interval.--fail-on-miss as a quality gate in a content review:
it exits 1 only when the sample is adequate and the core share is below
the goal (or the baseline if no goal is set).python3 tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/scripts/segment_rules.py \
--classify "Head of Developer Experience at Example Energy"
python3 tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/scripts/engager_segmenter.py \
--input tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/assets/sample_engagers.csv \
--target tools/linkedin/linkedin-engagement-analytics/assets/sample_target_audience.json \
--min-sample 40 --fail-on-miss
| Where your baseline or goal sits | Say | Do |
|---|---|---|
| Below the whole interval | [RECOMMENDED] "Above our baseline" | Note the subject and framing; repeat once before concluding |
| Inside the interval | [RECOMMENDED] "In line with our baseline" | Report no change, in either direction |
| Above the whole interval | [RECOMMENDED] "Below our baseline" | Look at the adjacent and off groups to see who came instead |
| Sample under the minimum | "Too few to judge" | Describe counts; pool with other posts on the subject |
| No baseline or goal | "First baseline point" | Record it; judge nothing yet |
| Pattern | Likely reading | Next post |
|---|---|---|
| High volume, low core share, many off | The subject is broad; it travelled beyond the intended reader | Narrow the subject to a problem only the target has |
| Large adjacent group: right function, lower seniority | Practitioners found it useful | Decide whether they are in fact the audience; they often forward upward |
| Large adjacent group: right seniority, other functions | It read as general leadership content | Add the specifics of your field |
| Internal share above a third | The post mostly reached colleagues | Fewer company announcements; more that stands alone for an outsider |
| Core share higher among commenters than reaction-only | The target had something to say | [EXPERIMENTAL] Try ending on a question for that reader and compare over several posts |
| Many sales and recruiting titles | Vendors treat the comment section as a lead source | Expect it; exclude nothing, but do not count it as reach |
| Comparison | Verdict |
|---|---|
| This post against your own trailing baseline | [PROVEN] The only comparison that controls for your audience, sector and account size |
| This post against a goal you set from your baseline | [RECOMMENDED] |
| Subject A against subject B, several posts each | [RECOMMENDED] |
| Your figures against published industry benchmarks | No. Different accounts, sectors and definitions; not comparable |
| One colleague's figures against another's | No. Audience differences swamp everything else |
| Request | Answer |
|---|---|
| Segment the audience and compare with a target | Yes |
| Count engagers from named organisations | Yes, as a count |
| List the directors who reacted | No. Per-person output is outside this skill |
| Look up the people with unclear headlines | No. No enrichment |
| Draft messages to the engagers | No. Different purpose from the one the data serves here |
| Analyse a competitor's post | No. Own posts only |
Mistake: A post with the highest reaction count of the quarter is declared the model for future posts. Why it happens: The count is on the post, costs nothing to read, and bigger feels better. Instead: Segment the engagers. In the sample export an eighth of engagers are colleagues and about a quarter of the classified outsiders are off target; the figure that matters is the core share and its interval, read against the author's own baseline.
Mistake: The author looks through who engaged, then defines the target audience as roughly those people. Why it happens: The target file is filled in at analysis time, when the names are already on screen. Instead: Write the target when the post is drafted, or at the latest before the export is opened. Record the intent in one sentence. A target that cannot be missed measures nothing.
Mistake: The spreadsheet gains columns for "fit score", "contacted" and "notes", and gets shared with sales.
Why it happens: The names are right there, each one looks like an opportunity, and the step from analysis to outreach feels small.
Instead: Keep the purpose to audience analysis. The scripts print no names for this reason. Answer people who comment or message, as anyone would; do not build a file on people who clicked a reaction. references/data-handling.md §3 sets the line.
Mistake: Half the headlines are slogans, so someone looks each person up to fill in their role and company. Why it happens: Low coverage looks like a data-quality problem with an obvious manual fix. Instead: Report coverage as it is. Extend the patterns for recurring titles, add a company column if the source already has one, and otherwise accept that the mix describes the classifiable part.
Mistake: "Core share rose from 21% to 28%" goes into a monthly update on the strength of one post with thirty-five engagers. Why it happens: Two numbers invite a subtraction, and a rise is welcome news. Instead: Read the interval. If the baseline sits inside it, the correct statement is "in line with our baseline". Wait for a second post in the same direction, or pool posts on the subject.
Mistake: The readout says the post was "above the industry average engagement rate". Why it happens: A sponsor asks whether the result is good, and a published figure offers an easy answer. Instead: Compare with the author's own trailing history, and say so. Published figures blend accounts unlike yours and rarely define their terms; this skill ships none.
Tools overview and reference documentation for this skill:
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
scripts/engager_segmenter.py | Reads one or more CSV or JSON exports, merges duplicates, sets aside colleagues, segments by seniority, function and company, and judges core share against the user's goal and baseline with a Wilson interval; aggregate output only; --fail-on-miss turns it into a gate |
scripts/segment_rules.py | Ordered seniority and function patterns, headline splitting, the fit rule, target validation and the interval calculation; --list-rules prints the patterns, --classify tests one headline |
references/metrics-layers.md | The four measurement layers, what an export can and cannot show, definitions and formulas, building a trailing baseline, reading intervals, small samples |
references/segmentation-method.md | Export sources and format, cleaning, headline parsing, bands and functions, writing a target, fit levels, extending patterns, known weaknesses |
references/data-handling.md | Purpose limits, minimisation, local storage, segments-not-dossiers, no enrichment, retention, sharing, untrusted text, rules for an agent |
assets/sample_engagers.csv | Invented export of 58 rows with duplicates, colleagues, slogans and a blank headline |
assets/sample_engagers_earlier_post.json | Smaller invented export in JSON form, for pooling into a baseline |
assets/sample_target_audience.json | Target audience, own-company names, goal and baseline for the sample |
assets/target_audience_template.json | Blank target audience file |
assets/post_readout_template.md | One-page readout and baseline log that identifies no one |