Calculate TAM, SAM, and SOM with explicit assumptions, methods, and caveats. Use when sizing a market for a product idea, business case, or executive review.
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Slash command/tam-sam-som-calculator
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Calculate TAM, SAM, and SOM with explicit assumptions, methods, and caveats. Use when sizing a market for a product idea, business case, or executive review.
---name: tam-sam-som-calculator
argument-hint: "[product idea] [market constraints]"
description: Calculate TAM, SAM, and SOM with explicit assumptions, methods, and caveats. Use when sizing a market for a product idea, business case, or executive review.
intent: >-
Guide product managers through calculating Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Available Market (SAM), and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) for a product idea by asking adaptive, contextually relevant questions. Use this to build defensible market size estimates backed by real-world citations, economic projections, and population data—essential for pitching to investors, securing budget, or validating product-market fit.
type: interactive
---## Purpose
Guide product managers through calculating Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Available Market (SAM), and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) for a product idea by asking adaptive, contextually relevant questions. Use this to build defensible market size estimates backed by real-world citations, economic projections, and population data—essential for pitching to investors, securing budget, or validating product-market fit.
This is not a back-of-napkin guess—it's a structured, citation-backed analysis that withstands scrutiny.
## Input
**Works best with:** The product or idea being sized, and any market constraints you already know (geography, vertical, customer type).
**Also useful:** Pricing assumptions, comparable companies, and the audience for the numbers (investors, execs, business case).
Anything supplied with the invocation itself — text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended `ARGUMENTS:` line — counts as answers already given. Use it and skip whatever it covers; don't re-ask.
**Arriving empty-handed? That works too.** The calculator opens by asking what you're sizing and for whom, then works through method and assumptions.
**Three entry modes** — pick whichever matches where your evidence lives:
1. **Bring your own numbers** — you have population and ARPU figures; jump to the math (the helper script makes this deterministic)
2. **Guided interview** — up to 4 adaptive questions build the inputs with you (the default flow below)
3. **Autonomous research** — the agent builds a bottom-up, citation-backed estimate from government statistics and filings while you review the evidence (see *Mode 3* in Application)
**Example invocation:** `Size the market: AI scheduling assistant for independent dental practices, US only, $99/mo price point.` — or for research mode: `Research-mode market sizing: field-service dispatch software, DACH region; I have no numbers yet.`
## Key Concepts
### TAM/SAM/SOM Framework
The three-tier market sizing model:
**Total Addressable Market (TAM):**
- The total market demand for a product or service
- "If we captured 100% of the market, what's the revenue?"
- Broadest possible market (no constraints)
**Serviceable Available Market (SAM):**
- The segment of TAM your company can realistically target
- Narrowed by geography, firmographics, demographics, or product constraints
- "Who can we actually reach with our product?"
**Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM):**
- The portion of SAM you can realistically capture
- Accounts for competition, market constraints, go-to-market capacity
- "What can we capture in the next 1-3 years?"
### Why This Works
- **Top-down validation:** TAM → SAM → SOM ensures estimates are grounded in reality
- **Investor-friendly:** Standard framework VCs and execs understand
- **Citation-backed:** Real data sources (Census, Statista, World Bank) add credibility
- **Adaptive:** Questions adjust based on context (B2B vs. B2C, US vs. global, etc.)
### Anti-Patterns (What This Is NOT)
- **Not a single-number guess:** "The market is $10B" without supporting data
- progress labels (for example, Context Qx/8 and Scoring Qx/5)
- interruption handling and pause/resume behavior
- numbered recommendations at decision points
- quick-select numbered response options for regular questions (include `Other (specify)` when useful)
This file defines the domain-specific assessment content. If there is a conflict, follow this file's domain logic.
## Application
Use `template.md` for the full fill-in structure.
This interactive skill asks **up to 4 adaptive questions**, offering **enumerated context-aware options** at each step. The agent adapts questions based on previous responses.
---
### Step 0: Gather Context (Before Questions)
**Agent suggests:**
Before we begin, it's helpful to have product context. If available, please share:
**For Your Own Product:**
- Website copy (homepage, product pages, value prop statements)
- Marketing emails or landing pages
- Product descriptions or positioning statements
- Case studies or customer testimonials
- Sales deck or pitch materials
**If You Don't Have a Product Yet:**
- Find a similar or adjacent product (competitor or analog)
- Copy their website homepage, product description, or landing page
- We'll use this as a reference point for market sizing
**You can paste this content directly, or we can proceed with a brief description.**
**Why this helps:**
- Marketing materials already contain target audience, pain points, and value props
- Analyzing real content (yours or competitors') grounds the analysis in reality
- You can benchmark against similar products' market positioning
---
### Optional Helper Script (Deterministic Math)
If you already have population and ARPU numbers (or a TAM estimate), you can run a deterministic helper to compute TAM/SAM/SOM and generate a Markdown table. This script does **not** fetch data or write files.
