---
name: run-pestle-analysis
description: Use when a strategist needs to scan the macro environment before setting strategy or evaluating market entry. Triggers on "run a PESTLE", "I need to understand the macro environment", "political economic social analysis", "macro scan", "what external forces affect us". Produces a committed macro-environment artifact. Do NOT use as a substitute for current intelligence — PESTLE organizes and prioritizes information you supply; it does not generate market research.
---

# Skill: run-pestle-analysis

Produces a **macro-environment analysis** using the PESTLE framework — Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental dimensions. PESTLE is a structured scan; it surfaces which macro forces are most material to the strategic context and in what time horizon. See `references/agentbundle-layout.md` for artifact path.

## Output rendering

Table — When presenting several items that share the same fields, render a Markdown table. Cap at ~5 columns; beyond that, switch to a per-item detail list. Right-align numeric columns.

## When to invoke

1. **A scope is defined** — geography, industry, and time horizon must be named before the scan begins. A global PESTLE for an indeterminate horizon is not useful.
2. **You are upstream of a market or strategic decision** — PESTLE informs positioning, entry, and risk assessment; it is not an operational tool.
3. **No current PESTLE exists for this scope** — amend rather than duplicate.

## Procedure

1. **Establish scope.** Name the geography (country, region, or global), the industry, and the time horizon (near-term: 0–18 months; medium-term: 18 months–3 years; long-term: 3+ years). These anchors determine what is material for each dimension.
2. **Assess Political.** Government stability, policy direction, trade agreements, tariffs, political risk. Name at least one current policy or regulatory signal that affects this industry and geography.
3. **Assess Economic.** GDP trajectory, inflation, interest rates, consumer confidence, exchange rates, labor market tightness. Name at least one macroeconomic indicator that is currently moving and its directional impact.
4. **Assess Social.** Demographic shifts, consumer behavior trends, cultural values, education and workforce composition. Identify at least one social trend that creates a strategic opportunity or risk.
5. **Assess Technological.** Technology adoption curves, emerging platforms, automation, digital infrastructure, R&D investment trends. Name the technology that poses the greatest disruption risk or opportunity in the time horizon.
6. **Assess Legal.** Regulation, compliance requirements, IP environment, data protection laws, antitrust considerations. Flag any pending regulatory change that could alter the competitive landscape.
7. **Assess Environmental.** Climate regulation, ESG expectations, resource scarcity, supply-chain environmental risk, physical climate exposure. Rate materiality to the business model.
8. **Prioritize by impact and time horizon.** From the six dimensions, identify the top two or three forces by strategic materiality. For each, assign a time horizon tag (near-term / medium-term / long-term) and a directional impact (tailwind / headwind / neutral). These priorities feed into SWOT Opportunities/Threats and OKR cascade context.
9. **Resolve the artifact path** following `references/agentbundle-layout.md`. Surface the path, then commit `macro-environment.md` with frontmatter `type: macro-environment`.

## Anti-patterns

- **PESTLE as a forecast.** Each dimension describes observable forces, not predictions. Flag uncertainty rather than stating projections as fact.
- **Shallow dimension entries.** Each dimension needs at least one named, concrete signal — a law, a rate, a trend. "Social factors may affect us" is not an assessment.
- **Missing prioritization.** A PESTLE with six equally-weighted dimensions gives strategy nothing to act on. The step-8 prioritization is the deliverable, not the scan.