Competitive Intelligence Framework

Competitor Analysis

You are a **senior product strategist** conducting competitive market research. Perform a comprehensive competitor analysis for a startup in **[Insert industry or problem area]** that helps users **[Insert core feature or benefit]**.

---

## Analysis Inputs

| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| **Our product concept** | {{product_concept}} |
| **Target market** | {{target_market}} |
| **Known competitors** | {{known_competitors}} (add any you discover) |

---

## Deliverables

### 1. Competitor Profiles (Top 5)
For each competitor, complete this profile:

| Dimension | Details |
|---|---|
| **Company & Product** | Name, founding year, funding stage, employee count |
| **Unique Value Proposition** | Core pitch in one sentence |
| **Pricing Model** | Free / freemium / paid tiers with specific price points |
| **Target Audience** | Primary ICP and market segment |
| **Key Strengths** | 2-3 genuine competitive advantages |
| **Key Weaknesses** | 2-3 vulnerabilities we could exploit |
| **Distribution Strategy** | How they acquire users (PLG, sales-led, partnerships, content) |
| **Recent Moves** | Last 6 months: product launches, pivots, funding rounds, key hires |

### 2. Feature Comparison Matrix
Score each capability on a 4-point scale:

| Feature / Capability | Our Product | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C | Competitor D | Competitor E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Core feature 1] | -- | strong / adequate / weak / missing | | | | |
| [Core feature 2] | -- | | | | | |
| [Differentiator 1] | -- | | | | | |
| Pricing flexibility | -- | | | | | |
| Developer experience / API | -- | | | | | |
| Customer support quality | -- | | | | | |

### 3. Competitive Positioning Map
Create a 2x2 matrix using the two most strategically relevant dimensions for our market. Common axis pairs:
- Price vs. feature depth
- SMB vs. enterprise focus
- Self-serve vs. sales-led
- Horizontal vs. vertical specialization

Plot all competitors and **explicitly identify the white space** where our product can win.

### 4. Threat Assessment

| Competitor | Threat Level (High/Med/Low) | Primary Threat Vector | Our Defensive Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor A | | | |
| Competitor B | | | |
| Competitor C | | | |

### 5. Strategic Recommendations

#### Market Trends (next 12-18 months)
- 3 key trends that will reshape the competitive landscape

#### Moat Analysis
- What competitive moat can we build that is **hardest to replicate**?
- Rank moat types for our market: network effects > data > switching costs > brand > IP

#### Top 3 Differentiation Actions
For each recommendation:
1. **What:** Specific action to take
2. **Why:** Which competitive gap it exploits
3. **Timeline:** When to execute (now / next quarter / 6+ months)
4. **Expected impact:** How it shifts our positioning

---

**Format:** Present findings in a leadership-ready format with executive summary (5 bullet points max) at the top.

Conduct a competitive UX teardown

You are a UX analyst running a teardown of {{competitor_product}}'s {{specific_flow_or_feature}}. Our equivalent: {{our_flow}}.

## Step 1 — Job reconstruction
From user perspective, what job is this flow doing?
- Functional job
- Emotional job
- Social job

## Step 2 — Information architecture
- How is content organized (hierarchy, grouping)?
- Navigation structure (tabs, menus, contextual actions)?
- Primary action vs. secondary actions?
- Scale signal (does it handle 10 items the same as 1000)?

## Step 3 — Friction audit
For each step:
- Cognitive load (decision points, information density)
- Physical load (clicks, keystrokes)
- Wait time (loading, rendering)
- Error recovery

## Step 4 — Differentiation map
Compare their approach to ours:
| Dimension | Them | Us | Who wins | Why |
|-----------|------|----|---------|-----|

## Step 5 — Response options
Rank:
- Ignore (their approach is worse or they're not a real threat)
- Close the gap (match on 1-2 critical axes)
- Leapfrog (ship something structurally better)
- Differentiate (lean into our axes they can't easily replicate)

## Output
1. Job reconstruction
2. Friction comparison
3. Differentiation map
4. Recommended response with rationale
5. The one thing they're doing we should steal outright — and the one thing we explicitly won't copy

Map your product's competitive positioning on a Kiviat chart

You are a competitive analyst building a Kiviat positioning chart for {{product_name}} vs. {{primary_competitor}} and {{secondary_competitor}}. Target buyer persona: {{buyer_persona}}.

## Step 1 — Pick 6-8 axes buyers actually decide on
Rules: each axis must (1) appear in buyer evaluation language, (2) be scoreable 1-5 with evidence, (3) allow meaningful differentiation. Reject vanity axes like "innovation" or "ease of use" unless operationalized.

## Step 2 — Score with evidence
| Axis | Us (1-5) | {{primary_competitor}} | {{secondary_competitor}} | Evidence source |
|------|----------|-------------|-------------|-----------------|
| ... | | | | G2/buyer call/benchmark test |

## Step 3 — Shape analysis
1. Where we are spike-shaped (1-2 axes >4, others ~2-3)
2. Where we are flat (avg 3 across all axes)
3. The one axis where the competitor has a spike we cannot match — and whether to reposition or neutralize

## Step 4 — Positioning narrative
Draft a 100-word positioning statement for {{buyer_persona}} that leads with the spike, names the one honest weakness, and anchors on the "why now" decision trigger.

## Output
1. Filled axes with evidence
2. Spider chart description (which axes spike for us vs competitors)
3. Positioning paragraph
4. The one axis to invest in next quarter and the cost/outcome rationale

Design a moat analysis for your product's defensibility

You are a product strategist helping me write a moat analysis for {{product_name}}. Our stage: {{stage_and_scale}}. Competitor we are most worried about: {{competitor}}.

## Seven moat archetypes — score each 0-3
| Archetype | Definition | Our score (0-3) | Evidence | Gap vs competitor |
|-----------|-----------|-----------------|----------|-------------------|
| Scale economics | Unit costs drop as we grow | | | |
| Network effects | Value grows with users | | | |
| Switching costs | Customers lose data/workflow on leaving | | | |
| Brand | Buyers default to us even at parity | | | |
| Regulatory / licensing | Legal barrier to entry | | | |
| Embedded data / ML loop | Data we have, they can't replicate | | | |
| Proprietary tech / IP | Algorithm/patent advantage | | | |

## Output
1. Filled-in table with evidence (not assertions)
2. Top 2 moats to invest in (and what we'd stop doing to fund them)
3. The one moat a competitor is closest to replicating and the 90-day shore-up plan
4. The narrative we use with the board: 1 paragraph, no more than 120 words

Be specific. "Our brand is strong" is not evidence — cite NPS, unaided recall, or customer logo retention.

AI Competitive Monitoring Report

You are a competitive intelligence analyst for a product team. Generate a comprehensive competitive monitoring report.

## My Product
- **Product name:** {{product_name}}
- **Category:** {{product_category}}
- **Key competitors:** {{competitor_1, competitor_2, competitor_3}}
- **Reporting period:** {{last_week | last_month | last_quarter}}

## Research & Report

### 1. Competitor Activity Summary
| Competitor | Recent Launches | Pricing Changes | Hiring Signals | Funding/M&A |
|-----------|----------------|-----------------|----------------|-------------|
| {{competitor_1}} | | | | |
| {{competitor_2}} | | | | |
| {{competitor_3}} | | | | |

### 2. Feature Gap Analysis (Updated)
| Feature | Us | Comp 1 | Comp 2 | Comp 3 | Priority |
|---------|-----|--------|--------|--------|----------|
| | ✓/✗/Partial | | | | |

### 3. Threat Assessment
| Threat | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|--------|-----------|--------|------------|
| | High/Med/Low | | |

### 4. Opportunity Signals
[New gaps or weaknesses in competitors we can exploit]

### 5. Key Takeaways for Product Roadmap
1. [How should this intel change our priorities?]
2. [What should we accelerate?]
3. [What new threat should we monitor?]