| name | competitor-analysis |
|---|---|
| description | AI-agnostic research workflow for mapping competitors, market tiers, positioning, strengths, weaknesses, threats, and strategic opportunities. Use when an assistant or agent needs to create, improve, audit, or structure competitor analysis research; turn rough notes, interviews, market data, transcripts, or source material into a clear research artifact; identify evidence gaps, assumptions, and next research steps. |
Use this skill to produce a competitive analysis that maps competitors, market tiers, positioning, strengths, weaknesses, threats, and strategic opportunities. The workflow is assistant-agnostic and works with any model, agent, browser, research tool, note system, spreadsheet, or manual process available in the current environment.
For the source template this skill was derived from, read references/source-template.md when the user asks for the original template wording, exact section order, or a template-faithful output.
- Apply this workflow with any assistant, agent, browser, research database, note system, spreadsheet, or manual research process available in the current environment.
- Treat named tools, example documents, or source links in references as replaceable examples, not dependencies.
- When live research tools are available and the question depends on current facts, market data, pricing, competitors, or demographic statistics, verify against current reputable sources and cite them.
- If live research tools are unavailable, work from the user's supplied material, mark evidence gaps clearly, and avoid inventing facts or market numbers.
- Preserve the user's requested format unless it would hide assumptions, uncertainty, evidence quality, or strategic caveats.
- Define market boundaries.
- Clarify product category, customer segment, geography, price range, direct competitors, indirect substitutes, and strategic question.
- Build the competitor set.
- Gather competitors from user input, search, review sites, app stores, reports, customer interviews, and adjacent categories. Include substitutes when they shape buyer behavior.
- Tier the landscape.
- Group competitors by segment, business model, price, audience, channel, or job-to-be-done. Explain why each tier matters.
- Profile competitors.
- For each important competitor, capture offering, target customer, pricing, strengths, weaknesses, proof points, traction signals, and strategic implication.
- Compare and synthesize.
- Create comparison dimensions that matter to the customer, not just feature checklists. Identify whitespace, risks, and likely responses.
- Recommend strategy.
- Summarize market position, defendable differentiation, messaging angles, product gaps, and follow-up research.
Use these sections for a full research artifact unless the user asks for a shorter answer:
- Executive Summary
- Market Boundary and Assumptions
- Market Landscape Map
- Competitor Tiers
- Detailed Competitor Profiles
- Comparison Matrix
- Threat Assessment
- Strategic Opportunity
- Positioning Recommendations
- Evidence Gaps and Monitoring Plan
Before finalizing:
- Use current sources for pricing, positioning, product capabilities, and market claims.
- Separate direct competitors from substitutes and status quo alternatives.
- Do not over-index on feature parity; analyze customer choice criteria.
- Flag stale or weak competitor data.
- State how each competitor affects strategy, not just what they offer.
- Label unsupported claims as assumptions or hypotheses.
- Cite sources or name the source material when possible.
- Separate facts, interpretation, strategic implications, and recommendations.
- Include confidence and open questions when evidence is incomplete.
- Do not fabricate market numbers, quotes, customer attributes, competitor claims, or research findings.