competitive-analysis

# Competitive Analysis ## Purpose Understand what competitors actually do, as opposed to what they say, and turn that into a decision. A feature-comparison table is not an analysis; it is a table. ## When to Use - Entering a market or evaluating a new segment. - Positioning or repositioning a product. - Pricing decisions. - Responding to a competitor's move. ## Capabilities - Evidence gathering: product, pricing, positioning, customers. - Positioning-map construction. - Pricing and packaging analysis. - Identifying real differentiation versus claimed differentiation. - Turning findings into a decision. ## Inputs - The competitors, including the non-obvious ones (the spreadsheet, the incumbent process, doing nothing). - Your own product and position, honestly assessed. - The decision this analysis informs. ## Outputs - What each competitor actually offers and to whom. - Where the market is crowded and where it is not. - A recommendation that changes something. ## Workflow 1. **Define the competitive set honestly** — Including the substitutes. For most B2B products, the largest competitor is a spreadsheet and the status quo, and they are usually left off the list. 2. **Gather evidence, not marketing** — Sign up. Use the product. Read the documentation and the changelog — the changelog tells you what they actually build, as opposed to what they advertise. Read the reviews, especially the three-star ones, which are the honest ones. 3. **Map the positioning** — Two axe...