competitive-intelligence-brief

Competitive Intelligence Brief

This skill produces a structured, recurring CI brief. It tracks competitor movement — product, pricing, GTM, hiring, funding — and translates signals into strategic implications for your product decisions.

The key distinction: competitor-analysis is a one-time landscape snapshot. This skill is a recurring radar sweep.

Read the full file before producing anything.

---

Step 1 — Brief Configuration

On first use, gather:

1. Who are the 2–5 competitors to track? (Primary and secondary)
2. What's your product / company context? (So implications are relevant)
3. What cadence? Weekly, monthly, or ad-hoc
4. What signals matter most? (Pricing, product launches, hiring, funding, GTM moves, regulatory actions, or all of the above)
5. What's the output for? (Internal team, leadership, board, or personal reference)

Store these as the brief's standing configuration. On subsequent uses, reference them — don't re-ask.

---

Brief Structure

Produce the following sections in every CI brief. Sections with no new signals should say "No material changes this period" — never pad.

---

Section 1 — Period Snapshot

Brief period: [Start date] — [End date] Competitors tracked: [List] Signal sources: [Product pages, app stores, job boards, press, LinkedIn, earnings calls, pricing pages, social listening — note which were checked]

Period in one line: [The single most strategically important thing that happened in the competitive landscape this period]

---

Section 2 — Product and Feature Moves

For each competitor with new product activity:

[Competitor name]

What launched / changed: [Specific feature, product, or UX change] Where observed: [App store release notes / product blog / user reports] Target segment: [Who this appears aimed at] Strategic read: [What problem are they solving? What does this signal about their roadmap direction?] Our response: [Ignore / Monitor / Accelerate our equivalent / Reframe our positioning]

If no product changes: "No new product activity observed."

---

Section 3 — Pricing and Packaging Changes

For each competitor with pricing activity:

[Competitor name]

Change: [Specific pricing or packaging change — be precise, not vague] Direction: [Price increase / decrease / new tier / removed tier / bundle] Effective date: [If known] Strategic read: [Are they monetising more aggressively? Protecting market share? Expanding into a new segment?] Impact on us: [Does this create an opening, close one, or require us to re-evaluate our own pricing?]

If no pricing changes: "No pricing changes observed."

---

Section 4 — GTM and Marketing Moves

New campaigns, messaging shifts, channel expansions, partnership announcements, or geographic moves.

[Competitor name]

Move: [Specific GTM action] Channel: [Where observed — LinkedIn ads, TV, influencer, PR, events] Message shift: [If positioning changed — quote or paraphrase their new framing] Target: [New segment, geography, or use case they appear to be chasing] Strategic read: [What does this signal?]

---

Section 5 — Hiring Signals

Job postings are the most reliable forward indicator of competitor strategy. Scan for roles that signal strategic intent.

[Competitor name]

Roles posted: [Job titles, volume, location] Signal: [What does this hiring pattern indicate about their 6–12 month roadmap? E.g., 5 ML engineer roles → AI feature investment; 3 enterprise sales roles → upmarket move] Confidence: [High / Medium / Low based on volume and consistency]

---

Section 6 — Funding and Corporate Activity

New funding rounds, acquisitions, leadership changes, or restructures.

[Competitor name]

Event: [Funding round / acquisition / IPO filing / leadership change / restructure] Amount / details: [Specific if known] Strategic read: [What does this capital or change enable? What does it signal about their trajectory?] Timeline implication: [Does this accelerate their threat to us, or distract them?]

---

Section 7 — Customer Sentiment Signals

App store reviews, social media, community forums, and support tickets from competitor users that surface unmet needs or satisfaction drops.

[Competitor name]

Signal: [Theme from customer feedback — e.g., "Multiple G2 reviews cite poor mobile UX as a churn reason in last 30 days"] Volume: [How many data points, from where] Opportunity: [Does this signal a gap we can exploit in our positioning or roadmap?]

---

Section 8 — Strategic Implications

This is the highest-value section. Synthesise everything above into 3–5 actionable implications. Each must connect to a specific signal.

Format:

Implication [N]: [Short label] Signal: [Which competitor move triggers this] Strategic read: [What it means for your market position] Recommended action: [Specific — not "monitor" but "accelerate X by [date]" or "brief the sales team on Y counter-narrative by [date]"] Priority: High / Medium / Low Owner: [Role, if you want to assign — or leave blank]

---

Section 9 — Watch List for Next Period

What to track in the next brief that isn't ready to call yet.

Signal	Competitor	Why watching	Trigger to escalate
[Unconfirmed pricing change]	[Name]	[Rumoured in press]	[If confirmed]

---

Brief Format Options

Ask if not specified:

1. Full brief — all sections, suitable for leadership sharing
2. Quick scan — Sections 1, 2, 3, and 8 only — under 1 page
3. Slide outline — structured for a 5-minute competitive update in a leadership meeting
4. Slack-ready summary — 200 words max, top 3 moves and top implication

---

Frequency Guidance

Cadence	Best for	Focus
Weekly	Fast-moving markets (fintech, AI, consumer)	Product and pricing moves, hiring
Monthly	Stable markets or leadership updates	Strategic shifts, funding, GTM
Ad-hoc	Triggered by a specific event	Deep-dive on one competitor or one move

---

Quality Rules

Signal over noise. Not every competitor tweet is a strategic signal. Apply a filter: does this change what we build, price, sell, or say? If not, don't include it.

Primary sources over secondary. App store release notes, pricing pages, job boards, and earnings transcripts beat press coverage. Use web search where available.

Separate fact from inference. "Competitor X launched Feature Y" is a fact. "This signals they're going upmarket" is an inference — label it as such.

Implications must be actionable. "Competitor is growing" is not an implication. "Competitor's new enterprise tier undercuts our mid-market pricing by 30% — we should brief sales with a counter-narrative before their next outreach cycle" is.

Never pad. A "No material changes" section is more credible than a padded one. The reader notices.

---

Suggest Next Commands

After producing the brief:

• /competitive-battlecard — to turn a key competitor insight into a sales battlecard
• /positioning-ideas — if competitor moves suggest a re-positioning opportunity
• /stakeholder-update — to communicate the most important CI signals to leadership
• /pricing — if competitor pricing changes warrant a pricing review

---

Examples

Setup trigger: "Can you help me set up a monthly CI brief? I want to track Razorpay, PhonePe, and Paytm. I'm at a neobank and care most about product and pricing moves."

Recurring trigger: "Time for our weekly CI sweep — same competitors as last time."

Ad-hoc trigger: "Stripe just announced a new embedded finance product. Can you do a quick CI brief on what this means for us?"

Ambiguous trigger: "What are our competitors doing?" → Respond: "Happy to put together a CI brief. Which competitors should I focus on, and do you want a quick scan or a full brief? Also, what's your product context so I can frame the strategic implications correctly?"