competitor-landscape

Competitor Landscape

Usage

Use after analyzing 2+ competitors — you have individual profiles and need the comparative view. Also useful for preparing a board deck, investor update, or strategy doc that needs a market landscape section.

Process

Step 1: Gather Inputs

Ask the user for:

1. Your product info — name, key features, pricing, differentiators
2. Competitor data — for at least 2 competitors, provide for each:
   • Name and URL
   • Key features
   • Pricing (model, tiers, price points)
   • Target audience
   • Positioning (their headline/value prop)
   • Strengths and weaknesses
   • Social proof signals (customer count, notable logos, review scores)
3. Custom axes for positioning map (optional) — default: market presence vs. product breadth

If the user has previously run competitor-site-analysis or competitor-content-analysis, they can reference those outputs.

Step 2: Feature Comparison Matrix

Build a side-by-side feature comparison across all competitors and the user's product:

Feature / Capability	Your Product	Competitor A	Competitor B	Competitor C
[feature 1]	[status]	[status]	[status]	[status]
[feature 2]	[status]	[status]	[status]	[status]

Status values: Full / Partial / Missing / Unknown

Include:

• Core features that define the category (everyone should have these)
• Differentiating features (only some competitors have)
• Your unique features (only you have — highlight these)
• Features competitors have that you don't (gaps to assess)

Sort rows by strategic importance, not alphabetically.

Step 3: Pricing Comparison

Build a pricing comparison table:

Dimension	Your Product	Competitor A	Competitor B	Competitor C
Model
Free tier
Entry price
Mid-tier price
Enterprise
Value metric
Annual discount
Trial
Key upgrade trigger

Pricing signals to flag:

• Where you're significantly cheaper or more expensive than the market
• Competitors using per-seat pricing where value doesn't scale with headcount (vulnerability)
• Competitors with no free tier in a PLG market (acquisition barrier)
• Mismatches between pricing model and GTM motion

Step 4: Positioning Map

Plot all competitors + your product on a 2x2 positioning map.

Default axes: Market Presence (low → high) vs. Product Breadth (focused → broad)

Score each company 1-10 on both axes:

• Market presence — traffic volume, review count, brand recognition signals, funding stage
• Product breadth — number of features, integrations, use cases served

Alternative axis options (offer to the user):

• Customer satisfaction (from review scores) vs. Market share (from traffic)
• Price level (low → high) vs. Feature depth (basic → advanced)
• PLG friendliness (self-serve → sales-required) vs. Enterprise readiness (SMB → enterprise)

Present as a labeled quadrant:

                    High Market Presence
                          |
         Established      |      Market Leaders
         Niche Players    |
    ----------------------+----------------------
                          |
         Emerging         |      Growing
         Focused          |      Contenders
                          |
                    Low Market Presence

    Focused ←————— Product Breadth ——————→ Broad

Place each competitor and your product in the appropriate quadrant. Identify the gap: Where is there open space on the map? That's potential positioning territory.

Step 5: Aggregate SWOT

Synthesize across all competitors into a landscape-level view:

Strengths across competitors — what does the market generally do well? These are table stakes you must match.

Common weaknesses — what do multiple competitors struggle with? These are opportunities.

Industry opportunities — macro trends, technology shifts, or market gaps that no competitor has captured yet.

Industry threats — forces that affect everyone in this space (regulation, new entrants, platform risk, commoditization).

Step 6: Moat Landscape

Summarize the moat picture across all competitors:

Moat	Competitor A	Competitor B	Competitor C	You
Network effects
Switching costs
Scale economies
Brand recognition
Regulatory / IP
Distribution
Data advantage

Key insights:

• Moats that NO competitor has built = opportunity to build first-mover defensibility
• Moats that ALL competitors have = table stakes, not differentiators
• Your unique moats = lean into these in positioning

Step 7: Content Comparison (if data available)

If competitor data includes content strategy info, compare content approaches:

Content Type	Competitor A	Competitor B	Competitor C	You
Blog
Comparison pages
Guides / pillars
Glossary / programmatic
Templates / tools
Gated content

If no content analysis data exists, skip this section and note it.

Step 8: Strategic Recommendations

Synthesize everything into actionable recommendations:

Where you win — your clearest competitive advantages based on feature gaps, pricing position, moat differences, and competitor weaknesses. Be specific.

Where you're vulnerable — honest assessment of where competitors are ahead. What would you need to invest in to close the gap?

Market gaps — opportunities no one is serving well, informed by:

• Empty space on the positioning map
• Features no competitor offers
• Audience segments being ignored
• Pricing models no one has tried

Positioning recommendation — based on the full landscape, where should you position? What's your angle? What should you NOT compete on?

Messaging landmines — claims competitors make that you should avoid competing on directly (because they're stronger there) or because they're becoming commoditized.

Output Format

# Competitive Landscape: [Product Name]

**Date:** [current date]
**Competitors:** [list]

## Feature Comparison
[matrix from Step 2]

## Pricing Comparison
[table from Step 3]

## Positioning Map
[quadrant from Step 4]

## Aggregate SWOT
[landscape-level SWOT from Step 5]

## Moat Landscape
[moat comparison from Step 6]

## Content Comparison
[content type coverage from Step 7, if available]

## Strategic Recommendations

### Where You Win
[from Step 8]

### Where You're Vulnerable
[from Step 8]

### Market Gaps
[from Step 8]

### Positioning Recommendation
[from Step 8]

### Messaging Landmines
[from Step 8]

Rules

• Need at least 2 competitors for comparison. A landscape analysis with one competitor is just a profile.
• Never invent data — if information is missing for a competitor, note "data not available."
• Never present a positioning map without explaining why you chose the axes.
• Never make strategic recommendations without citing evidence from the data.
• If competitor data has inconsistent depth (one has full pricing, another doesn't), flag that comparison will be uneven.
• If the market appears highly fragmented (5+ direct competitors with no clear leader), note this.
• Be honest if the user's product appears to be in a weak position on the map — suggest what to improve.
• The positioning map is most valuable when you customize the axes to match your strategic question.