{"id":"f3a443ca-3edd-4be2-804c-893cbba5bab3","shortId":"9Nmkxv","kind":"skill","title":"competitive-analysis","tagline":"Produce a Competitive Analysis Pack (alternatives map, landscape, battlecards, monitoring plan).","description":"# Competitive Analysis\n\n## Scope\n\n**Covers**\n- Mapping **competitive alternatives** (status quo, workarounds, analog/non-consumption, direct + indirect competitors)\n- Building a competitor landscape grounded in **customer decision criteria**\n- Turning analysis into **actionable artifacts**: positioning hypotheses, win themes, battlecards, and a monitoring plan\n\n**When to use**\n- “Do a competitive analysis / competitor landscape for our product.”\n- “Why are we losing deals to <competitor>?”\n- “What are the real alternatives if we didn’t exist?”\n- “Help us differentiate and position vs competitors.”\n- “Create sales battlecards and win/loss takeaways.”\n\n**When NOT to use**\n- You need market sizing / TAM/SAM/SOM as the primary output (different workflow).\n- You don’t know the target customer, core use case, or the decision this analysis should support (use `problem-definition` first).\n- You only need a quick list of competitors (no synthesis, no artifacts).\n- You’re seeking confidential or non-public competitor information (do not attempt).\n- You need to write positioning copy, messaging frameworks, or landing page text (use `positioning-messaging` after this skill provides differentiation hypotheses).\n- You need to set or change your pricing model based on competitive data (use `pricing-strategy`; feed it the comparison matrix from this skill).\n- You’re evaluating a specific technology vendor for adoption (use `evaluating-new-technology`).\n\n## Inputs\n\n**Minimum required**\n- Product + target customer segment + core use case (what job is being done)\n- The decision to support (e.g., positioning, sales enablement, roadmap bets, pricing, market entry)\n- 3–10 known competitors/alternatives (or “unknown—please map them”)\n- Any available evidence (links, win/loss notes, call transcripts, customer quotes, pricing pages, reviews)\n- Constraints: geography, ICP, price band, compliance/regulation (if relevant), time box\n\n**Missing-info strategy**\n- Ask up to 5 questions from [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md).\n- If answers aren’t available, proceed with explicit assumptions and label unknowns. Provide 2–3 plausible alternative scopes (narrow vs broad).\n\n## Outputs (deliverables)\n\nProduce a **Competitive Analysis Pack** in Markdown (in-chat; or as files if requested):\n\n1) **Context snapshot** (decision, ICP, use case, constraints, time box)\n2) **Competitive alternatives map** (direct/indirect/status quo/workarounds/analog)\n3) **Competitor landscape table** (top 5–10) with evidence links + confidence\n4) **Customer decision criteria** + comparison matrix (customer POV)\n5) **Differentiation & positioning hypotheses** (why win, why lose, proof points)\n6) **Win themes + loss risks** (objections, landmines, traps)\n7) **Battlecards** (3–5 priority competitors)\n8) **Monitoring plan** (signals, cadence, owners, update triggers)\n9) **Risks / Open questions / Next steps** (always included)\n\nTemplates: [references/TEMPLATES.md](references/TEMPLATES.md)\n\n## Workflow (8 steps)\n\n### 1) Intake + decision framing\n- **Inputs:** User context; [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md).\n- **Actions:** Confirm the decision, ICP, use case, geography, and time box. Define what “good” looks like (who will use this and for what).\n- **Outputs:** Context snapshot.\n- **Checks:** A stakeholder can answer: “What decision will this analysis change?”\n\n### 2) Map competitive alternatives (not just logos)\n- **Inputs:** Use case + customer job.\n- **Actions:** List what customers do *instead*: status quo, internal build, manual workaround, analog tools, agencies/outsourcing, and direct/indirect competitors. Identify the “true competitor” for the deal.\n- **Outputs:** Competitive alternatives map + short notes per alternative.\n- **Checks:** At least 1–2 non-obvious alternatives appear (workarounds / analog / non-consumption).\n\n### 3) Select the focus set + collect evidence (time-boxed)\n- **Inputs:** Alternatives map; available sources.\n- **Actions:** Pick 5–10 focus alternatives (by frequency/impact). Gather publicly available facts (positioning, features, pricing, distribution, target ICP) and internal learnings (win/loss, sales notes). Track confidence and unknowns.\n- **Outputs:** Evidence log + initial landscape table.\n- **Checks:** Each competitor row has at least 2 evidence points (link/quote/data) or is explicitly labeled “low confidence”.\n\n### 4) Build the comparison from the customer’s perspective\n- **Inputs:** Focus set + evidence.\n- **Actions:** Define 6–10 customer decision criteria (JTBD outcomes, constraints, trust, time-to-value, switching cost, price, ecosystem fit). Compare alternatives on criteria and surface “why they win”.\n- **Outputs:** Decision criteria list + comparison matrix.\n- **Checks:** Criteria are framed as customer outcomes/risks (not internal feature checklists).\n\n### 5) Derive differentiation + positioning hypotheses\n- **Inputs:** Matrix + wins/losses.\n- **Actions:** Write 2–3 positioning hypotheses: (a) who we’re for, (b) the value we deliver, (c) why we’re different vs the true alternative, (d) proof points, (e) tradeoffs/non-goals.\n- **Outputs:** Differentiation & positioning section.\n- **Checks:** Each hypothesis names the competitive alternative it’s positioning against.\n\n### 6) Translate into win themes + battlecards\n- **Inputs:** Positioning hypotheses + competitor notes.\n- **Actions:** Create 3–5 win themes and 3–5 loss risks. Produce battlecards for priority competitors (how to win, landmines, objection handling, traps to avoid).\n- **Outputs:** Win/loss section + battlecards.\n- **Checks:** Battlecards contain do/don’t talk tracks and are usable in a live sales call.\n\n### 7) Recommend actions (product, messaging, GTM)\n- **Inputs:** Findings.\n- **Actions:** Propose 5–10 actions: product bets, messaging changes, pricing/packaging, distribution, partnerships, and “stop doing” items. Tie each action to a win theme or loss risk.\n- **Outputs:** Recommendations list with rationale and owners (if known).\n- **Checks:** Each recommendation is specific enough to execute next week/month.\n\n### 8) Monitoring + quality gate + finalize\n- **Inputs:** Draft pack.\n- **Actions:** Define monitoring signals, cadence, and update triggers. Run [references/CHECKLISTS.md](references/CHECKLISTS.md) and score with [references/RUBRIC.md](references/RUBRIC.md). Add Risks/Open questions/Next steps.\n- **Outputs:** Final Competitive Analysis Pack.\n- **Checks:** Pack is shareable as-is; assumptions and confidence levels are explicit.\n\n## Quality gate (required)\n- Use [references/CHECKLISTS.md](references/CHECKLISTS.md) and [references/RUBRIC.md](references/RUBRIC.md).\n- Always include: **Risks**, **Open questions**, **Next steps**.\n\n## Examples\n\n**Example 1 (B2B SaaS):** “We keep losing deals to Competitor X. Build a competitive alternatives map and a battlecard for X.”  \nExpected: alternatives map (incl. status quo), decision criteria, X battlecard, win themes/loss risks, and a monitoring plan.\n\n**Example 2 (Consumer subscription):** “We’re repositioning for a new segment. Analyze alternatives and propose 2 positioning hypotheses.”  \nExpected: comparison matrix by customer criteria and two clear positioning options with proof points and tradeoffs.\n\n**Boundary example 1:** “List every competitor in our industry worldwide.”\nResponse: narrow scope (ICP, geography, category) and propose a focused set + monitoring plan; otherwise output becomes a low-signal directory of logos.\n\n**Boundary example 2:** “Write our positioning statement and messaging framework based on how we differ from competitors.”\nResponse: redirect to `positioning-messaging`. Offer to first run competitive analysis to produce differentiation hypotheses and proof points, then hand those off to the positioning/messaging skill.\n\n## Anti-patterns (common failure modes)\n\n1. **Logo wall without synthesis** -- Listing 20+ competitors with surface-level feature comparisons but no analysis of why customers actually choose them. The value is in customer decision criteria and win/loss patterns, not in the length of the competitor list.\n2. **Feature-checklist framing** -- Comparing competitors on internal feature names instead of customer outcomes and decision criteria. A customer does not choose based on “has SSO” but on “how quickly can I get my team onboarded securely.”\n3. **Ignoring the status quo** -- Treating only named software products as competitors while ignoring that the biggest “competitor” is often the customer's existing spreadsheet, manual process, or decision to do nothing.\n4. **Stale snapshot bias** -- Producing analysis as a one-time document with no monitoring plan or update triggers. Competitive landscapes shift; the pack must include signals to watch and a cadence for refresh.\n5. **Confidential data fishing** -- Attempting to include proprietary pricing, internal roadmaps, or NDA-covered information about competitors. All evidence must be from publicly available or user-provided sources with confidence labels.","tags":["competitive","analysis","lenny","skills","plus","liqiongyu","agent-skills","ai-agents","automation","claude","codex","prompt-engineering"],"capabilities":["skill","source-liqiongyu","skill-competitive-analysis","topic-agent-skills","topic-ai-agents","topic-automation","topic-claude","topic-codex","topic-prompt-engineering","topic-refoundai","topic-skillpack"],"categories":["lenny_skills_plus"],"synonyms":[],"warnings":[],"endpointUrl":"https://skills.sh/liqiongyu/lenny_skills_plus/competitive-analysis","protocol":"skill","transport":"skills-sh","auth":{"type":"none","details":{"cli":"npx skills add liqiongyu/lenny_skills_plus","source_repo":"https://github.com/liqiongyu/lenny_skills_plus","install_from":"skills.sh"}},"qualityScore":"0.474","qualityRationale":"deterministic score 0.47 from registry signals: · indexed on github topic:agent-skills · 49 github stars · SKILL.md body 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'analog/non-consumption':25 'analysi':3,7,16,39,58,122,314,451,830,995,1033,1133 'analyz':911 'answer':289,446 'anti':1012 'anti-pattern':1011 'appear':507 'aren':290 'artifact':42,141 'as-i':836 'ask':280 'assumpt':296,839 'attempt':154,1166 'avail':254,292,526,538,1186 'avoid':726 'b':657 'b2b':864 'band':270 'base':186,977,1081 'battlecard':12,47,89,380,696,714,730,732,880,892 'becom':959 'bet':240,760 'bias':1131 'biggest':1112 'boundari':934,967 'box':275,335,426,522 'broad':308 'build':29,474,580,873 'c':662 'cadenc':389,811,1159 'call':259,745 'case':117,225,332,422,462 'categori':949 'chang':182,452,762 'chat':320 'check':442,498,562,627,680,731,789,832 'checklist':637,1061 'choos':1038,1080 'clear':926 'collect':518 'common':1014 'compar':612,1063 'comparison':197,357,582,625,919,1030 'competit':2,6,15,20,57,188,313,337,455,491,685,829,875,994,1147 'competitive-analysi':1 'competitor':28,31,59,86,137,150,343,384,482,486,564,700,717,871,939,983,1024,1056,1064,1107,1113,1179 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'least':500,568 'length':1053 'level':842,1028 'like':431 'link':256,351 'link/quote/data':572 'list':135,466,624,782,937,1022,1057 'live':743 'log':558 'logo':459,966,1018 'look':430 'lose':67,368,868 'loss':374,711,778 'low':577,962 'low-sign':961 'manual':475,1121 'map':10,19,251,339,454,493,525,877,885 'markdown':317 'market':99,242 'matrix':198,358,626,644,920 'messag':161,170,750,761,975,989 'minimum':217 'miss':277 'missing-info':276 'mode':1016 'model':185 'monitor':13,50,386,800,809,898,955,1142 'must':1152,1182 'name':683,1068,1103 'narrow':306,945 'nda':1175 'nda-cov':1174 'need':98,132,156,178 'new':214,909 'next':397,797,859 'non':148,504,511 'non-consumpt':510 'non-obvi':503 'non-publ':147 'note':258,495,551,701 'noth':1127 'object':376,722 'obvious':505 'offer':990 'often':1115 'onboard':1094 'one':1137 'one-tim':1136 'open':395,857 'option':928 'otherwis':957 'outcom':600,1072 'outcomes/risks':633 'output':105,309,439,490,556,621,676,727,780,827,958 'owner':390,786 'pack':8,315,806,831,833,1151 'page':165,264 'partnership':765 'pattern':1013,1049 'per':496 'perspect':587 'pick':529 'plan':14,51,387,899,956,1143 'plausibl':303 'pleas':250 'point':370,571,673,931,1002 'posit':43,84,159,169,236,363,540,641,650,678,689,698,916,927,972,988 'positioning-messag':168,987 'positioning/messaging':1009 'pov':360 'price':184,192,241,263,269,542,609,1170 'pricing-strategi':191 'pricing/packaging':763 'primari':104 'prioriti':383,716 'problem':127 'problem-definit':126 'proceed':293 'process':1122 'produc':4,311,713,997,1132 'product':63,219,749,759,1105 'proof':369,672,930,1001 'propos':755,914,951 'proprietari':1169 'provid':174,300,1190 'public':149,537,1185 'qualiti':801,845 'question':284,396,858 'questions/next':825 'quick':134,1088 'quo':23,472,888,1100 'quo/workarounds/analog':341 'quot':262 'rational':784 're':143,203,655,665,905 'real':73 'recommend':747,781,791 'redirect':985 'references/checklists.md':816,817,849,850 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