dragoon0x competitive-analysis
competitive analysis exists to find gaps you can occupy, not to feel better about your current position.
the categories
direct competitors
same job, same audience. customers consider them an alternative to you.
adjacent competitors
overlapping job or overlapping audience but not both. customers may not consider them today, but could.
substitutes
different category that solves the same underlying job (e.g. for a meeting scheduling tool, the substitute is "doing it manually over email").
per competitor, capture
name: [company name]
category: [direct / adjacent / substitute]
positioning
the one sentence they lead with: [from homepage hero]
who it speaks to: [target audience]
audience
who their marketing speaks to (size of company, role, sophistication)
who their pricing implies they want
who their case studies feature
pricing
model: [subscription / usage / freemium / one-time]
tiers: [list with price points and core inclusions]
notable: [free tier limits, enterprise gating]
product
core capabilities: [3-5 bullets]
notable strengths: [what they do better than others]
notable gaps: [what they don't do well or at all]
things only they do: [list]
things they don't do that customers complain about: [list]
go-to-market
sales motion: [self-serve / sales-assisted / enterprise sales]
channel partners: [list]
notable integrations: [list]
team and traction (only if relevant and discoverable)
funding stage and amount
team size and key hires
publicly known customers
evidence sources: [where each claim above comes from]
positioning map
after the competitor table, build a 2x2 (or 3x3) with axes that matter for the decision the audience is making.
axes that often work:
- price (low / high)
- complexity (simple / powerful)
- audience (smb / enterprise)
- focus (broad platform / specialized tool)
place each competitor on the map. label gaps in the map. those gaps are the positioning opportunities.
gap analysis
gap 1: [specific underserved segment or job]
evidence: [why we believe this gap exists — customer interviews, support patterns, competitor complaints]
size: [rough sense of how many customers care]
defensibility: [why we could win here and not be copied immediately]
gap 2...
what to avoid
- listing features in a checklist as a substitute for positioning analysis
- assuming product detail is the basis of competition (it usually isn't)
- inventing customer concerns about competitors you can't cite
- ranking competitors as winners and losers (it's a map, not a ladder)
- updating once a year (this needs quarterly revisits at minimum)