Competitor Read

Competitor Strategy Reverse-Engineer

When to use this skill

The user needs to understand what a competitor is actually doing, building, hiring for, abandoning, and betting on. Most competitive intel relies on press releases, which is the least informative public signal a company emits. This skill pulls a broader set of signals and weights them appropriately.

Input the user provides

• Competitor name (company)
• Optionally: the user's own positioning, to ground the comparison
• Optionally: the time window (default: last 12 months)

What this skill does

1. Gathers public signals from the time window across multiple categories
2. Weights signals by predictive value (job postings > product launches > press releases > thought leadership)
3. Classifies signals by strategic vector
4. Produces a one-page memo in the structure below

Signals to collect (in order of predictive value)

1. Job postings (most predictive of what they are building 6 months out). Pay particular attention to:
   • New role types not present 12 months ago
   • Geographic expansion in posting locations
   • Seniority level shifts (more VPs vs. more ICs)
   • Technical specializations being hired
2. Product changes (release notes, changelog, new product launches, pricing changes, deprecations)
3. Executive movements (hires, departures, role changes)
4. Customer announcements (named wins, case studies, logo additions)
5. Pricing page changes (often signals strategic shifts)
6. Conference talks and content (where their voice is going)
7. Press releases (least useful in isolation, useful as confirmation of other signals)

Output structure

# Competitor Read: [Company]
*Time window: [start-end]. Signals analyzed: [count]. Confidence: [high/medium/low].*

## Headline
One sentence on what [Company] is actually doing right now.

## Strategic vectors they are betting on
1. **[Vector 1]**: evidence (which specific signals support this read)
2. **[Vector 2]**: evidence
3. **[Vector 3]**: evidence

## What they are not doing (or have quietly abandoned)
- [Abandoned vector 1]: evidence (job postings removed, product feature deprecated, etc.)
- [Abandoned vector 2]: evidence

## Leading indicators worth tracking
- [Job posting category to watch]
- [Product feature to watch for in next release]
- [Hire that would change the read]

## What this means for [User's company]
2-3 sentences on the implications. Not generic ("we should monitor this"). Specific ("their new VP of Sales is a signal they are moving up-market in Q3, which puts our mid-market positioning under pressure if they execute").

## Honest read on confidence
What is uncertain. What would resolve the uncertainty. Where the signals point in different directions.

Calibration notes

• Job postings are the strongest leading indicator. A press release describes what shipped. A job posting describes what is being built 6 months out. Weight accordingly.
• Be specific about which signals support which vectors. "Their hiring suggests cloud focus" is weak. "Three new postings for AWS Solutions Architects in Q2 suggest they are building a cloud delivery capability they did not have 6 months ago" is useful.
• Acknowledge signal noise. Not every job posting is strategic. Backfills, attrition, and unrelated team growth all generate postings.
• If the company is private and signal-poor, say so explicitly. Do not invent strategic narratives from thin data.
• Do not be reflexively negative. Sometimes a competitor is genuinely executing well. Naming that is more useful than rationalizing it away.

When NOT to use this skill

• Pre-IPO companies in stealth mode (signals will be too thin)
• Companies the user has no overlap with strategically (the analysis is academic)
• Adjacent companies that are not actually competitors (different lens needed)