Competitive analysis

Competitive Analysis Patterns

Competitive Landscape Mapping

Competitor Tiers

Tier	Definition	How Many to Track
Direct	Same product, same customer	Top 5 deeply
Indirect	Different product, same job-to-be-done	10-15 broadly
Substitutes	Completely different approach, same outcome	5-10 peripherally
Potential	Not competitors today but could be	Watch list

Competitor Profile Template

Company: _______________
Founded: ___  HQ: ___  Employees: ___  Funding: ___

Product:
- Core value proposition:
- Primary use case:
- Target segment:
- Pricing model:
- Price points:

Strengths (from customer reviews, press):
1.
2.
3.

Weaknesses (from reviews, support forums):
1.
2.
3.

Recent moves (last 90 days):
- Product launches:
- Pricing changes:
- Partnership announcements:
- Hiring signals:

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Framework

	Helpful	Harmful
Internal	Strengths	Weaknesses
External	Opportunities	Threats

Filling SWOT Rigorously

Strengths (internal, positive):

• Proprietary technology or IP
• Brand recognition and trust
• Customer relationships and NPS
• Unit economics and margins
• Team expertise

Weaknesses (internal, negative):

• Gaps in product functionality
• Technical debt
• Slow release velocity
• High churn rate
• Customer support quality

Opportunities (external, positive):

• Market segments underserved
• Regulatory tailwinds
• Technology shifts you can exploit
• Competitor weaknesses to capture
• Adjacent market expansion

Threats (external, negative):

• Competitor funding/investment
• Platform risk (API changes)
• Regulatory headwinds
• Price compression
• New entrant from adjacent market

SWOT-to-Strategy Matrix (TOWS)

	Strengths (S)	Weaknesses (W)
Opportunities (O)	SO: Use strengths to capture opportunities	WO: Fix weaknesses using opportunities
Threats (T)	ST: Use strengths to minimize threats	WT: Defensive strategies

Porter's Five Forces

Force	Key Questions	Low/High Impact
Competitive rivalry	# competitors, growth rate, differentiation	Low: few players, fast growth
Threat of new entrants	Capital needed, switching costs, regulation	Low: high barriers
Threat of substitutes	Alternative ways to solve job	Low: no alternatives
Supplier power	# suppliers, switching cost, uniqueness	Low: many suppliers
Buyer power	# buyers, switching cost, price sensitivity	Low: fragmented buyers

Feature Matrix

Building a Feature Matrix

Feature          | Your Co | Comp A | Comp B | Comp C |
-----------------|---------|--------|--------|--------|
Core feature 1   |  ✅     |  ✅    |  ✅    |  ❌    |
Core feature 2   |  ✅     |  ✅    |  ❌    |  ✅    |
Differentiator 1 |  ✅     |  ❌    |  ❌    |  ❌    |
Differentiator 2 |  ⚠️     |  ✅    |  ✅    |  ✅    |
Enterprise SSO   |  ✅     |  ✅    |  ❌    |  ✅    |
API access       |  ✅     |  ❌    |  ✅    |  ❌    |
Mobile app       |  ❌     |  ✅    |  ✅    |  ❌    |
Pricing from     | $49/mo  | $79/mo | $29/mo | $99/mo |

Legend: ✅ Full  ⚠️ Partial  ❌ Missing

Positioning Map

Plot competitors on 2x2 axes that matter to buyers:

           HIGH EASE OF USE
                |
   Comp B       |     YOUR CO
                |
LOW PRICE ------+------ HIGH PRICE
                |
   Comp D       |     Comp A
                |
           LOW EASE OF USE

Common axis pairs:

• Price vs. Features
• Enterprise vs. SMB focus
• Breadth vs. Depth
• Self-serve vs. High-touch

Win/Loss Analysis

Win/Loss Interview Guide

Questions for Won Deals:
1. What made you choose us over [competitors]?
2. What almost made you go with a competitor instead?
3. What would have made the decision easier?
4. What's the #1 thing that made us stand out?

Questions for Lost Deals:
1. Who did you go with and why?
2. What did they offer that we didn't?
3. What would we have needed to do to win?
4. Was price the deciding factor? If not, what was?
5. Are you open to revisiting in 12 months?

Win/Loss Dashboard Metrics

Metric	Formula
Win rate vs. each competitor	Wins / (Wins + Losses) per competitor
Displacement rate	Deals won from competitor / total wins
Loss reason breakdown	% by category (price, features, timing, etc.)
Average deal size by outcome	ACV of won vs. lost deals

Monitoring Competitors

Monitoring Checklist (Weekly)

• Google Alerts for competitor names + "product launch", "funding"
• Check competitor job postings (signals of investment areas)
• Review G2, Capterra, Trustpilot new reviews
• Monitor competitor social (LinkedIn, Twitter/X)
• Check Product Hunt for new launches
• Review changelog / release notes

Intelligence Sources

Source	What to find
LinkedIn Jobs	Investment areas, team growth, new hires
Crunchbase	Funding rounds, investor list
G2/Capterra	Real customer pain points and praise
SEC filings	Public company revenue, growth, risks
Patent filings	R&D direction, future product hints
GitHub repos	Engineering team size, tech stack
Wayback Machine	Historical messaging and pricing

Battle Cards

Battle Card Template

Competitor: [Name]
Last Updated: [Date]

HEADLINE:
"[Your product] vs [Competitor]: [1-line differentiation]"

THEIR STRENGTHS (Acknowledge):
• [Real strength 1]
• [Real strength 2]

OUR ADVANTAGES:
• [Advantage 1] — proof: [customer quote or data]
• [Advantage 2] — proof: [benchmark or case study]

HANDLING THEIR COMMON CLAIMS:
When they say "We're cheaper":
→ "Our ROI studies show customers save 3x the price difference in..."

When they say "We have more integrations":
→ "We have the 10 integrations that 95% of customers use, including..."

QUALIFYING QUESTIONS TO ASK:
1. "How important is [your differentiator] to you?"
2. "What happened last time you had [competitor's weakness]?"

PROOF POINTS:
• [Case study] — [customer name] switched from [competitor] and achieved [result]
• [Analyst citation]