Competitor analysis

Competitor Analysis Skill

When to Use

• During Phase 0 (Idea) → Competitor Analysis module
• When evaluating a new market or niche
• Before any pricing strategy or positioning work
• When a user says "who else does this?" or "what's out there?"

Tools Required

Tool	Purpose
firecrawl_search	Discover competitors via web search
firecrawl_map	Crawl competitor site structure
firecrawl_scrape	Extract full page content for analysis
firecrawl_extract	Pull structured data (pricing, features)

Instructions

1. Identify Competitors

Run parallel searches:

firecrawl_search: "{product_description} SaaS alternatives"
firecrawl_search: "{problem_statement} software solutions"
firecrawl_search: "best {category} tools 2025 2026"
firecrawl_search: "{category} vs comparison"

Categorize into:

• Direct competitors: Same problem, same audience, same delivery model
• Indirect competitors: Same problem, different approach (e.g., agencies, spreadsheets)
• Aspirational: Where we want to be in 2+ years

2. Deep Teardown (Per Competitor)

For each direct competitor (max 5):

a. Pricing Intelligence

firecrawl_extract:
  urls: ["{competitor}/pricing"]
  prompt: "Extract all pricing tiers, prices, billing frequency, feature limits per tier, and any free tier details"
  schema: {
    tiers: [{
      name: string,
      price_monthly: string,
      price_annual: string,
      features: [string],
      limits: [string]
    }],
    free_tier: boolean,
    enterprise_custom: boolean
  }

b. Feature Inventory

firecrawl_scrape:
  url: "{competitor}/features"
  formats: ["json"]
  jsonOptions:
    prompt: "List every feature mentioned on this page with a one-line description"
    schema: {
      features: [{ name: string, description: string, category: string }]
    }

c. Positioning & Messaging

firecrawl_scrape:
  url: "{competitor}"
  formats: ["markdown"]
  onlyMainContent: true

Extract from the homepage:

• Headline / value proposition
• Target audience language
• Key differentiators they claim
• Social proof (customer count, logos, testimonials)

d. Tech Stack Detection

firecrawl_search: "{competitor_name} tech stack built with"
firecrawl_search: "site:{competitor_domain} careers engineer"

3. Build Comparison Matrix

Output as a markdown table:

Dimension	{Our Product}	Competitor A	Competitor B	Competitor C
Pricing (starter)	TBD	$X/mo	$X/mo	$X/mo
Free tier	TBD	Yes/No	Yes/No	Yes/No
Feature 1	✅/❌	✅/❌	✅/❌	✅/❌
Feature 2	✅/❌	✅/❌	✅/❌	✅/❌
Target audience	{ours}	{theirs}	{theirs}	{theirs}
Weakness	—	{gap}	{gap}	{gap}

4. Gap Analysis

Identify:

• Underserved segments: Who are competitors ignoring?
• Missing features: What do users complain about on G2, Reddit, Twitter?
• Pricing gaps: Is there room between free and expensive tiers?
• UX gaps: Where is the friction in competitor products?

Search for complaints:

firecrawl_search: "{competitor_name} review complaints problems"
firecrawl_search: "site:reddit.com {competitor_name} alternative"
firecrawl_search: "site:g2.com {competitor_name} cons"

5. Output Format

Save to BRAINIAC/0. Idea/0.4 Competitor Analysis/ANALYSIS.md:

1. Executive summary (3 bullet points: biggest threat, biggest gap, our edge)
2. Competitor profiles (one section per competitor)
3. Comparison matrix
4. Gap analysis
5. Strategic recommendation (1 paragraph)
6. Raw data sources

Quality Gates

• Minimum 3 direct competitors analyzed
• Pricing data must come from actual scrapes, not memory
• Gap analysis must cite specific user complaints with sources
• Matrix must include our product column (even if TBD)