# Competitor analysis Human Guide

## What This Is For
Comprehensive competitor analysis, competitive intelligence, and comparison page creation. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for competitive research: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Competitor analysis agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for competitor analysis.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Competitor analysis guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Strategic product and market planning
- Creating SEO comparison pages (alternative pages, vs pages)
- Market entry and pricing strategy
- Feature prioritization and positioning
- Threat assessment and investment decisions
- Sales enablement (battle cards, objection handling)
- Competitive intelligence reports
- **Your Product** - Core value proposition, differentiators, ICP, pricing, strengths/weaknesses
- **Competitive Landscape** - Direct/indirect competitors, market positioning, search volume
- **Goals** - SEO traffic, sales enablement, conversion, brand positioning
- Acknowledge competitor strengths
- Be accurate about your limitations

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Workspace Context, Operating Contract, Overview, When to Use, Initial Assessment, Core Principles, Honesty Builds Trust, Depth Over Surface, Help Them Decide, Data-Grounded Analysis.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Don't misrepresent competitor features
- Every claim must have a citation
- Required context to gather:
- Step 2: Define Target Customer Profile (Required)
- Business models competitors avoid?
- **Inline citations are mandatory.** Every factual claim must include `[Source N](#Sources)` reference.
- **Why defensible:** Competitors must start from scratch. Data compounds over time—every new customer adds training data. Requires time + scale, can't be bought or copied.
- **Why defensible:** Switching costs increase with network size. Competitor must convince entire organization to switch simultaneously, not just one user.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Competitor analysis human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the manojbajaj95/claude-gtm-plugin skill entry for `competitor-analysis`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Competitor Analysis

## Workspace Context

Read bootstrap context before asking questions: `strategy/brand.md` for brand, audience, offer, channels, tools, constraints, and metrics; `about/me.md` for personal voice; `content/ideas.md` and `content/calendar.md` for content planning. Use legacy product-marketing context files only as fallback. Save generated drafts to `content/<platform>/drafts/YYYY-MM-DD_short-topic-slug.md`, and route durable learnings back to `strategy/brand.md`, `about/me.md`, or `content/ideas.md`.

## Operating Contract

This skill is self-contained for its frontmatter scope: use its local instructions, references, scripts, and assets as the playbook; ask only for missing task-specific inputs; hand off to adjacent skills instead of expanding scope; and return an actionable artifact, decision, plan, draft, or diagnostic.


Comprehensive competitor analysis, competitive intelligence, and comparison page creation using structured research frameworks and data-grounded methodologies.

## Overview

Systematic competitor analysis reveals market positioning, identifies competitive advantages, informs strategic decisions, captures SEO traffic, and enables sales teams with battle cards and comparison content.

## When to Use

- Strategic product and market planning
- Creating SEO comparison pages (alternative pages, vs pages)
- Market entry and pricing strategy
- Feature prioritization and positioning
- Threat assessment and investment decisions
- Sales enablement (battle cards, objection handling)
- Competitive intelligence reports

## Initial Assessment

Before creating competitor analysis or comparison pages, understand:

1. **Your Product** - Core value proposition, differentiators, ICP, pricing, strengths/weaknesses
2. **Competitive Landscape** - Direct/indirect competitors, market positioning, search volume
3. **Goals** - SEO traffic, sales enablement, conversion, brand positioning

## Core Principles

### 1. Honesty Builds Trust
- Acknowledge competitor strengths
- Be accurate about your limitations
- Don't misrepresent competitor features
- Readers verify claims

### 2. Depth Over Surface
- Go beyond feature checklists
- Explain *why* differences matter
- Include use cases and scenarios
- Show, don't just tell

### 3. Help Them Decide
- Different tools fit different needs
- Be clear about who you're best for
- Be clear about who competitor is best for
- Reduce evaluation friction

### 4. Data-Grounded Analysis
- Every claim must have a citation
- Use primary sources when possible
- Document when data is unavailable
- Refresh quarterly

## Competitor Identification

**Competitor Types:**

| Type | Definition | Example |
|------|------------|---------|
| **Direct** | Same market, same features | Same product category, same ICP |
| **Indirect** | Different approach, same problem | Alternative solutions to the same pain |
| **Adjacent** | Related market, potential crossover | Could expand into your space |
| **Emerging** | New entrants, potential disruptors | Startups with new approaches |

## Research Workflow (6 Steps)

### Step 1: Extract Business Information

**If website URL provided:**
- Fetch and extract: company name, value proposition, target market, products, pricing, differentiators

**If details provided:**