# Competitor intel Human Guide

## What This Is For
Analyzes competitors using web research to provide verified business metrics, actionable leverage strategies, and predicted next moves. 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 intel 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 intel.
- 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 intel 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
- **If it exists:** Read it to understand your company's positioning, strengths, and goals—this informs the leverage strategies.
- **If it doesn't exist:** Proceed with analysis focused purely on competitor weaknesses.
- Competitor website (if provided)
- Industry/vertical (if provided)
- Specific areas of interest (if provided)
- `"[Competitor]" revenue OR MRR OR ARR site:crunchbase.com`
- `"[Competitor]" funding raised valuation site:crunchbase.com`
- `"[Competitor]" employees headcount site:linkedin.com`
- `"[Competitor]" revenue growth OR metrics`
- `"[Competitor]" pricing customers`
- `"[Competitor]" CEO OR founder interview revenue`
- `"[Competitor]" Series A OR Series B OR funding`

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Purpose, Execution Logic, If $ARGUMENTS is empty or not provided:, If $ARGUMENTS contains content:, Task Execution, Check for Business Context (Optional), Extract Input, Research Phase — MANDATORY WEB SEARCH, Business Metrics Research, Traffic & SEO Research.

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
- Competitor name (required)
- This skill REQUIRES web search. Do not proceed without searching.
- **CRITICAL RULE:** If a metric cannot be found with a source, mark it as "Not publicly available" — DO NOT estimate or assume.
- Every metric MUST include a source link or be marked "Not publicly available"
- Strategies must be actionable (specific steps, not vague advice)
- Predictions must cite the signals that support them
- Avoid unverified Twitter/X claims unless from official company accounts
- Each strategy must exploit a verified weakness

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Competitor intel 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 ognjengt/founder-skills skill entry for `competitor-intel`.

## 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 Intel

## Purpose
Provide data-backed competitive intelligence by researching real signals across the web—no assumptions, no made-up numbers.

---

## Execution Logic

**Check $ARGUMENTS first to determine execution mode:**

### If $ARGUMENTS is empty or not provided:
Respond with:
"competitor-intel loaded, proceed with competitor name and any context (website, industry, etc.)"

Then wait for the user to provide their requirements in the next message.

### If $ARGUMENTS contains content:
Proceed immediately to Task Execution (skip the "loaded" message).

---

## Task Execution

When user requirements are available (either from initial $ARGUMENTS or follow-up message):

### 1. Check for Business Context (Optional)
Check if `FOUNDER_CONTEXT.md` exists in the project root.
- **If it exists:** Read it to understand your company's positioning, strengths, and goals—this informs the leverage strategies.
- **If it doesn't exist:** Proceed with analysis focused purely on competitor weaknesses.

### 2. Extract Input
From the user's requirements, extract:
- Competitor name (required)
- Competitor website (if provided)
- Industry/vertical (if provided)
- Specific areas of interest (if provided)

### 3. Research Phase — MANDATORY WEB SEARCH
**This skill REQUIRES web search. Do not proceed without searching.**

Execute web searches across these sources:

#### Business Metrics Research
Search for verified data only. Query patterns:
- `"[Competitor]" revenue OR MRR OR ARR site:crunchbase.com`
- `"[Competitor]" funding raised valuation site:crunchbase.com`
- `"[Competitor]" employees headcount site:linkedin.com`
- `"[Competitor]" revenue growth OR metrics`
- `"[Competitor]" pricing customers`
- `"[Competitor]" CEO OR founder interview revenue`
- `"[Competitor]" Series A OR Series B OR funding`

#### Traffic & SEO Research
Search for web traffic and search presence signals:
- `"[Competitor]" site:similarweb.com` (traffic estimates, top pages, traffic sources)
- `"[Competitor]" site:ahrefs.com` (backlinks, domain rating, organic keywords)
- `"[Competitor]" site:semrush.com` (traffic, keyword rankings, ad spend)
- `"[Competitor]" site:trends.google.com` (search interest over time)
- `[Competitor website domain] site:builtwith.com` (tech stack, tools used)

#### Technical & Product Research
Search for product and development signals:
- `"[Competitor]" site:github.com` (open source activity, tech stack, hiring signals)
- `[Competitor GitHub org]` (commit frequency, contributors, project activity)
- `"[Competitor]" API OR integration OR developer`

#### Advertising Research
Search for ad strategy and spend signals:
- Search Meta Ads Library: `https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/` for [Competitor]
- `"[Competitor]" ads site:facebook.com/ads/library`
- `"[Competitor]" advertising spend OR ad budget`
- `"[Competitor]" marketing campaign`

#### Weakness & Sentiment Research
Search for complaints, issues, and struggles:
- `"[Competitor]" reviews site:g2.com`
- `"[Competitor]" reviews site:capterra.com`
- `"[Competitor]" reviews site:trustpilot.com`
- `"[Competitor]" complaints OR issues OR problems`