| name | competitive-analysis |
| effort | high |
| description | Use when making a product or business decision where knowing the competitive context changes the answer — before a launch, when writing strategy, or when articulating differentiation. Triggers on: "competitor analysis", "competitive landscape", how |
| type | workflow |
| theme | pm-strategy |
| best_for | ["Mapping competitor feature sets and positioning","Finding whitespace or differentiation opportunities in the market","Building the competitive section of a PRD or GTM plan"] |
| scenarios | ["We're about to launch — who are the main competitors and how do we differentiate?","경쟁사 분석 해줘. 우리 제품이 어떻게 차별화될 수 있는지 알고 싶어.","I need to understand the competitive landscape before writing the PRD strategic context.","Help me build the competitive section for our GTM plan.","경쟁사 대비 우리 포지셔닝을 정리해줘.","Which whitespace can we own in this market?"] |
| estimated_time | 60-120 min |
| compatibility | {"recommended":["think-tool"],"optional":["sequential-thinking","mcp-reasoner"],"remote_mcp_note":"think-tool이 있으면 포지셔닝 맵과 차별화 전략의 논리적 일관성을 검증하는 데 도움이 됩니다. Claude 설정 → MCP Servers에서 remote SSE 엔드포인트를 추가하세요."} |
Standing Mandates
- ALWAYS distinguish current state from trajectory — a competitor's momentum matters as much as today's position.
- ALWAYS identify the primary differentiation axis before listing feature comparisons.
- NEVER treat feature parity as the goal — parity is table stakes, not differentiation.
- NEVER present analysis without a 'so what' recommendation the team can act on.
Purpose
Competitive analysis answers three questions:
- Who is already solving this problem? (competitive map)
- How do they compare to us? (feature/positioning matrix)
- Where is the whitespace we can own? (differentiation opportunity)
This skill produces two artifacts: Competitor Profiles and a Positioning Gap Summary.
When to Use This
- Before writing a PRD — feeds Phase 4 (Strategic Context) in
../prd-development/SKILL.md
- When
../product-discovery/SKILL.md surfaces competitive gaps as an opportunity
- Before building a GTM plan in
../go-to-market-planning/SKILL.md
- When pricing strategy requires market benchmarking — see
../pricing-monetization-strategy/SKILL.md
- When a stakeholder asks "why would a customer choose us over X?"
When NOT to Use This
- For internal-tool or back-office products with no external competitors
- As a substitute for actual user research (competitive analysis tells you what others built, not what users want)
- If you need a full market sizing exercise — use a TAM/SAM/SOM model instead
Step 1 — Define the Competitive Universe (15 min)
Before analyzing anything, define scope.
Competitor Types
| Type | Definition | Example |
|---|
| Direct | Same target user, same problem, similar solution | Figma vs Sketch |
| Indirect | Same problem, different solution or delivery model | Notion vs. Confluence |
| Substitute | Different framing, but competes for the same job-to-be-done | Excel vs. Airtable |
| Emerging |
