competitor-analysis

name	competitor-analysis
description	Agents should invoke this skill when comparing competing products, services, libraries, tools, vendors, or approaches for market/product positioning, feature matrices, strategic trade-offs, pricing, adoption, or differentiation.

Competitor Analysis

Research competitive landscape and produce actionable comparisons.

Product stream vs market stream

Split investigation to mirror parallel research patterns; merge before strategic recommendations.

Stream	Focus	Typical sources
Product	Feature matrix, specs, APIs, pricing tables, integrations, release cadence	Official docs, changelogs, pricing pages, registries
Market	Positioning, messaging, ICP, reviews, sentiment, analyst takes, share/narrative	G2/Capterra, HN/Reddit, landing copy, news, reports

Execution: Run both streams in parallel (batched searches/fetches per stream) when possible. If using subagents, assign one stream per worker with a fixed handoff schema (bullets + URLs); one synthesis pass produces Steps 3–6 below.

Process

Step 1 — Define Scope

**Subject:** [What product/feature we're analyzing]
**Competitors to evaluate:** [Specific names, or "discover competitors"]
**Purpose:** [What decision this informs]
**Dimensions:** [Features, pricing, UX, performance, target audience]

Step 2 — Discover Competitors

Assign discovery to both streams: product-side (direct substitutes, OSS alternatives) and market-side (who buyers compare you to in reviews and “vs” articles).

If competitors aren't specified:

• Search for "[category] alternatives"
• Check comparison sites (G2, AlternativeTo, Product Hunt)
• Search GitHub for open-source alternatives
• Check Hacker News and Reddit for community recommendations
• Review industry reports and analyst coverage

Step 3 — Feature Matrix (product stream)

## Feature Comparison

| Feature | Our Product | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Feature 1] | Yes | Yes | No | Partial |
| [Feature 2] | Planned | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| [Feature 3] | No | No | Yes | No |
| **Pricing** | [model] | [model] | [model] | [model] |
| **Target audience** | [who] | [who] | [who] | [who] |
| **Open source** | Yes/No | Yes/No | Yes/No | Yes/No |

Step 4 — Positioning Analysis (market stream)

For each competitor:

### [Competitor Name]

**Positioning:** [How they describe themselves]
**Target audience:** [Who they serve]
**Key differentiator:** [What makes them unique]
**Strengths:** [Where they excel]
**Weaknesses:** [Where they fall short]
**Pricing:** [Model and price points]
**Community/adoption:** [Size, activity, notable users]
**Threat level:** [High / Medium / Low — to our product]

Step 5 — Strategic Insights (merge)

Reconcile product facts with market narrative (e.g. a feature exists but messaging downplays it).

## Market Insights

### Gaps in the Market
- [Opportunity that no competitor addresses well]

### Table Stakes
- [Features every competitor has — we need these too]

### Differentiators Available
- [Areas where we can uniquely differentiate]

### Risks
- [Competitive risks to monitor]

Step 6 — Recommendation

## Recommendation

Based on the competitive landscape:
1. [Product strategy recommendation]
2. [Feature priority recommendation]
3. [Positioning recommendation]

Source Quality

For competitor analysis, prioritize:

1. Official product pages and documentation
2. Independent reviews (G2, Capterra)
3. Community discussions (Reddit, HN, forums)
4. Blog posts and comparisons (check for bias/sponsorship)

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Scout skill — Competitor analysis and market research · P1 product/market streams: 2026-04-10