| name | competitive-analysis |
| description | Use when user says "research competitors", "competitive analysis", "how do we compare to X", when planning go-to-market and needs competitive positioning, when assessing the competitive landscape before launch, or when objection handling and win/lose scenarios need to be documented. |
Competitive Analysis
Overview
Read .forge/prd.md to understand what we're building, then produce .forge/competitive.md — an honest assessment of the competitive landscape with actionable positioning. The output must be brutally honest about where we lose, not just where we win.
When to Use
.forge/prd.md exists and the product is entering a market with existing players- User asks "who are the competitors" or "how do we differentiate"
- Preparing for GTM and need positioning statements and objection handling
- Investor pitch requires competitive landscape slide
When NOT to Use
- No PRD exists — run
spec-driven-development first (you need to know what you're building to compare)
- The product creates a new category with no direct competitors — focus on adjacent alternatives instead
- User wants a quick opinion, not a structured analysis — just answer the question
Common Rationalizations
| Thought | Reality |
|---|
| "We don't have real competitors" | You always have competitors — at minimum, the status quo (spreadsheets, manual process) |
| "We're better at everything" | No product wins on every axis. If your matrix shows all green, you're lying to yourself |
| "Pricing research takes too long" | Public pricing pages take 10 minutes. If pricing is hidden, that IS the data point |
| "Our moat is obvious" | If you can't name it in one sentence, you don't have one |
| "Win/lose scenarios are speculative" | They're based on feature gaps and buyer priorities — that's analysis, not speculation |
Red Flags
- Feature matrix shows you winning every category (cheerleading, not analysis)
- "Lose" scenarios are empty or dismissive ("unlikely")
- Competitor profiles are surface-level (just website taglines)
- Positioning statement is more than one sentence
- No mention of the status quo as a competitor (incumbent inertia)
- Objection responses are generic ("we're better") instead of specific
Core Process
Step 1: Identify competitors
Read .forge/prd.md. List:
- Direct competitors: same problem, same buyer, similar solution
- Indirect competitors: same problem, different approach
- Status quo: what buyers do today without any tool (spreadsheets, manual processes, hiring)
Minimum 3 competitors. Include the status quo as a competitor.
Step 2: Build competitor profiles
For each competitor:
- Company name, founding year, funding/revenue (if public)
- Target customer (their ICP, not yours)
- Core value proposition (one sentence)
- Pricing model and approximate price points
- Key strengths (be honest — what are they genuinely good at?)
- Key weaknesses (specific, not generic)
Step 3: Feature matrix
Build a comparison table. Columns: your product + each competitor. Rows: features from the PRD's requirements list. Values: ✓ (has it), ✗ (doesn't), ~ (partial/planned).
Honesty check: if your product has ✓ in every row, you've cherry-picked the features. Add rows where competitors win.
Step 4: Win/lose scenarios
For each competitor, write:
- We win when: specific buyer profile + situation where we're the better choice
- We lose when: specific buyer profile + situation where they're the better choice
- Switching cost: what a buyer gives up to switch from them to us
Step 5: Positioning statement
One sentence: "For [ICP] who [pain point], [product] is the [category] that [key differentiator], unlike [primary competitor] which [their limitation]."
Step 6: Objection handling
Top 5 objections a buyer raises when comparing to each competitor. For each: the objection, the honest answer, the redirect to our strength.
Step 7: Moat analysis
Answer: what do we have that competitors can't easily copy? Data? Network effects? Regulatory advantage? Integration lock-in? If the answer is "nothing yet" — say so honestly and identify what to build toward.
Output
Write .forge/competitive.md with all sections above. Prepend a forge:meta header (generated_by: competitive-analysis, generated_at: <ISO 8601 UTC with Z>, depends_on: [.forge/prd.md] — paths only, never hashes, generated_from: {.forge/prd.md: <upstream content_hash AT generation time>}, content_hash: <sha256 first 8 of THIS file's body>). See forge-dependency-graph.
After writing: "Competitive analysis written to .forge/competitive.md. Run /gtm to build the go-to-market strategy."
Verification
