Competitive Analysis
Honest competitor teardown — includes where you LOSE, grounded in what rivals actually do, ends on the positioning gap.
v1.0.0 · ~632 tokens · ⬇ 0 · Updated July 6, 2026
What it does
Produces an evidence-based competitor analysis: frames the real competitors (direct/indirect/status-quo) and the axes the BUYER decides on, gathers from primary sources and real user signal, and analyzes honestly — naming where you lose, distinguishing durable moats from copyable features, and surfacing the underserved positioning gap. Dates findings; refuses wishful thinking.
Example uses
Tear down our top competitors
You are setting next quarter's positioning and need an honest picture, including where you lose.
We sell a scheduling tool for home-service businesses at $49 per month. Analyze Jobber, Housecall Pro, and the status-quo option (spreadsheets plus texting) on the axes buyers actually decide on — price, dispatching, invoicing, onboarding ease, review sentiment. Pull from their current pricing pages and real user reviews, name explicitly where we lose, and end with the positioning gap nobody serves well. Date every finding.Pressure-test a feature-gap assumption
Your roadmap assumes a rival lacks a capability, and you need that verified before committing a quarter to it.
Our roadmap bets that none of our three main competitors offer SOC 2-ready audit logs. Verify against their current docs, changelogs, and release notes — not months-old blog posts — and for each rival tell me: do they have it today, is it a durable advantage for us or something they would ship in a sprint, and what that means for the bet.Map a market before entering
You are deciding whether to enter a crowded category and need the underserved segment identified — or told it does not exist.
We are considering launching an email-warmup tool into a market with Instantly, Smartlead, and a dozen smaller players. Frame the direct, indirect, and DIY competition, build the comparison on buyer-decision axes, mine G2 and Reddit complaints for what users hate about the incumbents, and tell me honestly whether there is a real positioning gap or the opening is imaginary.Install
# 1. Create the skill folder in your Claude setup mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/competitive-analysis # 2. Download SKILL.md into it (or move the file you just downloaded) # → ~/.claude/skills/competitive-analysis/SKILL.md # 3. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next launch.
Inside the skill
--- name: competitive-analysis description: Produce a structured, honest competitor teardown for positioning or product decisions. Use for market/product research, before pricing or feature decisions, or asked "analyze our competitors", "how do we compare to X", "competitive landscape for Y". Evidence-based, no wishful thinking. --- # Competitive Analysis Useful competitive analysis is honest about where you lose, specific about where you win, and grounded in what competitors actually do — not what you hope they don't. ## Frame it (decide before comparing) - **Who** are the real competitors? Direct (same job, same buyer), indirect (different approach, same problem), and the status-quo/DIY option people actually use instead. Don't only list the flattering comparisons. - **The axes that matter to the BUYER**: the 5-8 dimensions a customer actually decides on (not the ones that flatter you). Price, core capability, ease, integrations, support, trust, etc. ## Gather (primary sources, current) - Their own site/pricing/docs/changelog (what they actually offer, as of now — pricing drifts). - Real user signal: reviews, forums, what users praise AND complain about. The complaints are the opportunities; the praise is the bar you must clear. - Verify claims; a competitor's marketing is not evidence of what they deliver. ## Analyze honestly - Per axis: where each player genuinely stands. **Name where you LOSE** — a competitive analysis that has you winning everything is marketing, and it will get someone's strategy killed. - **Positioning gaps**: the axis or segment nobody serves well = the opening. That's the payoff. - **Moats**: what's actually hard to copy (network effects, data, integrations, brand) vs a feature they'd ship in a sprint if it mattered. ## Rules - Include the competitors and axes that make you look bad; that's where the strategy actually lives. - Ground every claim in a source; "I think they don't have X" is a hypothesis to verify, not a finding. - Distinguish a durable advantage from a temporary feature gap — they demand different responses. - Pricing/features drift — date your findings and check they're current. ## Output ``` COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS — <market/question> Players: <direct / indirect / status-quo> Comparison (axes × players): <where each stands, honestly> Where we win / lose: <specific, both> Positioning gap / opening: <the underserved axis or segment> Moats: <durable vs copyable> Recommendation: <what this implies> Sources + as-of date. ```
Changelog
- v1.0.02026-07-03Initial clean-room write.
Frequently asked questions
Is Competitive Analysis free?
Yes. Competitive Analysis is free to download and MIT-licensed.
Where do I install Competitive Analysis?
Place the SKILL.md file in ~/.claude/skills/competitive-analysis/ and Claude Code auto-discovers it on next launch.
How many tokens does Competitive Analysis use?
About 632 tokens — it is designed to be token-lean.
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