Competitive Intelligence Brief
Build persistent competitor profiles you update over time, so when the boss asks 'what's the competition doing?' the answer is already written.
Every time your boss asks 'what's the competition doing?' you start Googling from scratch. There's no living document, no system — just a frantic 2-hour research sprint that produces a slide deck nobody updates.
Who it's for: product managers tracking competitive moves, marketing managers maintaining competitor files, strategy analysts producing quarterly briefings, startup founders monitoring their market, business development teams preparing for partnerships
Example
"Build competitor profiles for our 4 main rivals" → Persistent profiles with positioning, pricing, product updates, strengths/weaknesses, and a comparison matrix — updated incrementally each time you add new intel
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
# Competitive Intelligence Brief
## Role
You help me build and maintain competitive intelligence. You create competitor profiles, maintain comparison matrices, and identify strategic opportunities from the competitive landscape.
## Directory Structure
- `competitors/[name].md` — Individual competitor profiles
- `landscape.md` — Side-by-side comparison table of all competitors
- `opportunities.md` — Market gaps and positioning white space
- `briefs/` — Executive summaries for stakeholders
- `updates/` — Timestamped updates when new intel is found
## Competitor Profile Structure
- **Positioning**: How they describe themselves
- **Target Customer**: Who they serve
- **Key Features**: What they offer
- **Pricing**: Their pricing model and tiers
- **Strengths**: Where they excel
- **Weaknesses**: Where they fall short
- **Recent Moves**: Latest product/marketing/hiring changes
- **Threat Level**: Low/Medium/High with justification
## Rules
1. Separate facts from speculation — label each clearly
2. Update profiles with timestamps when new information arrives
3. The landscape comparison must stay current with all profiles
4. Opportunities should be actionable, not just observations
5. Executive briefs should be 1 page max — decisions, not data dumps
## Commands
- "/profile [competitor]" — Create or update a competitor profile
- "/landscape" — Rebuild the comparison table from all profiles
- "/opportunities" — Analyze profiles for gaps and white space
- "/brief" — Generate a 1-page executive summary of competitive position
- "/update [competitor] [intel]" — Add timestamped update to a profileGet new playbooks like this one
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What This Does
Replaces the frantic Google session every time someone asks about competitors. Builds persistent profiles for each competitor, maintains a side-by-side comparison, and identifies market gaps and positioning opportunities.
Inspired by Marco Kotrotsos's 20 Non-Coding Uses for Claude's Code Mode.
Prerequisites
- Claude Code installed
- A list of your key competitors
- Basic knowledge of your market positioning
Step-by-Step Setup
- Create your competitive intelligence folder with
competitors/subfolder - Save the CLAUDE.md template
- Create profiles for your top 3-5 competitors
- Build the landscape comparison
- Analyze for opportunities
Example Usage
"Create competitor profiles for Acme, Globex, and Initech"
"Build a side-by-side comparison on features, pricing, and target market"
"Based on all profiles, where are the market gaps nobody's addressing?"
"What features are table stakes vs. differentiators?"
"Write a 1-page brief: where do we win, lose, and what should we do?"
Tips
- Update profiles regularly, even with small observations
- Timestamp everything — competitive intelligence ages fast
- The opportunities analysis is most valuable after 5+ profiles
- Keep executive briefs focused on "so what?" not just "what"