Competitive Analysis and Market Research

Know Your Battlefield

In the previous lesson, we explored feature prioritization and roadmapping. Now let’s build on that foundation. A general who doesn’t study the opposing force is already losing. The same applies to product management – not because you’re at war with competitors, but because understanding the landscape reveals opportunities, validates assumptions, and prevents blind spots.

Yet most PMs do competitive analysis reactively. A competitor launches something, leadership panics, and suddenly everyone needs a comparison. That’s not strategy. That’s reaction.

This lesson teaches you to build a systematic competitive intelligence practice that informs strategy proactively, not just responds to launches.

The Competitive Analysis Framework

A complete competitive analysis covers five dimensions:

1. Product: What they build, how it works, what’s good, what’s weak 2. Positioning: How they describe themselves, who they target, what they promise 3. Business Model: How they make money, pricing structure, free vs. paid 4. Market Presence: User base, growth trajectory, brand strength 5. Strategy Signals: Where they’re investing, what they’re likely to do next

Building Your Competitive Intelligence Brief

Start with a comprehensive competitor profile:

Help me build a competitive analysis for my product:

My product: [name and description]
My target users: [who]
My key differentiators: [what makes us unique]

Competitor: [name]
What I know about them: [everything you know -- features, pricing,
positioning, target audience, recent news]

Create a competitive intelligence brief covering:

1. PRODUCT ANALYSIS
   - Core features and capabilities
   - Strengths (where they excel)
   - Weaknesses (where they fall short)
   - Recent product changes or launches
   - Technical approach (if known)

2. POSITIONING ANALYSIS
   - How they describe themselves (messaging)
   - Target audience (who they're building for)
   - Value proposition (what they promise)
   - Brand perception (how users talk about them)

3. BUSINESS MODEL
   - Pricing structure and tiers
   - Free vs. paid feature split
   - Revenue model (subscription, usage, freemium)
   - Any recent pricing changes

4. STRATEGIC SIGNALS
   - Where they seem to be investing (hiring, features, partnerships)
   - What their recent moves suggest about their strategy
   - Likely next moves based on the pattern

5. IMPLICATIONS FOR US
   - Where we're stronger and should lean in
   - Where they're stronger and we should avoid competing directly
   - Opportunities they're missing that we could capture
   - Threats we should prepare for

IMPORTANT: Flag anything you're uncertain about. I'll verify with primary
sources.

The Feature Comparison Matrix

The feature comparison matrix is a workhorse document. Build and maintain one:

Create a feature comparison matrix for these products:

Products to compare:
1. [Your product] -- [brief description]
2. [Competitor A] -- [brief description]
3. [Competitor B] -- [brief description]
4. [Competitor C] -- [brief description]

Features to compare: [list key feature categories]

For each feature:
- Rate each product: Full support / Partial / Missing / Unknown
- Note any significant differences in implementation quality
- Identify features where one product is clearly ahead

Then analyze:
1. Where do we have feature parity? (Table stakes)
2. Where do we lead? (Differentiators to promote)
3. Where do we lag? (Gaps to evaluate)
4. What features does no one have? (Potential blue ocean)

Format as a clear comparison table.

SWOT Analysis with AI

SWOT remains one of the most useful strategic tools when done honestly:

Conduct a SWOT analysis for my product in the context of our competitive
landscape:

My product: [description]
Key competitors: [list with brief descriptions]
Market conditions: [relevant trends, changes, regulatory environment]

STRENGTHS (internal advantages):
What do we do better than competitors? What unique resources do we have?
What do users praise most?

WEAKNESSES (internal disadvantages):
Where do competitors outperform us? What do we lack? What do users
complain about most?

OPPORTUNITIES (external factors we could exploit):
What market trends favor us? What competitor weaknesses could we
capitalize on? What unserved needs exist?

THREATS (external factors that could hurt us):
What are competitors likely to do that would affect us? What market
shifts could make our advantages less relevant? What risks should we
prepare for?

Be honest and specific. Vague strengths ("good product") are useless.
Specific strengths ("fastest onboarding flow in the category, validated
by user research") are actionable.

Then: Based on this SWOT, what are the 3 most important strategic
actions we should take?

Market Research: Sizing and Opportunity

Beyond direct competitors, understand the market you’re operating in:

Help me analyze the market opportunity for [product/feature]:

What I know:
- Current market: [size, growth, key players]
- Our position: [market share, revenue, user count]
- Trends I'm seeing: [list]

Analyze:
1. MARKET SIZING
   - TAM (Total Addressable Market): If everyone who could use this did
   - SAM (Serviceable Available Market): The segment we can actually reach
   - SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): Realistic near-term capture

2. MARKET TRENDS
   - What's driving growth in this space?
   - What could slow growth?
   - How is buyer behavior changing?

3. ADJACENT MARKETS
   - What related markets could we expand into?
   - Are there convergence trends that create new opportunities?
   - Who are non-obvious competitors from adjacent spaces?

4. TIMING
   - Is the market ready for our solution?
   - Are we early, on time, or late?
   - What would change the timing equation?

Clearly separate data-backed estimates from speculation.

Monitoring Competitors Ongoing

Competitive analysis isn’t a one-time project. Build a monitoring system:

Weekly (5 minutes):

Check competitor product update pages and changelogs
Scan relevant industry newsletters
Review competitor social media for announcements

Monthly (30 minutes):

Review competitor pricing pages for changes
Check job postings for strategic signals (hiring ML engineers? expanding to new markets?)
Analyze any feature launches through the lens of your competitive matrix

Quarterly (2 hours):

Full competitive intelligence refresh using AI
Update your comparison matrix
Reassess SWOT
Present findings to leadership with strategic implications

It's time for my quarterly competitive update. Here's what has changed:

New developments:
[list competitor updates, market changes, your own product changes]

Previous SWOT analysis:
[paste or summarize]

Previous competitive matrix gaps:
[where we lagged behind]

Help me:
1. Update the SWOT based on new information
2. Identify any shifts in competitive positioning
3. Flag new threats or opportunities
4. Recommend 3 strategic adjustments based on the updated landscape
5. What should I be watching next quarter?

Quick Check: Common Competitive Analysis Mistakes

Mistake	Why It’s Harmful	Better Approach
Feature-for-feature comparison only	Misses positioning, pricing, and strategic differences	Analyze all five dimensions
Assuming competitors are wrong	Maybe their different approach serves a segment you don’t see	Ask “what do they know that we don’t?”
Only tracking direct competitors	Adjacent products can disrupt you	Include indirect competitors and substitutes
Reacting to every launch	Puts you in follower mode	React to patterns and strategy, not individual features
Ignoring competitor strengths	Prevents you from differentiating effectively	Be honest about where they’re better
Outdated analysis	Markets change fast	Build a monitoring cadence

Exercise: Build Your Competitive Intelligence System

Identify your top three to five competitors (include at least one indirect competitor)
Build a competitive intelligence brief for each using the AI prompt above
Create a feature comparison matrix
Conduct a SWOT analysis
Identify the top three strategic implications
Set up your monitoring system (weekly/monthly/quarterly cadence)

Save all outputs in a central location. This becomes your competitive intelligence repository that you update over time rather than recreating from scratch.

Key Takeaways

Competitive analysis covers five dimensions: product, positioning, business model, market presence, and strategy signals
AI dramatically speeds up competitive analysis but needs current, accurate input – always verify with primary sources
Feature comparison matrices are maintenance documents – update them, don’t recreate them
Honest SWOT analysis reveals strategic actions – vague strengths and weaknesses are useless
Market sizing (TAM/SAM/SOM) frames the opportunity and helps prioritize where to compete
Monitor competitors systematically: weekly scans, monthly reviews, quarterly deep analysis
React to competitive patterns and strategy, not individual feature launches

Next: Communicating product decisions to stakeholders in ways that get buy-in.

Up next: In the next lesson, we’ll dive into Stakeholder Communication and Alignment.