Competitive Teardown

What This Skill Does

This skill facilitates a structured competitive teardown process to inform product strategy and market analysis. It guides users through defining competitors, collecting data from various sources, scoring them using a rubric, and generating actionable outputs. It's designed for product teams and strategists needing competitive intelligence.

When to Use

• Prepare for product strategy sessions.
• Analyze competitor feature launches.
• Conduct quarterly competitive reviews.
• Develop sales battle cards.
• Evaluate entering new market segments.
• Understand competitor pricing and positioning.

Key Features

• Provides a step-by-step teardown workflow.
• Offers a data collection guide with various sources.
• Includes a 12-dimension rubric for scoring competitors.
• Generates outputs like feature matrices and SWOT analyses.
• Builds action plans from teardown findings.
• Packages findings into stakeholder presentations.

Manual Installation

When to Use

Before a product strategy or roadmap session When a competitor launches a major feature or pricing change Quarterly competitive review Before a sales pitch where you need battle card data When entering a new market segment

Teardown Workflow

Follow these steps in sequence to produce a complete teardown:

Define competitors — List 2–4 competitors to analyze. Confirm which is the primary focus. Collect data — Use references/data-collection-guide.md to gather raw signals from at least 3 sources per competitor (website, reviews, job postings, SEO, social). Validation checkpoint: Before proceeding, confirm you have pricing data, at least 20 reviews, and job posting counts for each competitor. Score using rubric — Apply the 12-dimension rubric below to produce a numeric scorecard for each competitor and your own product. Validation checkpoint: Every dimension should have a score and at least one supporting evidence note. Generate outputs — Populate the templates in references/analysis-templates.md (Feature Matrix, Pricing Analysis, SWOT, Positioning Map, UX Audit). Build action plan — Translate findings into the Action Items template (quick wins / medium-term / strategic). Package for stakeholders — Assemble the Stakeholder Presentation using outputs from steps 3–5.

Data Collection Guide

Full executable scripts for each source are in references/data-collection-guide.md. Summaries of what to capture are below.

1. Website Analysis

Key things to capture: Pricing tiers and price points Feature lists per tier Primary CTA and messaging Case studies / customer logos (signals ICP) Integration logos Trust signals (certifications, compliance badges)

2. App Store Reviews

Review sentiment categories: Praise → what users love (defend / strengthen these) Feature requests → unmet needs (opportunity gaps) Bugs → quality signals UX complaints → friction points you can beat them on

Sample App Store query (iTunes Search API): GET https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=<competitor_name>&entity=software&limit=1 Extract trackId, then: GET https://itunes.apple.com/rss/customerreviews/id=<trackId>/sortBy=mostRecent/json?l=en&limit=50 Parse entry[].content.label for review text and entry[].im:rating.label for star rating.

3. Job Postings (Team Size & Tech Stack Signals)

Signals from job postings: Engineering volume → scaling vs. consolidating Specific tech mentions → stack (React/Vue, Postgres/Mongo, AWS/GCP) Sales/CS ratio → product-led vs. sales-led motion Data/ML roles → upcoming AI features Compliance roles → regulatory expansion

4. SEO Analysis

SEO signals to capture: Top 20 organic keywords (intent: informational / navigational / commercial) Domain Authority / backlink count Blog publishing cadence and topics Which pages rank (product pages vs. blog vs. docs)

5. Social Media Sentiment

• Capture recent mentions via Twitter/X API v2, Reddit, or LinkedIn.
• Look for recurring praise, complaints, and feature requests.
• See references/data-collection-guide.md for API query examples.

Scoring Rubric (12 Dimensions, 1-5)

Example completed row (Competitor: Acme Corp, Dimension 3 – UX):

Apply this pattern to all 12 dimensions for each competitor.

Templates

Full template markdown is in references/analysis-templates.md. Abbreviated reference below.

Feature Comparison Matrix

Rows: core features, pricing tiers, platform capabilities (web, iOS, Android, API). Columns: your product + up to 3 competitors. Score each cell 1–5. Sum to get total out of 60. Score legend: 5=Best-in-class, 4=Strong, 3=Average, 2=Below average, 1=Weak/Missing

Pricing Analysis

Capture per competitor: model type (per-seat / usage-based / flat rate / freemium), entry/mid/enterprise price points, free trial length. Summarize: price leader, value leader, premium positioning, your position, and 2–3 pricing opportunity bullets.

SWOT Analysis

For each competitor: 3–5 bullets per quadrant (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities for us, Threats to us). Anchor every bullet to a data signal (review quote, job posting count, pricing page, etc.).

Positioning Map

• 2x2 axes (e.g., Simple ↔ Complex / Low Value ↔ High Value).
• Place each competitor and your product.
• Bubble size = market share or funding.
• See references/analysis-templates.md for ASCII and editable versions.

UX Audit Checklist

Onboarding: TTFV (minutes), steps to activation, CC-required, onboarding wizard quality. Key workflows: steps, friction points, comparative score (yours vs. theirs). Mobile: iOS/Android ratings, feature parity, top complaint and praise. Navigation: global search, keyboard shortcuts, in-app help.

Action Items

Stakeholder Presentation (7 slides)

Executive Summary — Threat level (LOW/MEDIUM/HIGH/CRITICAL), top strength, top opportunity, recommended action Market Position — 2x2 positioning map Feature Scorecard — 12-dimension radar or table, total scores

Pricing Analysis

— Comparison table + key insight UX Highlights — What they do better (3 bullets) vs. where we win (3 bullets) Voice of Customer — Top 3 review complaints (quoted or paraphrased) Our Action Pl