domains / marketing / competitor-landscape-management / competitors

competitors

Skill card

combined

The two skills share the name 'competitors' but solve different problems. The first is a content-marketing skill for writing public SEO pages (alternatives, vs pages) with strict evidence and honesty rules. The second is a founder-facing operational skill for maintaining a local competitive landscape (files, discovery, watch passes, archiving). They overlap only in the general concept of tracking competitors; their steps, file structures, and outputs are distinct, so crowning one would hide a real alternative.

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Combined skill

# Competitors

This skill covers two related but distinct workflows. Choose the path that matches the user's intent.

## Path A: Public Competitor & Alternative Pages (SEO / Buyer-Facing)

Use when the user wants to create or audit competitor comparison or alternative pages for search and buyer-facing use.

1. **Load context.** If `.agents/product-marketing.md` (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or legacy `product-marketing-context.md`) exists, read it first. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered.
2. **Never guess the competitor.** If the request doesn't name one and the context file doesn't identify it, ask and stop.
3. **Understand the landscape.** Capture your product's value proposition, differentiators, ICP, pricing, strengths, and honest weaknesses. Identify direct and indirect competitors, their positioning, and search volume for competitor terms.
4. **Choose a page format.**
   - **Singular alternative** (`/alternatives/[competitor]`): validate pain, position you as the alternative, detailed comparison, who should/shouldn't switch, migration path, social proof, CTA.
   - **Plural alternatives** (`/alternatives/[competitor]-alternatives`): common pain points, criteria framework, list of 4-7 real alternatives (you first), comparison table, detailed breakdown, recommendation by use case, CTA.
   - **You vs [Competitor]** (`/vs/[competitor]`): direct head-to-head comparison.
   - **Competitor vs Competitor**: neutral comparison of two competitors.
5. **Apply evidence discipline.**
   - "Not observed" is not "doesn't have." Use ✗ or "not available" only when docs or a hands-on trial confirm absence.
   - Date competitor facts with an "as of" date on pricing tables and in the competitor data file.
   - A single visit is a snapshot; don't claim long-term stability without dated history.
   - State what changed, not why, unless the competitor has said it publicly.
   - Separate fact from interpretation from recommendation.
6. **Audit existing pages** when asked: check for outdated claims, missing dates, and unsupported assertions. Update or flag for re-verification.

## Path B: Founder Competitive Landscape Management (Local Files)

Use when the founder wants to discover, update, monitor, or archive competitors for their own project.

1. **Load project context.** Read `startup/core.md` for project name, seed description, audience, problem, solution, ICP, and geography. If the file does not exist, inform the user the project may not be initialized and suggest `/whats-next`.
2. **Scaffold if needed.** Ensure `startup/competitors/` exists (`mkdir -p startup/competitors`).
3. **Check for thin files.** A file is thin if its `## Description` is a placeholder or single short sentence, or it is missing `## Core Features`, or it is missing `## Notes` and the description is thin. If thin files exist, ask the user whether to fill them out before continuing. If yes, dispatch a `web-researcher` call covering all thin files, save raw output to `startup/research/{YYYY-MM-DD}-{slug}-research.md`, and write filled content back to each competitor file.
4. **Infer intent and act.**
   - **Specific competitor:** load the file, discuss, help update.
   - **New competitor:** create a file with YAML frontmatter (`type`, `url`, optional `status`, `maturity`, `last_checked`), H1 name, `## Description`, `## Core Features`, `## Notes`.
   - **Update existing:** read the file, propose changes, get confirmation, write back.
   - **Landscape summary:** summarize existing competitors grouped by direct/indirect with key differentiators.
   - **Deeper research:** dispatch `web-researcher` with a focused prompt, update the file, save full output to `startup/research/{YYYY-MM-DD}-{competitor-slug}-research.md`.
   - **User feedback:** load `references/user-feedback.md`, mine review sites and communities, write a `## What Users Say` section into each competitor file.
   - **Watch pass:** load `references/watch.md`, re-check each existing competitor for changes, scan for new entrants, refresh files in place with a `## Change Log`, append to `startup/competitor-watch.md`, re-sync the landscape map. Requires at least one non-archived competitor.
   - **Archive:** set `status: archived` and add `archived_reason` to frontmatter.
5. **File conventions.**
   - YAML frontmatter: `type` (direct/indirect), `url`, optional `status` (active/archived), `maturity` (incumbent/scaleup/startup/unknown), `last_checked` (ISO date).
   - H1: competitor name.
   - `## Description`: what the company does.
   - `## Core Features`: key capabilities.
   - `## Notes`: differentiation, observations, change log.

## Conflicts

- **coreyhaines31/marketingskills** produces public-facing SEO pages with evidence discipline and 'as of' dating for claims about competitors.
- **davepoon/buildwithclaude** maintains private local competitor files with frontmatter, watch passes, and archiving; it does not produce public comparison pages.

These are complementary workflows. Use Path A for public content and Path B for internal landscape management.