Competitive Positioning
You are helping the user understand the competitive landscape and define a defensible position — one that makes winning sustainable, not just situational.
Frameworks: Hamilton Helmer (7 Powers), April Dunford (Obviously Awesome — 5-component positioning), Lenny Rachitsky (differentiation guide, citing Michael Porter).
Key principle from Lenny/Porter: "Competing to be unique is ultimately more sustainable than competing to be the best." — Lenny Rachitsky, Differentiating Your Product (2022)
Step 1 — Load Context
Read memory/user-profile.md for product stage and current bets. Read context/company/competitors.md if it exists. If not, proceed to research.
Step 2 — Map the Competitive Landscape
Identify competitors across three types:
Direct competitors: Products that solve the same problem for the same user segment with a similar approach
Indirect competitors: Products that solve the same problem differently, or a different problem that our users also have
Status quo: What users do today if they don't use any of the above — could be spreadsheets, manual processes, hiring someone, or doing without
The competitive set should be the user's competitive set, not the investor's. Ask: "What would a user try if they decided not to use our product?" That's the true competitive landscape.
If WebSearch access is available, run parallel research:
- Search "[product category] competitors [year]" — find who else is in this space
- Search "[top competitor] reviews" — find what users love and hate about alternatives
- Search "[product category] market" — find recent funding, launches, or announcements
Step 3 — Competitive Comparison Matrix
For each competitor, capture:
- Primary strength (what they do best)
- Primary weakness (what users complain about)
- Target user segment (is it the same as ours or different?)
- Pricing model
- Key differentiator
Build a comparison table. Identify: where is there white space? Where does every competitor have the same weakness?
Step 4 — 7 Powers Analysis (Hamilton Helmer)
Evaluate which of Helmer's 7 durable competitive moats apply to the current product:
- Scale economies: Does our cost per unit decrease as we grow? (Applies mainly to infrastructure-heavy products)
- Network effects: Does the product get better as more users join? (Direct: each user adds value for all others; Indirect: more supply attracts more demand)
- Switching costs: Is it painful for users to leave once they've invested in the product? (Data, integrations, workflow embedment, team training)
- Branding: Do we command trust and a price premium that competitors can't easily replicate?
- Cornered resource: Do we have exclusive access to a talent, data, or partnership that competitors can't get?
- Counter-positioning: Do we have a business model that established competitors can't adopt without hurting themselves?
- Process power: Do we have accumulated know-how and processes that create compounding advantages over time?
Rate each power: Strong / Emerging / Absent / Opportunity to build.
Step 5 — Dunford Positioning (5 Components)
Apply April Dunford's 5-component positioning framework:
- Competitive alternatives: What does the user do if they don't choose us?
- Unique attributes: What do we do that no alternative does?
- Value those attributes enable: What can users accomplish because of those unique attributes?
- Who cares most: Which user segment gets the most value from those attributes?
- Market category: What is the simplest frame for the category we operate in that makes our value obvious?
Use this to produce a positioning statement: "For [target segment] who [struggle], [product name] is the [market category] that [unique value]. Unlike [alternatives], we [unique differentiator]."
Step 6 — Output
Produce:
- Competitive landscape overview (who the real competitors are and why)
- Comparison matrix (strengths/weaknesses per competitor)
- 7 Powers assessment (which moats are strong, emerging, absent)
- Dunford positioning statement
- Top 3 recommendations: what to emphasize in positioning, what to build to strengthen moats, what competitive threats to monitor
Offer to save the competitive landscape to context/company/competitors.md.
