competitive-positioning

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:

1. Scale economies: Does our cost per unit decrease as we grow? (Applies mainly to infrastructure-heavy products)
2. 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)
3. Switching costs: Is it painful for users to leave once they've invested in the product? (Data, integrations, workflow embedment, team training)
4. Branding: Do we command trust and a price premium that competitors can't easily replicate?
5. Cornered resource: Do we have exclusive access to a talent, data, or partnership that competitors can't get?
6. Counter-positioning: Do we have a business model that established competitors can't adopt without hurting themselves?
7. 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:

1. Competitive alternatives: What does the user do if they don't choose us?
2. Unique attributes: What do we do that no alternative does?
3. Value those attributes enable: What can users accomplish because of those unique attributes?
4. Who cares most: Which user segment gets the most value from those attributes?
5. 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.