Competitive Platform Analysis

---
name: competitive-platform-analysis
description: Use when scoping a competitive landscape — identifying, categorising, and score-filtering a competitor set before benchmarking. First step before benchmark-methodology. Triggers on "competitor set scoping", "direct adjacent aspirational tiers", "landscape report scope", "who counts as competitor", "competitive tiers".
---

# Competitive Platform Analysis

Use this skill to decide **who to benchmark** and **where to find them** before
any scoring begins. A competitive analysis is only as good as its frame: the
wrong set makes the client look either unbeatable or doomed. The goal is a
defensible, decision-relevant set — not an exhaustive census.

## When to Activate

- About to start a competitive benchmarking project and need to define the competitor set first.
- Unsure which companies belong in Direct / Adjacent / Aspirational tiers.
- Need a defensible, pruned scope for a market landscape report.
- Has a positioning brief and wants to identify who contests that position.
- First step before running benchmark-methodology.

## Client positioning brief (establish first)

Before scoping the set, establish the client's positioning brief. If you don't
already have it, run a short brand-discovery interview to elicit it — do **not**
invent one and do **not** scope the set blind. The brief supplies:

- **Identity / aesthetic register** — what kind of studio or company this is and
  how it presents itself.
- **Offer** — what services or products it delivers.
- **Target clients** — who it sells to.
- **Differentiator** — the moat or positioning argument the client believes in.
- **Scoping consequence** — the implication for how to weight competitors (e.g.,
  prioritize by distinctiveness vs. capability overlap vs. price).
- **Strategic tension** — the paired axes that define the client's white-space
  (e.g., memorability × hireability).

**Do not proceed without the positioning brief.** A competitor list scoped
without the client's lens is noise, not intelligence. The scoping consequence in
particular determines which competitors are *strong* rivals (those that contest
the client's moat) vs. merely overlapping on service menu.

## Selection criteria

For each candidate, capture these axes — they decide both inclusion and tier:

- **Size / model** — solo, micro-studio (2–8), boutique (sub-30), mid-size
  agency. Match the client's own band; same-band studios are the realistic
  head-to-head set.
- **Niche / specialization** — how closely the candidate's focus overlaps with
  the client's offer. Tighter overlap = more direct.
- **Geography / market** — EU vs US vs global-remote; language; time-zone reach.
  Note whether they win the same clients the client targets.
- **Pricing & engagement model** — productized sprints, retainer, project,
  day-rate; transparent vs "contact us". Signals positioning maturity.
- **Portfolio style** — generic vs. opinionated/editorial vs. contrarian. Closer
  to the client's aesthetic register = more they contest the client's
  distinctiveness.
- **Technical depth / craft maturity** — relevant if the client's credibility
  story includes public process work, open tooling, or documented systems.
- **Brand strength** — does the studio have an ownable verbal/visual identity, or
  is it interchangeable? Weight this per the client's scoping consequence.

## Player taxonomy — axes to populate across

Don't sort competitors into niche-specific buckets; sort them along a few

## Exemplo

```text
Brief: studio boutique, moat = voz própria; tensão = memorabilidade × contratabilidade
Set: 6 nomes → tiers: 2 diretos (mesma faixa + estética), 2 adjacentes, 2 aspiracionais
Corte: exclui enterprise genérica (fora da faixa) → set defensável p/ benchmark-methodology
```