Competitor Scan

---
name: competitor-scan
description: How to map a competitive field so somebody can make a decision from it — picking the axes that matter, finding the competitor nobody named, and reporting where you are behind. Use for competitor research, market scans, and "should we worry about X".
---

# Mapping a field somebody has to decide from

## Find the field before comparing anything

Start from the list of names you were given, and then go find the ones you were
not. Two angles surface them: searching for **the problem** rather than the
product, and reading what people ask for when they say *"alternative to X"*.

The competitor that matters is often not the one with a similar product. It is
whatever the person would do instead — including a spreadsheet, an intern, or
nothing at all. A scan that only lists direct rivals misses the option most
people actually take.

## Choose axes people decide on

The temptation is to fill in every field that can be filled in. Thirty rows of
feature checkboxes is not a decision aid; it is a way of avoiding having an
opinion.

Pick the handful of axes on which somebody would actually choose, and say why
those. Usually some of:

- what it costs, at the size the reader actually is
- what it does that the others cannot, stated concretely
- what it needs from you — setup, migration, a team, a subscription
- who it is for, which is often the real answer
- whether it is alive: last release, last commit, whether support answers

Mark a cell you could not establish as **unknown**, and never as "no". Those are
different findings, and quietly turning the first into the second is how a scan
becomes flattering.

## The row where you are behind is the point

A comparison where your side wins every row is a brochure, and everyone reading
it knows. It also destroys the credibility of the rows where the advantage is
real.

So find and state, plainly:

- what the other thing genuinely does better
- who should honestly choose them instead
- what they shipped recently that closes a gap you were relying on

That is the part that could not have been written without doing the work, and it
is the reason somebody asked.

## Say what kind of claim each cell is

A price from a public pricing page, a price from a sales call, and a price
somebody mentioned in a forum are three different facts. Carry the difference
into the table or the notes beneath it. Anything from the competitor's own
marketing is a claim, not a measurement, and should read as one.

## Date the whole thing

A competitive picture is true on a date and not after. Put the date on it, and
note where a rival has something announced but not shipped — that is the part
that will be wrong first, and flagging it is what lets somebody re-check the
right cell instead of redoing the scan.

## Hand back a read, not just a grid

End with what you actually think: who is the real threat and on what timescale,
what would have to change for that to shift, and the one thing you would go and
find out next. The grid is evidence for that paragraph. A grid with no paragraph
leaves the hardest part of the job to the person who delegated it.