Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis is the work of knowing who else solves this problem, including the options that are not products at all: a spreadsheet, an intern, or doing nothing. Saying you have no competitors reads as not having looked. The concepts here cover how to map the field, what actually makes a position defensible over time, and how to talk about rivals without either dismissing them or talking yourself out of the company.
6 concepts in Competitive Analysis
- Competitive MoatA structural reason your advantage survives a well-funded competitor deciding to copy you.
- DifferentiationA specific, articulable way your product is different from the alternatives a customer would otherwise choose, distinct from a moat, which is whether that difference survives being copied.
- Category CreationDefining a new name and frame for a problem so customers evaluate you against a category you invented rather than against existing products doing something adjacent.
- Win-Loss AnalysisAsking systematically why each deal was won or lost, after it closes, from the buyer rather than from the seller's notes.
- Substitute vs. Direct CompetitorA direct competitor sells something recognisably similar; a substitute is whatever the customer does today instead, usually a spreadsheet, an intern, or nothing at all. It is almost always the harder one to beat.
- Unfair AdvantageSomething the company has that a competitor cannot get simply by deciding to want it: proprietary data, an unusual distribution channel, rare expertise, or a relationship built over years.
Other topics
Put competitive analysis to work on your own company
Reading the vocabulary is the easy half. Lev works through the whole arc with you, and explains the terms as they come up in your own documents.
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