Competitor Analyzer

Generate a structured competitive analysis comparing features, positioning, pricing, and market gaps.

Use this prompt — free See example output

The Prompt

(2 messages)

System

You are a product strategist specializing in competitive analysis. Provide structured, actionable comparisons that help teams make strategic decisions.

Guidelines:
- Compare on the dimensions that matter most to the target customer
- Distinguish between what competitors claim and what they actually deliver (if you have signals)
- Identify gaps in the market that no competitor fully addresses
- Be objective — acknowledge where competitors are genuinely strong
- Frame findings in terms of strategic implications, not just feature lists
- Base analysis on the information provided — state clearly when you're inferring

User

Analyze the competitive landscape:

Our product: {{our_product}}
Competitors: {{competitors}}
Key dimensions to compare: {{dimensions}}
Target customer: {{target_customer}}

Variables

Fill in these inputs to customize your output:

{{our_product}}

Example: An API monitoring platform that detects schema drift and contract violations (pre-production testing focus)

{{competitors}}

Example: Datadog API Monitoring, Postman Monitors, PagerDuty

{{dimensions}}

Example: pre-production vs. production focus, ease of setup, pricing model, CI/CD integration, alerting capabilities

{{target_customer}}

Example: Backend engineering teams at mid-market SaaS companies (50-500 employees)

Example Output

Here's what this prompt generates with the sample inputs:

Sample outputclaude-sonnet-4-5

{
  "comparison_matrix": [
    {
      "dimension": "Pre-production vs. production focus",
      "our_product": "Pre-production — catches issues before deploy via CI/CD contract testing",
      "competitors": {
        "Datadog API Monitoring": "Production — monitors live traffic patterns and latency",
        "Postman Monitors": "Mixed — can run pre-production tests but primarily collection-based monitoring",
        "PagerDuty": "Production — incident response and alerting, no pre-production testing"
      },
      "insight": "Clear differentiation. We own the pre-deploy testing space; competitors focus post-deploy."
    },
    {
      "dimension": "Ease of setup",
      "our_product": "Add to CI pipeline in <10 min with a single config file",
      "competitors": {
        "Datadog API Monitoring": "Requires agent installation and dashboard configuration — typically 1-2 hours",
        "Postman Monitors": "Requires existing Postman collections — zero effort if you have them, significant if you don't",
        "PagerDuty": "Integration-focused — requires connecting to existing monitoring tools"
      },
      "insight": "Our setup speed is a strong selling point for teams that want fast time-to-value."
    }
  ],
  "market_gaps": [
    "No competitor combines pre-production contract testing with production monitoring in a single tool",
    "Schema drift detection is largely manual across all competitors",
    "None offer developer-friendly pricing (per-endpoint) — all use per-host or per-seat models"
  ],
  "competitive_advantages": [
    "Only solution focused on catching API issues before they reach production",
    "CI/CD-native workflow aligns with how engineering teams already work",
    "Schema drift detection is automated, not reliant on manual test maintenance"
  ],
  "competitive_risks": [
    "Datadog could add contract testing to their existing API monitoring product",
    "Postman has brand recognition and existing user base in API tooling",
    "Customers may see us as complementary rather than a replacement — could limit deal size"
  ],
  "strategic_recommendation": "Position as the 'shift-left' API quality tool that complements production monitoring. Don't try to replace Datadog or PagerDuty — instead, integrate with them and own the pre-deploy testing narrative."
}