competitor-research — Stage 1 research skill

The first skill in the article's Example 1 chain. Reads a competitor URL + name, produces a structured dossier, writes the file to marketing/competitors/MMYY-{slug}.md. Run once per competitor (3-5 competitors is typical for the first cycle). After all per-competitor files exist, run /competitor-aggregate to synthesize the canonical threat matrix.

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When to use

• Day 1 of the article's Example 1 ("foundational workflow"): you have a list of 3-5 competitors and need structured intel on each
• Before refreshing /positioning — positioning must read from current competitor intel
• Before writing battlecards or comparison pages
• Quarterly refresh of any specific competitor that's made a major move (funding, launch, executive change)

When NOT to use

• Aggregating across multiple competitors (use /competitor-aggregate after this skill produces per-competitor files)
• Building battlecards (use /sales-enablement — different shape, sales-team-facing)
• ICP research (use /icp-research)
• General company background unrelated to competition (use /company-context)

How it works

1. Inputs: competitor name + competitor URL (required). Optional: industry context, key differentiator hypothesis you want to test.
2. Reads (optional Exa MCP for fresh web data): competitor homepage, pricing page, about page, recent blog posts, recent LinkedIn activity.
3. Produces a 12-section dossier (matching the PulseAnalytics example at marketing/competitors/0526-competitor-a.md):
   • Executive summary (3-4 sentences)
   • Anchor + category
   • Position + messaging
   • Status-quo alternatives they position against
   • Key differentiators (claimed)
   • Pricing position
   • Where they win
   • Where they lose (your wedge)
   • Threat assessment (PRIMARY / DIRECT / STEALTH / LOW / DEFUNCT)
   • Win-loss patterns (from your deal history if available)
   • What to watch
   • Refresh cadence + owner
4. Every claim tagged with confidence per .claude/rules/ontology.md: [VERIFIED: source, url, date], [INFERRED: from X + Y], [ESTIMATED: reasoning], [UNAVAILABLE].
5. Writes the file to marketing/competitors/MMYY-{competitor-slug}.md. MMYY is current month+year (e.g., 0526 for May 2026).

Invoke

/competitor-research Bizible — https://bizible.com

Or open-ended:

/competitor-research analyze our top competitor — Bizible — and write the dossier

Example output (against the PulseAnalytics example seed)

See marketing/competitors/0526-competitor-a.md for a fully-populated example of what this skill produces. Notice:

• Anchor + threat level surfaced in the executive summary
• Claims tagged with confidence levels
• [UNAVAILABLE] notation where real data isn't accessible to the skill (e.g., your private win-loss data)
• Refresh cadence + owner at bottom

Dependencies

• Reads from: marketing/positioning/positioning.md (optional — gives the skill context on what differentiation matters); marketing/icp/ICP.md (optional — informs "where they win vs. lose" framing).
• Reads via Exa MCP (optional): competitor's website, recent news, public reviews on G2/Reddit/Trustpilot.
• Writes to: marketing/competitors/MMYY-{slug}.md

Customization

Change the dimension count or section structure by editing this SKILL.md body. The 12-section default tracks the Genesys ontology (.claude/rules/ontology.md § competitor-intel). Add a custom dimension (e.g., "Open-source posture" if you're in a category where that matters) by appending a new section after section 8.

Where this fits in the Example 1 chain

Day 1-3: /competitor-research × N (this skill) → per-competitor files in marketing/competitors/
Day 4:   /competitor-aggregate → synthesizes per-competitor files into the canonical threat matrix
Day 5:   /icp-research → reads competitor outputs to inform ICP

After all 3 competitor files exist, run /competitor-aggregate to lock the canonical version.

Refresh cadence

Per competitor: quarterly minimum. Trigger sooner on funding, launch, or repositioning. Use the --refresh flag (when you implement it) to update an existing dossier rather than create a new file.