Competitive Landscape (Framework: Market → Competitive Landscape)

Identify competitive and alternative offerings in the market, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and develop a strategy for winning. Frame the comparison universe correctly — customers don't just choose between named competitors; "do nothing", spreadsheets, and in-house builds are alternatives too. Analytical rule of thumb: know when to fight and when to run. See ../pm-copilot/references/framework.md.

The Solution Matrix

Plot your products and competitors' products on a 2×2:

• X-axis — Impact to Customer: Low → High
• Y-axis — Depth of Investment: Low → High

Quadrant	Investment / Impact	Meaning
Utilities	Low investment / Low impact	Keep the lights on; don't over-invest.
No Brainer	Low investment / High impact	Do these — best return.
Strategic Vision	High investment / High impact	Big bets that need a business case.
"Why?"	High investment / Low impact	Avoid — cost without customer value.

Use the Solution Matrix to: assess incremental technology investment vs. relative market value with development; frame how the product improves operations when interviewing the market; position against the competition; price products; position a product portfolio; and determine sales-channel strategy.

Interview the user (batch questions)

1. What problem/segment are we competing in, and which personas decide?
2. Who are the direct competitors — and what are the alternatives (do nothing, in-house, adjacent tools)?
3. For each: strengths, weaknesses, pricing power, brand equity, and where they beat us?
4. Where do our offerings and theirs sit on customer impact vs. depth of investment?

Artifact templates

Competitive Landscape analysis

# Competitive Landscape — <market / segment>

**Company:** <company>  ·  **Feature / Product:** <feature / product name>
**Author:** <author>  ·  **Date created:** <date>  ·  **Version:** 1.0
**The comparison universe:** <named competitors + alternatives incl. "do nothing">

| Competitor / Alternative | Strengths | Weaknesses | Our winning strategy (fight or run) |
| :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- |
| <competitor> | <strengths> | <weaknesses> | <how we win, or why we avoid> |

## Where we win
<the problems and segments where our distinctive competencies beat every alternative>

## Where we should not fight
<segments/problems where a competitor has pricing power or brand equity — run>

## Evidence
<win/loss counts, analyst reports, pricing data; flag assumptions>

Solution Matrix

# Solution Matrix — <portfolio / market>

Axes: X = Impact to Customer (Low→High), Y = Depth of Investment (Low→High).

| | Low Impact | High Impact |
| :-- | :-- | :-- |
| **High Investment** | "Why?" — <items> | Strategic Vision — <items> |
| **Low Investment** | Utilities — <items> | No Brainer — <items> |

**Our products:** <plotted>
**Competitors' products:** <plotted>
**Read-out:** <where to invest, where to hold, where competitors are exposed>

Deliver the artifact

Follow ../pm-copilot/references/artifact-output.md: ask Markdown or .docx, write the .md, convert to .docx on request via your environment's native document-creation capability. Then offer the next stage: sharpen pm-positioning against these competitors, or set investment direction in pm-product-strategy.