Competitive Intel
Run a structured OSINT pass on competitors—pricing, reviews, ads, hiring, and positioning—before you commit to a build or GTM angle.
Overview
competitive-intel is an agent skill most often used in Idea (also Validate, Launch) that applies an OSINT playbook to track competitor product, messaging, hiring, and review signals.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill competitive-intelWhat is this skill?
- Free OSINT source map: website, G2/Capterra/Trustpilot, LinkedIn jobs, GitHub, Crunchbase
- Messaging signals: Facebook Ad Library, keyword bidding, SEMrush/Ahrefs, Wayback homepage history
- News and founder signals: TechCrunch, X/LinkedIn, podcasts, and job-description roadmap hints
- Review mining guidance—emphasis on recent and one-star reviews for weakness discovery
- Paid-tool callouts for tier-1 competitor deep dives when free sources are insufficient
Adoption & trust: 576 installs on skills.sh; 17.5k GitHub stars; 2/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You are considering a product direction but only have a vague sense of who competes and how they position, price, and advertise.
Who is it for?
Indie founders doing pre-build niche checks or pre-launch differentiation on SaaS, content products, or ecommerce plays with named competitors.
Skip if: Builders who need automated scrapers, legal M&A diligence, or enterprise battlecard workflows inside a CRM.
When should I use this skill?
You need a structured competitor research pass using public OSINT sources before committing to product or GTM decisions.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get a prioritized research plan and source-by-source findings you can turn into positioning decisions, landing copy, and validate-phase scope cuts.
- Source-by-source competitor notes (pricing, reviews, ads, hiring, tech stack)
- Positioning and weakness summary suitable for validate or launch docs
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Competitive intelligence answers whether the opportunity is crowded and how rivals message before you invest in build. Competitors is the canonical shelf because the playbook is explicitly about tracking and comparing rival products and GTM.
Where it fits
Compare three incumbents’ pricing pages and 1-star reviews before choosing a wedge feature.
Use hiring and GitHub activity to see if rivals already ship the workflow you planned.
Mine organic keyword and backlink patterns to avoid head-on SEO fights.
How it compares
Use as a research methodology skill, not a live data feed or MCP connector to G2 or LinkedIn.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is competitive-intel for?
Solo builders and small teams who need repeatable competitor research without hiring market intelligence staff.
When should I use competitive-intel?
In Idea when mapping the competitive landscape, in Validate when testing whether your angle is differentiated, and at Launch when refining ads and SEO against rival messaging—you run fresh passes after major competitor launches or funding news.
Is competitive-intel safe to install?
The skill suggests public OSINT sources only; confirm compliance with each platform’s terms, and review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page before installing from the community repo.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Competitive Intel
# Competitive Intelligence Playbook ## OSINT Sources for Competitor Tracking ### Free, Reliable Sources **Company & Product:** - **Their website** — pricing page (archive.org for history), product changelog, careers page - **G2 / Capterra / Trustpilot** — customer reviews; filter by recency; read 1-star reviews carefully - **LinkedIn** — job postings signal roadmap; company page for headcount trend; employees for leaks - **GitHub** — open source activity; what they're building; engineering team size; tech stack - **Crunchbase / PitchBook** (free tier) — funding history, investors, team changes - **BuiltWith** — tech stack they use; signals about infrastructure maturity **Messaging & Positioning:** - **Facebook Ad Library** — see their current ad copy and creative; what messages they're testing - **Google Keyword Planner** — which keywords they're bidding on - **SEMrush / Ahrefs** (free trial or limited) — their organic keywords, backlink profile - **Wayback Machine** — homepage evolution over time; when positioning shifted - **Their blog** — content strategy reveals priorities and ICP assumptions **News & Events:** - **TechCrunch, VentureBeat** — funding announcements, major launches - **Twitter/X / LinkedIn** — CEO + founders; direct signals about strategy - **Podcast appearances** — founders talk more openly on podcasts than press releases - **Job descriptions** — "Senior Engineer - Payments" means they're building payments ### Paid (Worth It for Tier-1 Competitors) - **G2 Buyer Intent** — which prospects are researching your competitor right now - **Bombora** — intent data for account-level research signals - **PitchBook** — funding, investors, valuation estimates - **Klue / Crayon / Kompyte** — dedicated CI platforms that aggregate automatically ### Primary Research (Best Signal) - **Win/loss interviews** — the single highest-signal source (see below) - **Talk to churned customers** — why did they switch? To whom? - **Talk to their customers** — LinkedIn outreach; honest conversations - **Industry events** — competitor presentations reveal roadmap; talk to attendees - **Former employees** — LinkedIn; respectful outreach; no NDA violations --- ## Competitive Battlecard Format A battlecard is a 1-page (or single screen) document for sales reps to reference before and during calls. **Design principles:** - Written for a rep with 2 minutes to prep, not a product manager - Action-oriented: tells reps what to SAY, not just what to know - Updated monthly at minimum; never more than 90 days old ### Battlecard Structure ``` COMPETITOR: [Name] Last updated: [Date] | Owner: [Name] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE 30-SECOND SUMMARY [One paragraph. Who they are, who they sell to, why they win.] THEIR STRENGTHS (know these — don't dismiss them) • [Strength 1] — what customers actually love about them • [Strength 2] • [Strength 3] THEIR REAL WEAKNESSES (from win/loss data, not assumptions) • [Weakness 1] — source: [customer quote / win/loss theme] • [Weakness 2] • [Weakness 3] OUR DIFFERENTIATED ADVANTAGES • [Advantage 1] — proof point: [metric/customer/case study] • [Advantage 2] — proof point: • [Advantage 3] — proof point: COMMON OBJECTIONS + RESPONSES "They have [feature] and you don't." → [Response. Acknowledge, reframe, redirect.] "They're cheaper." → [Response with ROI angle or TCO comparison.] "They're more established / bigger." → [Response. Size isn't always advantage; use to your benefit.] TRAP-SETTING QUESTIONS (ask these early to shift the eval criteria) • "How important is [your differentiator] to your team?" • "Have you looked at [pain point they create]?" • "What happens to your workflow when [their known limitation occurs]?" WHEN WE WIN • [Segment or scenario where we almost always beat them] • [Use case where we're clearly stronger] WHEN WE LOSE (be honest) • [Scenario where they're genuinely better — don't fight these battles] • [Segment where they have structural advantage