competitive-report-structure

Competitive Report Structure

Use this skill to assemble scored competitor cards into a decision-grade report. The report must answer three questions for the client: who do we compete with, how do we compete, and where is our defensible white-space? Every section earns its place by moving toward those answers — cut anything that doesn't.

When to Activate

• All competitor profile cards from benchmark-methodology are complete and ready to assemble.
• Need to present competitive findings to a founder, leadership team, or board.
• The report must drive decisions (who to compete with, how, where the moat is) — not just document the landscape.
• Preparing a client deliverable that must be auditable and defensible.

Client positioning brief (establish first)

Before assembling the report, establish the client's positioning brief. It supplies:

• Strategic tension — the paired axes (e.g., memorability × hireability) that define the client's target white-space. All maps and synthesis resolve back to this tension.
• Brand balance — the intended proportional mix of the client's strategic emphases (e.g., 60% strategy/evidence, 25% distinctiveness, 15% craft). Every recommendation must be checked against this balance; flag any that would shift it.
• Differentiator — the framing principle for the executive summary and white-space section.
• Target quadrant — where the client intends to sit in the tension map; confirming whether that quadrant is genuinely open is the report's central empirical question.

Framing principle

The whole report is organized around the client's strategic tension and recommendations resolve back to the client's deliberate brand balance. Recommendations that would break that balance must be flagged against it explicitly — "this move shifts the balance from X/Y/Z toward A/B/C; confirm intent."

Report sections

1. Executive summary

3–5 takeaways, decision-first. State the most important findings in plain language: where the client is strong, where it's exposed, who occupies its target white-space, and the top 2–3 moves. Written so a founder/PM reads only this and knows what to do. No methodology here.