How do you use competitive intelligence to inform your product roadmap and strategy?

Its an often under-used tool - in fact a lot of organizations don't have a dedicated CI budget or club it with MI. However it can be invaluable to standing out from the crowd and a definite win when designing your product roadmap. What you do want to do is analyze your competitors' product features and updates and you can do this through publically available data and ethical means and tools like SWOT/Porter's five. What you don't want to do however is blindly copy their format. Instead, build around your own USP and differentiations and around your customer's needs and long term sustainability.

While understanding your competition is crucial, it's even more important to identify and solve your customers' needs better than anyone else. Don't get too fixated on your competitors as this can limit your creativity and lead to following their lead. Use SWOT, Porter's five forces, and market segmentation to map out your competitive landscape and identify key players, but always prioritize meeting your customers' needs.

Defining competitive landscape starts with understanding your customers needs and mapping it with all available solutions. Now these competitors can be a sophisticated platform or a free solution like Google sheet, with much manual work.

One of the best ways to keep up-to-date with your competitors' product updates is to monitor social media for posts related to their user conferences and checking their YouTube channels frequently. You should also review their product release notes and blogs to understand how they are positioning the new features/functionalities in their product. If they are publicly-held, you can also review their quarterly earnings call transcripts for insights into their product strategy. Remember to follow the leading industry analysts in your space, as they are almost always invited to competitors' user conferences and post pictures/POVs from these events on social media. This gives you a great source of competitive product updates.

Also need to explore partnerships or alliances your competitors are forming and assess their impact on the market. Identify potential collaboration opportunities or areas where you can differentiate through unique partnerships.

Surveys with customers of competitors is a good way to understand the current position of your competitors and current market offerings. Your customers can give some idea of why they chose you and not some other product/service, but from competition customers you can learn about the missing gaps. This not only helps in creating targeted battle cards but also assists in defining product roadmap and marketing campaigns.

Keeping track of competitors positioning is good but make sure you're not simply copying the best in the game. Your messaging should reflect current market sentiments and should target the 'current' needs of your customer base.

Benchmarking: You can use competitive intelligence to benchmark your product against others in the market. This can help you identify areas where your product excels or falls short, allowing you to prioritize improvements or enhancements in your product roadmap. Product Features and Pricing: Understanding your competitors' product features and pricing strategies can help you in designing your product and pricing it competitively. It can reveal gaps in the market where your product could potentially fill, or areas where your product could stand out with unique features or pricing.

Risk Management: Competitive intelligence can also help identify potential risks, such as a competitor developing a similar product or moving into your niche. By being aware of these risks, you can adjust your product roadmap and strategy to mitigate them. Customer Needs and Preferences: Lastly, competitive intelligence can provide insights into what customers value and their unmet needs. Looking at reviews of competitors' products, social media discussions, and other forms of customer feedback can give you ideas for features or improvements to incorporate into your own product.

Key take aways for establishing a Competitive Intelligence program: ✅ Identify the key stakeholders for your CI programs. ( Leverage tools used by your sales team) ✅ Create a brand for your CI content Establish a cadence/routine for Cl assets so that the sales team knows when to expect them - helps build a habit and increase engagement from the sales team ✅ Feedback is important - Make sure to follow up any sales training or boot camps with feedbacks or surveys. ✅ Keep the C-suite in the loop (No long essays, keep it bite-sized and interesting, Insights over long articles)

Understand the Market: Competitive intelligence can give you a clear understanding of the market landscape, including who your competitors are, what they're doing, what's working for them, and where there might be gaps or opportunities. This can help you to position your product effectively and identify potential areas for innovation. Identify Trends: By observing your competitors, you can spot industry trends and shifts in consumer behavior. This can inform your product roadmap by helping you to anticipate and respond to these changes, ensuring your product remains relevant and competitive.

- Gather insights on your competitors' pricing, sales channels, and marketing tactics - Identify areas where you can differentiate your product and gain a competitive advantage - Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in your industry - Regularly review and update your competitive intelligence - Gather insights on your customers' needs and preferences and how they are evolving over time - Identify opportunities to innovate and improve your product to better meet the needs of your customers.