Market Intelligence

Market Intelligence

Reference

• ID: S-PROD-07
• Category: Product / Strategy
• Inputs: company.config.yaml, existing PRDs, competitor list, industry context
• Outputs: market intelligence brief → artifacts/product/, technology radar → artifacts/product/
• Used by: Product Agent
• Tool scripts: ./tools/artifact/validate.sh

Purpose

Provide structured, ongoing market intelligence that moves beyond reactive discovery (validating a single idea) to proactive opportunity detection. Produces competitive landscape scans, technology radar assessments (ADOPT/TRIAL/ASSESS/HOLD), and trend timing analysis.

This skill turns "I think our competitors are doing X" into structured, evidence-based market awareness that feeds into PRD priorities and architecture decisions.

When to Use

• Quarterly competitive landscape refresh
• Before major product pivots or new market entry
• When evaluating whether to adopt a new technology, library, or framework
• When competitors launch notable features
• When the Product Agent needs market context for prioritization
• When the Engineering Agent needs technology evaluation for architecture decisions

Market Intelligence Procedure

Step 1: Load Context

1. Read company.config.yaml -- understand product, domain, stage, tech stack
2. Read existing market intelligence in artifacts/product/ -- avoid duplicate analysis
3. Read existing PRDs -- what competitive pressure do they reference?
4. Identify the monitoring scope:

• Direct competitors (same problem, same audience)
• Adjacent competitors (different approach, overlapping audience)
• Emerging threats (new entrants, tangential products expanding)

Step 2: Competitive Landscape Scan

Produce a structured competitive analysis:

Competitor Profile Template

For each competitor (3-5 direct, 2-3 adjacent):

| Dimension | Analysis | |-----------|----------| | Product | Core features, unique differentiators, pricing model | | Positioning | Target audience, messaging, value proposition | | Strengths | What they do better than us | | Weaknesses | Gaps, complaints (from reviews, social, forums) | | Recent Moves | Last 90 days: launches, pricing changes, funding, pivots | | Threat Level | Low / Medium / High -- with justification |

Feature Parity Matrix

Map key features across competitors:

| Feature | Us | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C |
|---------|-----|-------------|-------------|-------------|
| Feature 1 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Feature 2 | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Feature 3 | In Progress | Yes | Yes | Yes |

Legend: Yes = has it, No = doesn't have it, In Progress = building, Partial = incomplete

Identify: parity gaps (they all have it, we don't), differentiation opportunities (we have it, they don't), table stakes (everyone needs this).

Step 3: Technology Radar

Evaluate technologies relevant to the product using the ThoughtWorks radar model:

Classification

| Ring | Definition | Action | |------|-----------|--------| | ADOPT | Proven, low risk, clear value -- use it now | Include in tech stack | | TRIAL | Worth trying on a non-critical project | Spike or proof-of-concept | | ASSESS | Interesting, worth understanding -- not ready to try | Monitor, read docs | | HOLD | Proceed with caution -- issues identified | Avoid new adoption |

Evaluation Criteria

For each technology being assessed:

1. Fitness: Does it solve a real problem we have?
2. Maturity: Production-ready? Community size? Documentation quality?
3. Ecosystem: Integrates with our stack? Active maintenance? Breaking changes frequency?
4. Cost: Licensing, infrastructure, team ramp-up time
5. Risk: Vendor lock-in? Single maintainer? Regulatory concerns?

Technology Radar Template

## Technology Radar -- [Quarter Year]

### ADOPT
- **[Tech]**: [Why -- 1 sentence] (evaluated: [date])

### TRIAL
- **[Tech]**: [Why -- 1 sentence, what to try it on] (evaluated: [date])

### ASSESS
- **[Tech]**: [Why watching -- 1 sentence] (evaluated: [date])

### HOLD
- **[Tech]**: [Why cautious -- 1 sentence] (evaluated: [date])

Note: This subsumes the "Tool/Technology Evaluation" concept -- technology evaluation happens within the market intelligence context, not in isolation.

Step 4: Trend Timing Analysis

For identified trends and opportunities, assess timing:

Timing Framework

| Window | Signal | Action | |--------|--------|--------| | Too Early (50% adoption) | Saturated, commoditized | Skip unless catching up on parity |

For each trend:

1. Estimate current adoption stage
2. Identify signals that indicate the next transition
3. Recommend action: monitor, prototype, build, or skip
4. If "build": estimate development effort and link to PRD pipeline

Step 5: App Store Intelligence (Conditional)

Only when platforms.targets includes ios or android:

1. Review competitor app store listings (ratings, review themes, recent updates)
2. Identify keyword trends and category shifts
3. Note: feature requests appearing in competitor reviews but not addressed
4. Track rating trajectories (improving or declining competitors)

Step 6: Produce Market Intelligence Brief

Create the brief artifact:

---
id: MI-XXX
type: market-intelligence
status: draft
---

Structure:

1. Executive Summary (3-5 bullet points: what matters most right now)
2. Competitive Landscape (profiles + feature parity matrix)
3. Technology Radar (ADOPT/TRIAL/ASSESS/HOLD)
4. Trend Analysis (timing assessments with recommended actions)
5. Opportunities (gaps we can exploit, ranked by impact)
6. Threats (risks to monitor, ranked by likelihood x impact)
7. Recommendations (specific actions for Product, Engineering, Growth)

Step 7: Validate and Handoff

1. Save to artifacts/product/
2. Run ./tools/artifact/validate.sh
3. Competitive landscape feeds into: prd-writer (competitive requirements), positioning-messaging (differentiation), sprint-prioritizer (priority context)
4. Technology radar feeds into: architecture-draft (tech stack decisions), Engineering Agent (library choices)
5. Schedule next refresh: quarterly for full scan, monthly for trend monitoring

Quality Checklist

• [ ] At least 3 direct competitors profiled
• [ ] Feature parity matrix covers key differentiating features
• [ ] Technology radar uses ADOPT/TRIAL/ASSESS/HOLD classification
• [ ] Each technology assessment has clear evaluation criteria
• [ ] Trend timing uses the timing framework (too early / sweet spot / mainstream / too late)
• [ ] Recommendations are specific and actionable
• [ ] Brief distinguishes facts (observed) from analysis (interpreted)
• [ ] Sources are cited (URLs, dates) for key claims
• [ ] Artifact has valid frontmatter

Cross-References

• discovery-validation: Market intelligence provides context for discovery validation (is this idea already being done? by whom? how?)
• positioning-messaging: Competitive landscape directly informs positioning and differentiation strategy
• architecture-draft: Technology radar feeds into tech stack fitness evaluation in RFCs
• sprint-prioritizer: Competitive pressure and market opportunities feed into priority scoring

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: vibbs
• Source: vibbs/company-os
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.