The Product team’s guide to
market and competitive intelligence.
1. Introduction to competitive & market intelligence.
What is it, and why is it important?
Welcome! We’re excited that you are here!
If you already have a strong understanding of competitive intelligence and market intelligence within the context of product teams, you can skip to Chapter 2. We’d still recommend skimming through the best practices and summary information in this introduction.
What is competitive and market intelligence?
Competitive intelligence is the information and analysis gathered on products, customers, competitors, and other aspects of the business environment needed to support the strategy of an organization.
Market intelligence is information gathered to accurately determine market opportunity, market penetration, and market development metrics.
These two types of intelligence can not be separated in today’s high-speed and adapting landscape. By combining the efforts to understand the market AND the players within that market, you can strategize, build, and position your product as the market innovator.
“The average time it takes for a company to go from birth to compete with established players is under 3 years.”
Basics of intelligence for Product teams.
Competitive and market intelligence benefits all sectors of your business; it helps you craft better products, arms sales, and marketing teams, gives further context to your development and design teams and provides guidance into navigating your business into a blue ocean (more on that in Chapter 2).
This information is the fuel for companies that want to disrupt existing markets. Only by getting a full understanding of the market and the customer’s needs can you spot the gaps and missing parts of the equation.
When you gather competitive and market intelligence, you can learn where there are gaps between your rivals and your customers. You can discover this through online forums, reviews, marketing documentation; you also learn more about your customers from how the competitors in your market are adapting and changing to meet those needs. These changes extend beyond product features to strategic hires, market positioning, and more.
When done well, this market intelligence does much more than vanity metrics. When done well, it helps real businesses achieve real goes for their successes.
Why this guide?
This guide will help you become more data-driven in your strategic efforts. Rather than haphazardly throwing ideas all over the place (and getting lucky every once in a while), you’ll put more data behind stronger ideas.
Grab a pad of paper (maybe some coffee), and let’s dive into Chapter 2: Intelligence for Product people 101.
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