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 (<5% market adoption)	Only innovators talking about it, no proven business model	ASSESS on radar, monitor monthly
Sweet Spot (5-25% adoption)	Early majority adopting, clear use cases, competitors starting	TRIAL or BUILD -- this is the window
Mainstream (25-50% adoption)	Table stakes, user expectations set	ADOPT as parity -- differentiate on execution
Too Late (>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