Creating a Competitive Intelligence (CI) Process – Process and Responsibility Matrix
Practical CI Experience Over Time
How do you collect competitive information? How does this type of information turn into “intelligence?”
As a product marketing manager, product manager, and VP of Marketing and Sales Operations, I’ve had to create repeatable competitive intelligence processes. When I was a product marketing manager for the first time, I learned how to track competitors and compare features and functionalities of competitors products that the ones that I managed. Gradually, I learned how to do competitive reviews as a product manager.
A competitive review is a deep dive into a competitor, analyzing strategy, tactics, and predicting future moves.
CI Tools and Templates: Process and Responsibility Matrix
Eventually, I accumulated the tactical with the strategic experience. I researched competitive intelligence online and in business books, combining with my experience. By my last product manager job, I was able to define a competitive intelligence process to be used and defined the tools and templates to be used.
For you up and coming knowledge workers who need to learn how to do competitive intelligence, I’ve provided one approach to creating a process. I’ve also included a matrix of responsibilities. First, you have to create the infrastructure for CI before you can turn information into intelligence. I’ve included a PowerPoint PDF available for you to download at the end of this post. It has the following information:
- CI goals and objectives: Create a repeatable process that monitors and reports on our competitor’s products and possible strategic move; strategically gain foreknowledge of your competitor’s plans so Executive Team can define a business strategy to countervail their plans; and integrate into our existing information infrastructure, analysis and distribution of the information.
- Cycle of competitive intelligence: Planning and direction, collection and research, process and storage, analysis, and dissemination.
- Five major areas of endeavor: Competitor capabilities (product features/functionality, positioning statements against their products, new product offerings); competitor perceptions (what are they saying in the market place about our product features/functionality, what are they saying about our company or management team); effectiveness of current operations (cycle times, FTEs, etc., product roadmap execution); and long-term market prospects.
- CI framework: Strategic vs. tactical.
- How do we train our employees gather and communicate information to Product Management?
- What are the deliverables for Sales, Product Management, and Executive team? Side-by-side feature/functionality comparison per competitor; monthly reports to product management, sales, and Executive teams; close won/lost report.
- How do we measure the effectiveness of our own CI process? Establish measures.
Below is diagram of the five step CI process:
If you’re a middle manager or a C-level and you’re responsible for competitive intelligence, these tools and templates may give you ideas or you may improve upon them. If your new in your career and you must learn CI, then you’ll soon learn that turning competitive information into intelligence requires task-level, day-to-day experience.
Its best to learn about your competitors from other former peers, asking them for their insights or recommendations. Basically, you’ll get the hang of turning information into CI intelligence so you can adjust your product road maps or strategy. Who knows, you may predict an acquisition of a key competitor because you were paying attention!
Free Competitive Intelligence Downloads
Download CI five-step process flowchart templateDownload CI Matrix of Ownership template
Download Competitive Intelligence Program PowerPoint template
Only few companies have done comprehensive researches on the industry analysis. Recently I came across this site – ecompetitors.com, which apparently has quality information on many industries. It has got information on the top 10,000 industries.
They have created an online model of the global economy which enables quick analysis of one industry or a group of industries.
Thanks for sharing the ecompetitors.com info. In in the industry I used to work in, we either hired consultants to do the in-depth analysis or did it ourselves. It’s always easier if your competitors are publicly traded, but most of time, in the industry I worked in, the competitors were privately held. I’ve always envied people, who were in consumer goods or had competitors that were publicly traded, since competitive intelligence is challenging if the competitors if B2B or private.