Who This Helps
This is for product managers who have a dozen ideas and zero clarity on which one to test first. If you've ever stared at a backlog and felt like every option was equally risky, you're in the right place. The Strategy Basics: Competitive Map course gives you a practical way to cut through the noise.
Mini Case
Meet Aisha. She's a PM at a growing SaaS company. Her team has three experiment candidates: a new onboarding flow, a pricing tweak, and a feature add-on. She used the Competitive Map to see where her product actually wins and loses. Turns out, her onboarding flow was losing 12% of sign-ups to a specific competitor move. That one insight made the onboarding experiment her clear #1 priority. She saved 7 days of debate and focused her team on the highest-impact move.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Grab your Competitive Map – Start with the Differentiation Grid from the course. List your top 3 competitors and 5 key features.
- Mark where you win and lose – For each feature, note if you're ahead, tied, or behind. Be honest.
- Find the biggest gap – Look for a feature where you're losing and customers care a lot. That's your experiment target.
- Estimate the impact – If you close that gap by 20%, how many more users convert? Use your own data.
- Pick one experiment – The gap with the highest potential lift wins. Run that one first. (Yes, just one. You can do more next week.)
Avoid These Traps
- Don't compare against every competitor – Aisha learned to pick only the 2-3 that matter for your segment. Too many logos = noise.
- Don't guess customer priorities – Use real signals from your Customer Segment Wedge exercise. What do your best users actually complain about?
- Don't skip the Moat Signals – If a competitor can copy your experiment in a week, it's not a moat. Focus on moves that are hard to replicate.
- Don't treat the map as static – Update it every quarter. Markets shift, and so should your priorities.
- Don't overthink the first version – A rough map today beats a perfect map next month. Just start.
Your Win by Friday
By end of week, you'll have one clear experiment to run. No more "which one first?" debates. Your team will know exactly why this move matters, and you'll have a simple Competitive Map to guide your next three decisions. Plus, you'll feel like a strategy ninja (but a friendly one).