Who This Helps
This is for growth marketers who feel stuck. You have a dozen ideas but no clear signal on which one will actually move the needle. The Strategy Basics: Competitive Map course gives you a one-page artifact to cut through the noise.
Mini Case
Aisha, a growth lead, was juggling 7 different channel tests. Her team was spread thin. She built a competitive map, which showed a clear gap in how competitors served a specific customer segment wedge. She focused her next experiment there. In 30 days, that single test drove a 15% lift in qualified leads from that channel. The other 6 ideas? Shelved for later.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Grab a whiteboard or a blank doc. You're building one page.
- List your real competitor set. Not every logo, just the 3-5 you actually fight for customers.
- Pick one customer segment wedge to analyze. Avoid trying to please everyone at once.
- Build a simple differentiation grid. For each competitor, note one thing they do well and one thing they miss for your chosen segment.
- Spot the biggest gap on your grid. That's your signal for the next experiment. Your strategy just got a lot less fuzzy.
Avoid These Traps
- Don't list 20 competitors. It dilutes your focus. Stick to the handful that matter right now.
- Don't skip the evidence. "They have better UX" is weak. "Their sign-up flow is 3 steps vs. our 5" is strong.
- Don't try to fix everything. The map shows where you win and lose. Pick one loss you can turn into a win.
- Don't make it pretty for a deck. This is a working doc for your team. Messy and real is better than perfect and unused.
Your Win by Friday
By this Friday, you'll have a clear, one-page view of the battlefield. You'll know exactly which competitor's weakness aligns with your team's strength. You'll walk into your planning sync with one high-confidence experiment to propose, not a list of maybes. You'll trade guesswork for a game plan. And that's a pretty good feeling for a Wednesday.