Who This Helps
This is for Product Managers in the Market Intelligence & Positioning course who are stuck in endless debate. You have a list of competitor claims and customer feedback, but no clear direction on what to test next. This method cuts through the noise.
Mini Case
Zaid’s team was debating three different feature bets based on competitor chatter. They spent 2 weeks in meetings, going in circles. He built a simple positioning grid in 3 hours. It showed that while Competitor A was loud about "AI automation," their win-loss interviews revealed 70% of lost deals were due to poor reporting flexibility, not automation. They pivoted their next sprint to a reporting experiment. Pipeline velocity increased by 15% in the next quarter.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Grab your notes from the Competitor Claim Audit mission. List every claim you've heard.
- Open a spreadsheet. Label columns: Competitor, Their Claim, Our Evidence (Win/Loss), Customer Priority (High/Med/Low).
- For each claim, tag it. Is it backed by your win-loss evidence, or is it just narrative noise? Be ruthless.
- Now, add a final column: Potential Experiment. For each evidence-backed claim, jot one small test you could run.
- Score each experiment on two scales: Impact on customer priority (1-5) and Ease of testing (1-5). Multiply for a simple score. The highest score is your next move. Seriously, that's it.
Avoid These Traps
- Don't prioritize based on what competitors are saying. Prioritize based on what your evidence says customers are buying (or not buying).
- Avoid the "kitchen sink" grid. Limit your criteria to 3-5 key tradeoffs your ICP actually cares about, like "ease of use vs. depth of control."
- Don't get fancy. A simple spreadsheet is your best friend here. No need for complex models.
- Skipping the win-loss evidence cut is like driving with a blindfold. You absolutely need those real customer quotes.
- Don't try to beat a competitor on every claim. Pick your one wedge—the single point where you can be meaningfully different and better for a specific customer segment.
Your Win by Friday
By Friday, you will have one clear, evidence-backed experiment to propose in your next sprint planning. You'll stop the circular debates by pointing to the grid. Your team will know exactly what they're building and why it matters. You'll have transformed a messy product question into a measurable decision. Go make that grid—your future self in next week's meeting will thank you.