Quality Competitor Analysis by Looking at the order you do things
You’re pointing at sequencing. And it matters more than many want to admit. Quality competitor analysis stands a better chance of success by looking at the order in which you do things is important. People think execution is about speed. It’s not. It’s about doing the right things in the right order. That’s where the leverage sits. Most competitive intelligence teams — if they exist at all in early-stage companies — run around chasing signals with zero filtering and no process.
Many startups build backwards.
They start with data. Then they try to guess what it means. Then they try to act.
That is a broken way of doing it
The right order looks like this:
- Decide what matters.
- Define your enemy.
- Get specific about what you’re watching.
- Collect the right data.
- Decide what you’ll ignore.
- Use what you learn to shape your offers, messaging, and positioning.
If you start with the data. You’re already behind. You end up reacting instead of out-positioning. That’s how you slide into feature wars, price cuts, and weak copycat moves.
The Wrong Way: What Most Founders Do
Let’s say you’re building a vertical SaaS for indie hair salons. Think CRM, appointments, text reminders, and maybe some Stripe integration. You notice that one of your competitors just rolled out AI-driven recommendations for rebooking.
Your Slack lights up. Your team asks:
“Should we do this too?”
“Can we ship something fast?”
“What’s their pricing look like now?”
Suddenly, you’re reacting to a move without context. This is noise dressed up as urgency.
Now, you’re building a feature you didn’t plan for a customer. You haven’t validated one because a competitor rolled it out before you had a clear stance. You’re on their turf. On their timeline. With their priorities.
The Right Way: Take Control of the Sequence
Start with clarity.
Step 1: Decide what matters.
You’re not here to match competitors feature-for-feature. You’re here to win in a specific way. So ask that question: What’s the customer actually hiring us to do?
If the answer is “save me time and reduce no-shows,” then AI rebooking might be noise. If you find that customers don’t want more automation — they want fewer reschedules — you go deeper into reminders, confirmations, and human-first UX. Let your positioning decide where you play.
Step 2: Define your enemy.
No, not the competitor. The real threat.
It might be:
- Pen and paper (for indie salons, that’s still real).
- Generic CRMs with bloated feature sets.
- Clunky POS systems with weak support.
If your enemy is inertia — and not a known brand — then your moves need to build contrast with inaction, not mimic your loudest rival.
Step 3: Get specific about what you’re watching.
Now you’re ready to track something. Not everything. Something.
You watch:
- Specific product rollouts (only if they threaten your core wedge).
- Pricing changes (only if they impact your segment).
- Messaging shifts (only if they signal a change in their ICP).
You’re watching for intent — not activity. Not every update matters.
Step 4: Collect the right data.
This is where most founders overthink. You don’t need a “CI platform” at $20k a year to make smart calls.
You need:
- A shared Notion page or Slack channel.
- A biweekly sync to review competitor moves.
- One person is assigned to summarise 3–4 signals per week.
That’s it.
CI doesn’t need to be complex. It needs to be consistent.
Step 5: Decide what you’ll ignore.
This is the most underrated move in the whole process. Ignore 80% of what you see.
If it doesn’t:
- Change the customer’s expectations
- Threaten your unique position
- Prove a shift in their focus
Then, it goes into the archive.
The best founders aren’t “informed.” They’re selective.
Step 6: Use what you learn.
If your competitor is rolling out features for franchises, that’s a clue. They’re moving upstream. You can either:
- Double down on indie operators
- Adjust your roadmap to keep them from being poached
- Refine your messaging to punch down their shift
The signal isn’t the feature. It’s the strategic intent behind it.
You’re not just observing. You’re responding with better positioning, not just a new product.
Let’s make this real: Look at June
June.so is a product analytics tool built for early-stage SaaS companies. They launched in 2021. That space is loaded with competition: Mixpanel, Amplitude, and Heap.
Instead of copying features, they made a decision early: “We’ll be the easiest analytics tool to set up. Zero config. Built for founders, not analysts.” That single decision filtered every move they made:
- They ignored deep querying features
- They published content for PMs and founders, not analysts
- They stayed product-led and fast
As Amplitude chased enterprise, June stayed narrow and grabbed the early-stage crowd. Their competitive intelligence work wasn’t about being reactive. It was about choosing what to watch — and what to ignore.
That’s the real edge.
Competitive Analysis Isn’t Research. It’s War Prep.
Here’s what nobody tells you:
Most startups don’t lose because they build bad products. And they lose because they can’t decide who they’re for — or what to ignore.
They get caught in the noise. They try to out-feature a better-funded competitor. And they change pricing based on LinkedIn chatter. They pivot when they should stand still.
Here’s the truth: Order matters.
If you sequence this wrong:
- You burn resources chasing unimportant features
- You dilute your position
- You build for customers who don’t stay
If you sequence it right:
- You position with precision
- You spot weak signals early
- You say no to 90% of what distracts your rivals
The final word on Quality Competitor Analysis and the order of things
And that’s where the upside lives.
So, if you’re early-stage or building something in a crowded space, steal this checklist and tattoo it to your product roadmap:
- Decide what matters
- Define your enemy
- Watch only what’s relevant
- Filter noise from signals
- Make the call to ignore 80%
- Move on, insight, not panic
That’s how you run competitor analysis like an operator, not a tourist.
And that’s how you stop playing their game — and start making them react to yours.
