Competitor Research Toolkit

A template repository for systematic competitor research using AI-powered browser automation. Perfect for product teams, founders, and marketers who want to deeply understand their competitive landscape.

✨ What This Does

This toolkit helps you:

• 🔍 Systematically research competitors with a structured methodology
• 📸 Capture screenshots automatically using Playwright browser automation
• 📊 Generate detailed reports analyzing pricing, features, messaging, and positioning
• 📈 Track progress across multiple competitors with built-in status tracking
• 🤖 Leverage AI (via Claude Code) to accelerate research and analysis

🚀 Quick Start

1. Get the Prerequisites

• Claude Code CLI - AI-powered development tool
• Playwright MCP - Browser automation for Claude

2. Customize the Template

Follow the SETUP-GUIDE.md - it takes 5 minutes!

Quick version:

# 1. Document your product
cp our-products.template/your-product.template.md our-products/my-product.md
# (then fill in the details)

# 2. List your competitors
cp competitors.template.json competitors.json
# (then add your competitors)

# 3. Create project context
cp PROJECT-CONTEXT.template.md PROJECT-CONTEXT.md
# (then customize)

3. Start Researching

Open in Claude Code and say:

"Research [Competitor Name] following the research template"

Or use the automation scripts (optional).

📁 Directory Structure

.
├── SETUP-GUIDE.md            # 👈 START HERE - Customization guide
├── README.md                 # This file
├── research-template.md      # Research methodology checklist
│
├── competitors.template.json # Template for your competitor list
├── PROJECT-CONTEXT.template.md # Template for project briefing
├── our-products.template/    # Template for documenting your product
│
├── competitors.json          # Your competitor list (create from template)
├── PROJECT-CONTEXT.md        # Your project briefing (create from template)
├── our-products/             # Your product docs (create from template)
│
├── screenshots/              # Auto-generated during research
├── reports/                  # Generated research reports
├── data/                     # Additional research data
└── scripts/                  # Automation scripts (optional)

🎯 What You'll Research

The template guides you through analyzing:

• Pricing & Monetization - Pricing models, tiers, free trials
• Product & Features - Core capabilities and differentiators
• Messaging & Positioning - Target audience, value props, tone
• Social Proof - Customer testimonials, case studies, reviews
• Design & UX - Website design, navigation, user experience
• Marketing & GTM - Lead capture, content strategy, channels
• Support & Community - Documentation, support options, resources

Customize the research areas to fit your industry!

📋 Three Ways to Research

Option 1: Interactive with Claude Code (Recommended)

1. Open this repo in Claude Code
2. Say: "Research [Competitor Name] following the research template"
3. Claude will:
   • Navigate to the competitor's website
   • Take screenshots of key pages
   • Analyze using the research template
   • Generate a detailed report in reports/
   • Update competitor status in competitors.json

Option 2: Using Scripts (Advanced)

# Research a single competitor
node scripts/research-competitor.js "Competitor Name" "https://competitor-url.com"

# Batch research all pending competitors
node scripts/batch-research.js

Option 3: Manual Research

1. Open research-template.md as your guide
2. Visit competitor websites
3. Fill out the checklist manually
4. Save notes to reports/[competitor-name]-[date].md

📊 Output & Organization

Reports

Generated reports are saved in reports/ with this structure:

# [Competitor Name] - Competitive Analysis
Date: [YYYY-MM-DD]

## Overview
## Pricing
## Features
## Messaging
## Strengths
## Weaknesses
## Key Takeaways
## Screenshots

Screenshots

Automatically organized by competitor:

screenshots/
  ├── competitor-a/
  │   ├── homepage.png
  │   ├── pricing.png
  │   └── features.png
  └── competitor-b/
      ├── homepage.png
      └── pricing.png

Progress Tracking

Update competitors.json as you complete research:

• Mark status: "completed"
• Add researched_date: "2025-01-04"
• Add insights in notes field

🎨 Customization

This is a template - make it yours!

Customize Research Focus

Edit research-template.md to add industry-specific sections:

• SaaS: API quality, developer experience, uptime claims
• B2C: Mobile app, onboarding flow, customer support
• E-commerce: Checkout flow, shipping options, return policy
• Enterprise: Security certs, compliance, SLAs

Organize Competitors Your Way

Don't like the tier system? Change the structure in competitors.json:

"competitors": {
  "direct_competitors": [...],
  "indirect_competitors": [...],
  "emerging_threats": [...]
}

Add Custom Fields

Track what matters to you:

{
  "name": "Competitor X",
  "funding": "$50M Series B",
  "employee_count": "500+",
  "threat_level": "high"
}

🛠️ Available Scripts (Optional)

Scripts are in scripts/ directory:

• research-competitor.js - Single competitor research
• batch-research.js - Batch research multiple competitors
• competitor-research.js - Core research class
• test-playwright.js - Test your Playwright setup

Note: Scripts are optional - you can do everything interactively with Claude Code!

💡 Tips for Success

1. Document your product first - You can't compare without a baseline
2. Start with Tier 1 - Research your direct competitors before nice-to-haves
3. Take comprehensive screenshots - Homepage, pricing, features, about
4. Look beyond features - Analyze messaging, positioning, and target market
5. Update regularly - Markets change, so should your research
6. Look for gaps - Where are competitors weak? Where are they strong?
7. Track insights - Use PROJECT-CONTEXT.md to summarize learnings

📚 Additional Resources

• SETUP-GUIDE.md - Detailed customization instructions
• research-template.md - The research methodology
• PROJECT-CONTEXT.template.md - Example project briefing structure
• our-products.template/ - Product documentation templates

⭐ Acknowledgments

Built with:

• Claude Code - AI-powered development
• Playwright MCP - Browser automation

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Ready to start? → Read SETUP-GUIDE.md to customize this template for your product!