market-command-matrix
Turns competitor signals into judgement—mindshare vs resource strength, then attack/monitor/harvest/ignore/partner with one primary motion per priority player, not a research dump. Use for competitor analysis, market mapping, positioning, GTM prioritisation, battlecards, partnerships, content wedges, or market intelligence reviews.
- Category
- Product strategy
- Status
- Experimental
- Use when
- competitor analysis
- market mapping
- GTM prioritisation
- build a battlecard
- market intelligence review
- Works on
- a market/category and the priority competitors to evaluate
- publicly observable competitor signals (site messaging, pricing, ads, reviews, hiring/funding, SEO)
- Produces
- a competitor map (direct/adjacent/substitute/ecosystem)
- a matrix placement per competitor with rationale and confidence
- one primary playbook motion, owner, and trigger per priority competitor
- an optional market-shape read and whitespace/positioning notes
- Works with
- Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Amp, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, VS Code
- Tags
- competitive-analysis, market-research, prioritization, roadmapping, stakeholders
- Source
- its-thepoe/skills by Oladipupo Ayoola (its-thepoe) · MIT · adapted for this repository
- Related skills
- design-negotiationproduct-discovery
Instructions from SKILL.md
Market Command Matrix
Goal: intelligence upstream of action—not competitor summaries for their own sake. Classify players, decide what to do, assign owners and triggers.
The model (two axes)
Market mindshare — awareness, conversation, category association, unprompted recall, default comparisons when buyers think about the problem.
Resource strength — capacity and focus dedicated to winning this market (funding, team, distribution, tech, partnerships, operational depth). Score relative to market dedication, not raw company size. Practical approach: score your own company 1–5 on focus and execution in this market, then score others relative to you.
Each axis: high / medium / low (justify with evidence).
Decision categories
| Category | Typical placement | One-line intent |
|---|---|---|
| All-out attack | High mindshare + high resources | Sharp wedge, proof, channel discipline; expect retaliation. |
| Monitor | Low mindshare + high resources | Watch capacity; triggers before overreacting. |
| Harvest | High mindshare + low resources | Use their awareness; win on fulfilment, trust, depth, migration paths. |
| Ignore | Low mindshare + low resources | No strategic energy; note customer signals only. |
| Partner | Complementary / ecosystem | Integration, referral, co-marketing, bundling—define value exchange; watch channel conflict. |
Partner is orthogonal to the 2×2; label when beating them is not required to win.
Competitor set (before matrix placement)
Classify the map from the customer view of the market (buckets inform discovery; matrix uses mindshare + resources):
- Direct — same buyer, same JTBD, comparable promise; same budget or decision.
- Adjacent — overlapping workflow; could expand into your lane; partner and/or threat.
- Substitute behaviours — manual, informal, “good enough” habits instead of buying.
- Ecosystem — media, communities, platforms, agencies, infra that shape trust and access.
Workflow (run in order)
1. Reconnaissance
- Prefer customer-led signals: core unaided question first: When you think of [CATEGORY], what is the first product that comes to mind? Then aided recognition, usage, recommendation, value/friction.
- Bias controls: unaided before aided; neutral framing where possible; separate verified evidence from assumptions.
- Collect current signals per priority player (site messaging, product claims, social themes, ads, reviews, pricing/onboarding, press/partnerships, hiring/funding, SEO topics, FAQs/objections). Full list: reference.md.
2. Monitoring and extraction
For each priority player, extract meaning: promise, ICP, lead pain, proof, CTA, strongest channel, what they avoid saying, visible operational weakness, behaviour they try to change. Questions: reference.md.
3. Matrix placement
For each player: category, rationale, confidence (high/medium/low), evidence used, what would change the placement.
4. Playbook selection
One primary motion per priority player. Do not output a dump without decisions. Playbook menus: reference.md.
5. Market shape
With enough coverage: fragmented | challenger | ancient | mature—and what that implies for offence vs defence. Definitions: reference.md.
6. Whitespace and positioning
Turn gaps into actions: underserved audience, weak promise, missing proof, poor follow-through, trust gap, channel mismatch, etc.
Output formats
- Full analysis: strategic thesis, competitor map, evidence table, matrix placement, whitespace, recommended actions (owner, dependency, output, deadline), market shape, milestones/triggers. Skeleton: reference.md.
- One-page memo (compressed): Player → Placement → Evidence (1–2 signals) → Meaning → Action → Trigger.
Use format:one-page in the user request when they need the short memo only.
Completion gate (do not “finalize” without)
- Competitor set classified (direct / adjacent / substitute / ecosystem as relevant).
- Matrix category per priority player + rationale + confidence.
- Evidence vs assumptions separated.
- One selected primary playbook motion per priority player + next action + checkpoint or trigger.
- Market-shape interpretation if enough players/data exist.
- No “research only” handoff—every section ties to a decision or motion.
More detail
Playbooks, market shapes, survey bias notes, Hermes install hint, sources: reference.md.
Supporting files
4 more files in this skill's folder. Markdown opens as a page, other text files open as source, and anything else downloads as it is.