STEP 01
Create Your Project Folder
Goal: Get Claude Code pointed at a clean workspace. 3 terminal commands.
Why this mattersClaude Code works with your local files. Everything you create in this folder becomes Claude's permanent context — it reads these files at the start of every session, so you never have to re-explain your project.
What you'll create
competitive-intel/
📄 CLAUDE.md ← Claude reads this first, every session
📄 product-info.md ← your product details
📄 competitors.md ← list of targets + URLs
📁 reports/ ← outputs go here (auto-created)
Run these 3 commands in your terminal
# 1. Create the folder
$ mkdir competitive-intel
# 2. Go into it
$ cd competitive-intel
# 3. Launch Claude Code
$ claude
✓ Claude Code started in /competitive-intel
Ready to help. What would you like to do?
Don't have Claude Code yet? Install it with:
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code — requires Node.js 18+. Takes under 2 minutes.
Step 1 of 7
STEP 02
Write Your product-info.md
Goal: Give Claude the context it needs about YOUR product to make comparisons meaningful.
Why this file existsClaude needs to know what YOU offer before it can tell you where you win and lose against competitors. Without this context, you get a generic analysis. With it, you get strategic recommendations tailored to your actual product.
Create product-info.md — copy and fill in the blanks
# My Product
## What We Do
[2 sentences. What problem do you solve, for who.]
# Example: "We help solo founders build landing pages
# without code. Our target customer is non-technical
# founders who want to launch fast."
## Pricing Tiers
- Free: [what's included]
- Pro: $[X]/month — [key features]
- Team: $[X]/month — [key features]
## Key Features
- [Feature 1]
- [Feature 2]
- [Feature 3]
## What Makes Us Different
[Your honest differentiators vs. the market]
## Our Target Customer
[Who buys from you, their job, their pain]
Keep it honestInclude weaknesses too — "we don't have a mobile app yet." Claude gives better strategic advice when it knows your real gaps.
Don't over-write itUnder 50 lines is ideal. Claude reads this on every session — concise beats comprehensive.
Real example (Notejoy — Sachin Rekhi's note-taking app)
# My Product: Notejoy
## What We Do
Collaborative notes for teams — fast, focused,
no database clutter. Built for teams who find
Notion too heavy and Google Docs too limited.
## Pricing Tiers
- Free: unlimited personal notes, 1 shared notebook
- Solo: $4/mo — unlimited shared notebooks
- Team: $8/seat/mo — team workspace + admin
## What Makes Us Different
- One of the most generous free plans in category
- Speed-first: loads in under 1 second
- No block editor complexity
## Gaps to be aware of
- No database / table view (Notion has this)
- No AI features yet
Step 2 of 7
STEP 03
Write Your competitors.md
Goal: Give Claude the exact URLs to visit. This is what forces it to get live data — not stale cached results.
The key insight: live URLs beat searchWhen you give Claude direct pricing page URLs, it navigates to them in real time. This is how Sachin Rekhi discovered Evernote's free tier is the most restrictive — tools like ChatGPT would have returned old pricing data. Claude Code fetches the truth.
Create competitors.md — list their direct pricing pages
# Competitors to Analyze
# Add direct links to their pricing pages.
# Claude will visit each one live.
## Competitor 1: [Name]
- Homepage: https://[url].com
- Pricing page: https://[url].com/pricing
- About/positioning: https://[url].com/about
## Competitor 2: [Name]
- Homepage: https://[url].com
- Pricing page: https://[url].com/pricing
## Competitor 3: [Name]
- Pricing page: https://[url].com/pricing
## Competitor 4: [Name]
- Pricing page: https://[url].com/pricing
What to include per competitor
- Pricing page URL (most important)
- Homepage / positioning page
- Features page if separate
- Any known context (e.g. "they just raised $10M")
Pro tips
- →You can add as many competitors as you want — Claude runs them in parallel
- →Include indirect competitors too ("people also consider…")
- →Add notes about what specifically you want to compare for each one
- →Update this file any time a new competitor appears — re-run the analysis in 2 minutes
Step 3 of 7
STEP 04
Write Your CLAUDE.md
Goal: This is Claude's instruction file — it reads this before every session, so your rules and format preferences are always applied automatically.
CLAUDE.md = Claude's permanent memoryWithout it, you re-explain everything every session. With it, Claude knows your project, your output format, and your rules from the first word. This file survives
/compact — it's the one thing that's always there.Create CLAUDE.md — copy this exactly
# Competitive Intelligence Project
## What This Is
A competitive analysis workspace. I'm a non-technical
founder/PM. Explain findings in plain business language.
## Files
- product-info.md: our product (always read this first)
- competitors.md: list of competitors with URLs
- reports/: save all output here
## Rules
- Always visit competitor URLs live — never use cached data
- Compare against OUR product (read product-info.md first)
- Save reports as YYYY-MM-DD-[type].md in /reports folder
- Include a strategic "So What?" section in every report
- Be honest about where we lose, not just where we win
## Output Format
Every report must include:
1. Executive summary (3 bullets)
2. Side-by-side comparison table
3. Where we win / where we lose
4. Strategic recommendations (3 actions)
The "So What?" rule is powerfulMost competitive analyses just list features. The "So What?" section forces Claude to turn data into decisions — what should you actually do differently? This is the section PMs copy straight into strategy docs.
Step 4 of 7
STEP 05
Run the Analysis
Goal: Paste one prompt into Claude Code. Watch it read your files, browse competitor websites live, and build your report.
The master prompt — copy and paste this
claude> Read product-info.md and competitors.md.
For each competitor listed, visit their
pricing page URL live and extract:
- All pricing tiers and prices
- Key features included at each tier
- Free trial or free plan details
- Their positioning statement / tagline
Then generate a competitive analysis report
comparing all competitors to our product.
Follow the output format in CLAUDE.md.
Save the report to /reports/.
What you'll see happen (live demo script)
Reading CLAUDE.md...
Reading product-info.md...
Reading competitors.md — found 4 competitors
Fetching https://notion.so/pricing... ✓
Fetching https://coda.io/pricing... ✓
Fetching https://evernote.com/... ✓
Fetching https://obsidian.md/pricing... ✓
Analyzing pricing structures...
Building comparison table...
Generating strategic recommendations...
✓ Report saved: /reports/2025-06-10-pricing-analysis.md
✓ Done in 47 seconds
Want all 4 at once?Add "Run analysis on all competitors in parallel" — Claude launches sub-agents simultaneously. 4 competitors analyzed in the time it takes to do one.
If a page fails to loadSome sites block scrapers. Ask Claude: "The pricing page didn't load — try their homepage and look for pricing info there." It usually finds it another way.
Step 5 of 7
STEP 06
What Claude Delivers
Goal: Understand what's in the report and how to use each section with your team.
📄 Sample output — reports/2025-06-10-pricing-analysis.md
Executive Summary
- WIN Our free plan is the most generous in the category — only competitor with unlimited personal notes on free tier
- GAP Notion's $8/mo plan includes databases and integrations we don't offer — 3 customers mentioned this in churn interviews
- OPP Evernote just raised their paid plan by 40% — lapsed users are actively looking for alternatives right now
Pricing Comparison Table
| Product | Free Tier | Entry Paid | Team Plan | Free Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notejoy (us) | Unlimited notes | $4/mo | $8/seat | Yes |
| Notion | Limited blocks | $8/mo | $15/seat | No |
| Evernote | Very restricted | $10/mo | $15/seat | No |
| Coda | Limited docs | $10/mo | $30/seat | Yes, 14 days |
Strategic Recommendations (So What?)
- 1Run an Evernote win-back campaign now — their price increase creates a 60-day acquisition window
- 2Lead with free plan in all ads — it's a genuine differentiator and no competitor matches it
- 3Consider a lightweight table/database view in the next quarter — this is the #1 reason users choose Notion over us
How to use this with your teamThe table pastes directly into Notion, Slides, or Confluence. The exec summary becomes your Slack message. The 3 recommendations become your next sprint planning conversation. Total time from running Claude to sharing with your team: under 5 minutes.
Step 6 of 7
STEP 07
Turn It Into a Permanent Skill
Goal: Instead of pasting that long prompt every time, teach Claude a one-word command that runs the whole analysis.
The compounding advantageThe first time you run this, it takes 20 minutes. Every future run — when a new competitor appears, when a pricing change happens, when you're prepping for a board meeting — takes under 2 minutes. Same quality, zero extra effort.
Create a skill file — ask Claude to write it for you
claude> Based on the competitive analysis we just ran,
create a SKILL.md file so I can run this
exact workflow with the command "analyze-competitors"
in any future session. Save it to
.claude/skills/analyze-competitors/SKILL.md
✓ Created: .claude/skills/analyze-competitors/SKILL.md
From now on, this is all you ever need to type
# Monthly refresh
claude> analyze-competitors
# New competitor just appeared
claude> profile-competitor LinearB https://linearb.io/pricing
# Head-to-head for a sales call
claude> compare-competitors Notion vs Coda
# Prep for board meeting
claude> analyze-competitors --format exec-summary
What you've actually builtNot just a report — a competitive intelligence system. Your team can run it any time. You can hand it to a new PM and they're up to speed in minutes. Every month it produces a dated, versioned snapshot of the market. Over time you can see how competitors have evolved.
Now try the live tool
See it work in real time
Enter your product and up to 4 competitors. Claude generates a full competitive analysis dashboard — right here in the browser.
Open the Live Analysis Tool →
Complete! ✓