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A Competitor Just Launched Something. Does It Matter?
Competitor Signal Threat Triage
Six questions on one competitor move: a pricing shift, a feature launch, an acquisition, a messaging pivot. Get a verdict and what to do next. Nothing is stored.
How the triage works
Five questions add up to a threat score out of 13. The roadmap question doesn't change the verdict. It changes whether the response is a build or a positioning move.
| Threat score | Verdict | Log it as | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | Ignore | Noise | Log it and move on. |
| 4 to 7 | Monitor in Pipeline | Worth Noting | Watch deals for 60 days before acting. |
| 8 to 10 | Defensive Counter | Act On | Respond with positioning or a small, scoped change. |
| 11 to 13 | True Moat Threat | Act On | A strategy decision, not a feature request. |
| Marketing bullet, no customer mentions | Capped at Monitor | Worth Noting | Announcements without depth rarely need a response. |
| Core, real depth, lost deals | At least Defensive Counter | Act On | It's already costing you. |
What this triage gets wrong
- It judges one move at a time. A run of small moves can matter more than one big launch, and only a record over time shows the pattern.
- It only knows what you know. If sales doesn't pass on what prospects say, "nobody has brought it up" may just mean nobody's listening.
- The weights are judgment. Someone else would score funding or buyer overlap differently and wouldn't be wrong.
- It doesn't tell you how fast to respond. A pricing change might need an answer in days, a feature launch in weeks.
Questions
How should a product team evaluate a competitor announcement?
Ask whether it touches your core, whether there's real depth behind it, and whether customers have mentioned it. An announcement that fails all three is marketing, not a threat, and responding to it costs more than ignoring it.
Should we copy a competitor's new feature?
Only when it hits your core buyers and is already showing up in lost deals or churn. Many launches are thinner than the announcement suggests. Track it in pipeline for 60 days before committing roadmap time.
What goes on a competitor battlecard?
Where they're stronger, where you're stronger, and the evidence for each, kept factual. Add a new move to the battlecard once it's triaged, so sales has an answer before they need to improvise one.
When is a competitor move a real threat?
When it reaches your core, has depth behind it, targets the same buyers, and customers are already citing it. If it also has funding or an acquisition behind it, expect more moves to follow.
Where signals live
One triage stops a panic. A record stops the next ten. Competitor Intelligence Tracker logs each move as a signal with its significance, and shows which competitors you've stopped watching, so you see patterns before a sales call surprises you.
Built by Dominique Simmons, a former CX/UX researcher in big tech and now a strategist for early-stage startup teams, with a background in cognitive psychology and research methods. Plotted Work Studio makes Notion systems for managers and product teams. Last updated: October 25, 2026.
Copy this competitor signal log
One row per competitor move, with the triage verdict and the significance to log it as.
| Date | Competitor | Signal | Source | Threat score (0–13) | Verdict | Log as | Next step | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | Ignore / Monitor in Pipeline / Defensive Counter / True Moat Threat | Noise / Worth Noting / Act On | |
Full scoring rules: Competitor Threat Triage