9 competitive analysis templates you can start using today
Last updated: November 2024
Gaining a deep understanding of your competitors is vital for product success and differentiation. For product managers, competitive analysis goes beyond simply knowing who you are up against. It is about uncovering what makes your product unique, identifying opportunities to innovate, and delivering greater customer value.
Strong competitive analysis helps you shape your product strategy and solve customer problems better than anyone else. But it requires more than cataloging offerings and pricing structures. You need a clear view of the market, the competitive landscape, and the one-of-a-kind value your product provides.
Explore the competitive analysis template below — with a free trial.
This guide includes free Excel and PowerPoint templates to help you organize and share your competitive research. But even though these templates are a great starting point, they require manual updates and often feel disconnected from daily work. For quicker collaboration, try a whiteboard template from the Aha! template library. And if you are ready to go deeper (think: building product roadmaps, defining go-to-market strategies, and prioritizing features) Aha! Roadmaps is the ultimate tool.
Now, let's break down what a competitive analysis is, how to conduct one, and how to make the most of these templates. Jump ahead using any of the links below:
What is a competitive analysis?
A competitive analysis is a useful tool for understanding the market landscape and how your product compares to others. It helps you uncover how prospective customers might solve their problems with alternative solutions and what other companies are doing to win over target buyers. By evaluating competitors' strategies, strengths, and weaknesses, you can gain valuable insights to shape your own approach.
Your competitive analysis should answer these core questions:
Who are the other companies vying for customers in your market?
What products and services do they offer?
What is each competitor's market share?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?
How do your own products and services compare?
How can you differentiate your offering?
Product and marketing teams use these findings to inform their strategic plans and determine what will make their product stand out. With a solid understanding of the competition, you can focus on delivering the most compelling value to your customers.
Competitor insights should guide, not lead
Done well, competitive research will become an integral piece of your product planning process. But it is important to note that competitors should only help inform your product's trajectory, not dictate it. Instead of making decisions about your product based only on getting ahead of the competition, use your research in conjunction with what you know is best for your customers and your company. What your customers want and need is your top priority — this is what will ultimately help you deliver a lovable product.
Related:
What are the types of competitive analysis?
Competitive analysis can take many forms, depending on the factors you want to analyze and how you plan to share your findings. We designed the templates in this guide to help you focus on specific aspects surrounding your competitors and the market.
Here are the pre-built examples included:
Analysis type | Description |
Compare your product to competitors with a broad analysis of strengths, weaknesses, features, differentiators, and more. | |
Map out where your company fits in the market and position alternative vendors based on their relative strengths and weaknesses. | |
Collect key details about each competitor, including company information, product offerings, and features. | |
Evaluate competitors using scoring metrics, weighted by the importance of each attribute to your customers. | |
Summarize intelligence about each competitor to highlight their relative strengths and weaknesses. | |
Compare your unique, best, same, and poor capabilities against your competitors and consider their importance to customers. | |
Create a detailed comparison of the features included in each product and use Harvey Balls to show the degree to which they are complete. | |
Determine how easily your competitors can imitate your key value so you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your offering and market position. | |
Analyze the basic, expected, augmented, and potential benefits of your product to define a strategy that sets you apart from the competition. |
Use these templates to understand your competitors, position your product effectively, and uncover opportunities to surpass them in the market.
How should product managers research competitors?
A successful competitive analysis starts with knowing what to focus on. By zeroing in on the right areas, you can surface insights that guide your product strategy and help differentiate your offering. Here are the key categories to research:
Product features: Core capabilities, unique functionality, and areas where competitors fall short
Customer segments: Who they target, how they position their product, and any overlap with your audience
Pricing models: Pricing structures, value at different tiers, and promotional strategies
Marketing and positioning: Key messages, promotional channels, and customer perceptions
Customer experience: Onboarding, usability, support quality, and customer satisfaction
Market and financials: Market share, financial performance, and growth potential
Strengths and weaknesses: Competitors' standout advantages and areas for improvement
Future vision: Planned updates, roadmap priorities, and long-term goals
Armed with these insights, you can move beyond simply observing the competition to making smarter, bolder decisions that set your product apart. After all, the best way to stay ahead is to chart your own course.
How to perform a competitive analysis
Conducting a competitive analysis pushes you to consider all options available to your prospective customers. Through this research, you can ensure product differentiation and establish a sustainable competitive advantage.
Before we dig into the templates you can use to display these valuable findings, here are the basic steps involved in performing a competitive analysis.
Establish a list of direct and indirect competitors: Direct competitors offer a similar type of product within the same market. Indirect competitors offer a different type of product that serves the same need.
Research your identified competitors: Compile information by exploring the company's website, customer and product reviews, social media, financial information, sales collateral, videos, and press releases.
Test the product yourself: Sign up for a free trial or tour of the product. Experiment with the functionality and test out the features.
Document the user experience: Study the product's UX and empathize with the customer. Go through the steps and identify usability pros and cons.
Identify your competitor's vision and positioning: What do your competitors aim to achieve? Why does their product exist? How do they describe their offering in the market?
Define the differentiators: What distinguishes their product in the market? How do they stand out? Where do they fall short?
Create a competitive analysis report: The templates below provide a great starting point. Share your report with the product, sales, and marketing teams.
Maintain and update the report: Make this process part of your strategic product planning. Assign a point person to keep the report updated throughout the year.
Related:
9 competitive analysis templates
These pre-built templates are designed to save you time and help you organize your research effectively. Whether you need to evaluate features, map the market landscape, or assess competitor strengths and weaknesses, you will find a template to guide your efforts. Choose the one that fits your needs and get started.
Whiteboard template
Conduct a detailed competitive analysis in Aha! software with this whiteboard template. The competitive analysis template helps you organize key observations about multiple competitors in one streamlined view using sticky notes and sliding scorecards. It is ideal for live team collaboration and brainstorming.
Aha! Roadmaps competitive analysis template
Use the Aha! Roadmaps competitive analysis template to track key competitors across your workspace hierarchy. Quickly capture important information including revenue, workforce, and product positioning. Then create a competitor chart — showing exactly how your products stack up — and share competitor profiles in an Aha! Roadmaps presentation. Maintaining competitor profiles in the same tool you use for roadmapping helps integrate strategic thinking into your planning process.
Competitive landscape template
Visualize the market landscape with this PowerPoint template. Position key competitors and see how they relate to one another in a single view. Perfect for executive or advisory board presentations, this template allows you to customize quadrant titles and x/y axes to align with your company's market assessment.
Competitor profile template
Use this Excel template to create detailed profiles of your main competitors. Capture information about their organization, customers, and products to give your teams (such as marketing and sales) a deeper understanding of who they are up against. Highlight competitor strengths and weaknesses to better position your own offerings.
Competitor scorecard template
Rank competitors and assess their impact on your business with this Excel scorecard template. Customize scoring metrics to evaluate attributes such as market awareness, execution ability, ease of use, and product quality. The weighted scoring approach lets you prioritize attributes from the customer's perspective, providing actionable insights in turn.
Competitor overview template
Organize all of your competitor research in one place with this Excel worksheet. Capture key details about each company, its product, and its go-to-market strategy. This template serves as a consistent foundation for competitive analysis and helps you easily access the information you need.
Capability analysis
Compare your product's capabilities to competitors' with this Excel template. Assess collective skills, expertise, and product features while ranking their importance to customers. This analysis highlights your organization's strengths and areas for improvement — keeping you focused on solving customer problems.
Features analysis template
Conduct a thorough assessment of product features using this PowerPoint template. Compare features across competitor products to identify strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. Use Harvey balls to visually show the completeness of each feature and provide clarity for internal teams on how your product stacks up.
Imitability ladder template
The imitability ladder PowerPoint template helps you determine the uniqueness of your offering. Assess how easily competitors can imitate your tangible resources (e.g., technology and finances) and intangible assets (e.g., creativity and reputation). This analysis highlights your competitive advantage and uncovers potential vulnerabilities in your strategy.
Competitive differentiation analysis template
Define a product strategy that sets you apart with this PowerPoint template. Identify the basic, expected, augmented, and potential benefits of your product, including functional and nonfunctional differentiators such as design and branding. Use this template to pinpoint where you can add value and establish a lasting competitive advantage.
Staying informed on what options your current and prospective customers have will help inform your long-term product strategy. Remember to regularly update your competitive analysis and corresponding business models. This will help you identify changes in the market and respond quickly to new challenges and opportunities.
By integrating competitive research with a deep understanding of your goals and customers' needs, you will be in a strong position to make your offering a success.
FAQs about competitive analysis templates
Why is a competitive analysis important in product development?
A competitive analysis helps you understand the market landscape and identify opportunities to differentiate your product. By evaluating competitors' strengths and weaknesses, you can refine your strategy and deliver greater value to your customers.
What type of information should I include in a competitive analysis?
Focus on key details such as product features, pricing, positioning, customer experience, and market share. Tools like Aha! Roadmaps can help you organize this information and align it with your strategic goals. Ensure the analysis also highlights trends or gaps in the market that competitors might not yet address, providing insights to inform unique opportunities.
How often should I update a competitive analysis?
Review and update your competitive analysis regularly — ideally quarterly or when significant market changes occur. With Aha! Roadmaps, you can easily maintain competitor profiles and integrate updates into your planning process.
How can a competitive analysis help shape our product roadmap?
Competitor insights highlight market gaps and opportunities, guiding you to prioritize features and improvements that truly differentiate your product. Connect competitive research directly to your roadmap to ensure your plans stay aligned with customer and business needs.
