Market Core · Competitors · Module
Monitoring
The few developments that would change a decision, watched deliberately — because monitoring everything means monitoring nothing.
The idea
How it works
Comprehensive competitive intelligence produces a report that is circulated and not read. A short list of developments that would actually change a decision produces action, and it costs a fraction as much to maintain.
The test for including something is whether the organisation would do anything differently on hearing it. If not, it is interesting rather than intelligence.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Watch what would change a decision
For each item, name the decision it would affect. Items with no decision attached come off the list.
- 02
Assign one person
Collective monitoring does not happen, and its absence is silent.
- 03
Set a threshold, not a feed
A defined trigger produces a notification. An unfiltered feed produces fatigue.
- 04
Review the list annually
What mattered two years ago is frequently no longer decision-relevant, and the list only ever grows.
One level in
The components of monitoring
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
For each item, name the decision it would change. Items without one are interesting rather than intelligence.
The other modules in competitors
The competitor set
Who is actually competing for the demand — direct rivals, substitutes, in-house alternatives and inaction — defined from what customers consider.
LearnCapability comparison
What each rival can actually do, on the dimensions customers weigh — assessed from evidence, including where they are better.
LearnReading their strategy
What a competitor is trying to become, inferred from where they invest, who they hire and what they decline — more predictive than anything they publish.
Learn