This document provides examples of different types of competitive intelligence (CI) projects that can be undertaken. It describes the value, audience, sources, and potential contents for projects such as competitive landscape assessments, roadmap analyses, newsletters, battlecards, competitor profiling, win/loss analyses, competitor customer lists, and tradeshow intelligence. The examples are intended to illustrate how CI can inform strategic planning, marketing, and sales functions through the collection and analysis of open-source and proprietary competitor information.

1. www.cascadeinsights.com
sean@cascadeinsights.com
scott@cascadeinsights.com

2. ―The ability to learn faster than
your competitors may be the only
sustainable competitive
advantage.‖
Arie de Geus

3. Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

4. Comparing MR vs. CI
4
Present Analysis
Package, Deliver, Present Package, Deliver, Present
Analyze Outputs
What does it mean? What does it mean?
Perform Research
Recruit and Conduct Identify Sources / Triangulate
Methods
Quant / Qual / MROC’s, etc Secondary Sources and Human Intel
Determine Questions
Focus on current company and it’s products / solutions Focused on the Competition
MR (left) vs. CI (right)

5. ―In Market Research you’re trying to
generalize across a population, in competitive
intelligence you're trying to get an answer‖
-Rob Wiltbank – Willamette University MBA
Professor

6. Applying CI
Planning, Marketing, Sales

7. ―The Internet is the world's largest library. It's just that
all the books are on the floor.‖
John Allen Paulos

8. Quarkbase
• Jive Software
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9. Silobreaker
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10. Searching for Companies vs. People
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11. Backgrounding Companies
LinkedIn
• LinkedIn - Company
Profiles
• New Hires
• Recent Promotions and
Changes
• Popular Profiles
• Jobs Posted on LinkedIn
• Median Age of Employees
• Top Office Locations
• Year Founded
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12. Citrix Systems
4,600 Employees
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14. Twitter
• Twitter
• There’s 10 million tweets
about the iPad (so far…)
• Is that Quant or Qual?
• I don’t know but if you
compete with Apple, it’s real
data
• And there’s a hashtag for
everything
• Topics, competitor
conferences, products, etc.
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15. Additional Sites
• Twit(url)y
• TweetFeel
• Paper.li
• WorldOfTweets
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16. SlideShare.net
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17. HR and Job Postings
• HR can be a leaky bucket
• See future department growth (i.e. new VP, new Director role, etc.)
• All of the following came from one story on
ArsTechnica about Windows “8”
• http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/10/microsoft-mulling-128-bit-versions-
of-windows-8-windows-9.ars
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18. Glassdoor
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19. Job Posting - Indicators
• Directional
• Growth of new divisions
• Growth of new offerings
• Growth of new partnerships
• Org Chart Development
• VP Role, followed by Director, followed by PM
• Turnover Rates
• Technology Investment Areas
• Three reasons to hire:
• Need to replace someone, need to staff up a
division, need to create a new division
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20. 20
Mining the Deeper Web

21. Changing Positioning, Services, Offers
Over Time
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* From the WayBackMachine—Archive.org

22. Wordle.net
Red Hat
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23. Tagxedo
Wordcloud Shapes (analysis of our web site)
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24. Form 990 Data
• Non Profits – Guidestar.org
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25. Financials
• Yahoo, MSN, Google Finance
• Seekingalpha.com – Earnings call transcripts
• Investor message boards (boardcentral.com)
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26. Communities
• Ning
• GovLoop, etc.
• Board Tracker
• Yahoo and Google
groups
• SourceCon
• IRE
• Facebook
• Many, many more
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27. Quora
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28. Google Search
―Accelerants‖
28

29. Google Tips
• Any mention of “roadmap” on Acme.com’s
web site
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roadmap site:acme.com

30. Google Tips
• Any PDF files on Acme.com that contain
“Plan”
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Plan filetype:pdf site:acme.com

31. Google Tips
• Find pages containing “iPhone” where the
page URL contains “review”
• I.E. Find iPhone reviews on sites that do lots of
product reviews
• reviews.cnet.com
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Iphone inurl:review

32. Beyond:
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33. Google Insights
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34. Ad Buys
• SpyFu, SEMRush
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35. iSpionage
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36. Site Intelligence
• Compete.com, Quantcast.com
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37. Going Local
• Business Journals
• International as well
• Local news
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38. 38
Human Intelligence

39. • <the candidates graphic>
4/26/2011 39
The Right
Recruits

40. Why LinkedIn?

41. Elicitation
The Candidates
• The Happy Customer
• Willing to talk at length
• Willing to extol the virtues of
your product
• May be a “bit” blind to the
demerits your product carries
with it.
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42. Elicitation
The Candidates
• The “Not So” Happy
Customer
• No so willing to talk at length
• Top of mind answers as to
why they don’t like your
product/solution.
• May not be aware of
mitigating product benefits.
4/26/2011 42

43. Elicitation
The Candidates
• The “Crowd”
• Willing to talk, just maybe not
about what you’re interested in.
• You’ll need to travel to see them
as much as they’ll travel to see
you.
• Easy way to find the “agnostics”
you need to reach.
• Ex: Trade Show Intelligence
4/26/2011 43

44. Elicitation
Internal Resources
• The “Field”
• Establishing relationships with your field can be
one of the most beneficial “networking”
activities you can engage in.
• Some elicitation candidates:
• Sales Engineers
• Account Managers
• Targeted Industry “Sellers”
• Engagement Managers
• Engaging with the field let’s you leave the “ivory
tower” of marketing.
4/26/2011 44

45. Elicitation
Others:
• The “other team”
• Partners
• Resellers
• Customer Service
• Trade Show Staff
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46. • Personal Branding
meets IDI Recruitment
• Job Descriptions,
Recommendations,
Awards, Presentations,
Blog Posts, and Status
Updates
• Getting just the right
candidate – techniques
“Every Person is his or
her own brand.” – Reid
Hoffman – LinkedIn
Recruiting in a (socially) networked world

47. LinkedIn Profiles

48. LinkedIn Profiles
4/26/2011 48

49. LinkedIn Groups
• LinkedIn Groups exist for almost any topic
• Way to see current issues, trends for an audience, a group of
technology enthusiasts, etc.
• Can join a maximum of 50 groups total
• Just a few of the groups I belong to:
• Oregon Marketers Group, Executive Suite, The Futurist Group,
Sales/Marketing VP’s, Cloud Computing, Linux Expert, PHP Developers,
Windows 7, Malware Security Researchers, SAP Job Network,
OpenOffice User, QRCA, MRA, Australian IT Industry, etc.
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50. Why Me? Why Now?

51. When Bad GrammER is Good…
• Shouldn’t sound like something written by
committee
• Or something written by your client…
• Should be:
• Authentic
• Looks like something you banged out in a minute (but it really
took an hour)
• Conversational
• Personal
• Written in the “voice” of the target (uses their lingo)
• Authentic does not mean a sloppy form letter
• And most importantly it should always include in the
first two to three sentences….

52. Do your
homework….

53. Elicitation – In the Field
Before the Call – Research, Research, Research
• The “Quick” Scan
• Step #1 – LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook - Profiles
• Step #2 – Their company’s web site.
• Step #3 – Internet Wayback Machine (i.e.
archive.org)
• Step #4 – Any public quotes the interview has
given in the past or any interviews that they
have participated in.
• Step #5 – Twitter or Blog Feeds
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54. Elicitation – In the Field
Doing the call
• Much like a sales call
• Establish rapport
• Answer unspoken “Why are you calling” an
more importantly “What’s in this for me?”
• Have the conversation – listen for the shields to
drop
• Create a psychological “end” to the
conversation:
• That’s everything I needed to cover, but one other
thing I wondered about…
• Finish the call
4/26/2011 54

55. It’s important to have a conversation that
provides value to the interviewee while
obtaining the information you need.
55

56. The issue of…
ETHICS

57. Ethics
SCIP Code of Ethics
• To continually strive to increase the recognition and respect of
the profession.
• To comply with all applicable laws, domestic, and international.
• To accurately disclose all relevant information, including
one’s identity and organization, prior to all interviews.
• To fully respect all requests for confidentiality of information.
• To avoid conflicts of interest in fulfilling one’s duties.
• To provide honest and realistic recommendations and
conclusions in the execution of one’s duties.
• To promote the code of ethics within one’s company, with third-
party contractors and within the entire profession.
• To faithfully adhere to and abide by one’s company policies,
objectives, and guidelines.
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58. Ethics
Questions to ask
• Legal Guidelines
• Do you understand the legal implications of the research
you are about to undertake?
• Do you have legal counsel to turn to in case a questions
comes up?
• Personal Ethics
• What “code of ethics” are you following as you elicit
information?
• Company Guidelines
• What guidelines does your company already have in place
on the subject of qualitative research and/or elicitation?
• Do these guidelines differ if you are researching information about
a competitor or your own company?
4/26/2011 58

59. ―Real Life‖
rarely
provides
clues this
obvious…
59

60. Examples of CI projects
60
Audience
Planning
Marketing
Sales
Shelf Life
Short Long
Competitor
Roadmap
Competitive
Landscape
Assessment
Newsletter
Battlecard
Competitor
Profiling
Win/Loss
Tradeshow
Intelligence
Competitor
Customer
Harvesting
Level of effort

61. CI Project Timeline
61
Ideation Planning Development Launch Sustain
Newsletter
Landscape Assessment
Roadmap Analysis
Battlecard
Competitor Profiling
Win/Loss
Customer List
Product / Service Development Timeline

62. Competitive Landscape Assessment
• Value: Identify competitors in a market and map out their market
position and differentiation
• Provides critical information when entering a new market
• Audience: Planning, Marketing
• Sources: OSINT and industry experts
• Can include
• Overview of the market or industry conditions
• Visualizations of competitors in quadrants, maps, or other visualizations
• “Baseball cards” for each competitor
• Recommendations of competitors and trends to continue monitoring
62
Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

63. Competitor Roadmap Analysis
• Value: Determines future product or services features
• Provides information so organization can decide to
differentiate or compete head-to-head
• Audience: Planning, marketing
• Sources: OSINT, partners, customers, industry experts
• Avoid: Former employees, information under NDA
• Can include
• Future product features, services, pricing
• Recommendations for differentiation and head-to-head opportunities
63
Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

64. Competitive Newsletters
• Value: Provides current information on a regular basis
• Tactical and “how to react” information
• Forward looking analysis and prediction
• Greatly increases your exposure in the organizations
• Audience: Planning, marketing, and sales
• But not in the same newsletter – optimize for one of those audiences
• Format: Web Portal Delivery, Email Delivery, Wiki style
• Sources: Mainly OSINT
• Can vary in objectivity
• Arm and motivate sales to compete – focus on competitor weaknesses and
missteps, or
• Enhance strategy and decision making – objective, credible, and honest
64
Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

65. Competitive Newsletter
• Can include:
• Summary and analysis
• Talking points and positioning
• News headlines organized by topic
• Corporate level news
• Earnings and health
• M&A activity
• PR and perception
• Senior leadership statements
• Strategic direction
• Product or service level news
• Broken down by product, service, or other logical division
• Product launches
• Reviews
• Analyst commentary
• Wins and case studies
• Awards
• Sentiment
• Roadmap and supply channel news
• Promotions and initiatives
• Pricing changes
• Avoid:
• Recommendations that make work for other parts of the organization
65

66. Battlecard
• Value: Increases ability of sales teams to compete and win in head-to-head scenarios
• Audience: Sales and possibly partners
• Format: 2 page Word or PDF
• Sources: OSINT and limited primary intelligence from competitor customers, partners,
and sales
• Can include:
• Competitor overview
• Growth, financials, product line, threats they present
• Product / service analysis
• Overview of features, capabilities,
• Highlights weaknesses compared to your products
• Complaints, pain points, and feature requests for competitor product
• Sales strategy analysis
• How does the competitor sell?
• How do they position against your company?
• Are they discounting or bundling?
• What products are their main sellers, and what other products do they attach?
• Selling guidance
• Selling and positioning against the competitor
• Key issues to bring up
• Framing the conversation
• Q&A
• Tough questions and answers
66
Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

67. Competitor Profiling
• Value: Provides a foundation for strategy and decision making
• Audience: Planning or marketing
• Sources: OSINT and limited primary intelligence from competitor customers, partners, and sales
• Can include:
• Company overview
• Founded, revenue, growth, business model, culture
• Product / service analysis
• Product line, product strategy, roadmap, evolution, deficiencies, complaints, praise, feature requests, FAQs,
teardown analysis
• Marketing analysis
• Marketing pillars, positioning, claims, evolution of marketing, keyword analysis
• Sales analysis
• Sales tactic analysis, direct/indirect, customer perceptions, subscription/support annuity, how their sales describes
your company,
• Metrics
• Web traffic, trends, keyword buys, search insights, comparisons to your company
• Recommendations
67
Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

68. Win/Loss Analysis
• Value: Provides accurate information about why sales are won and
lost
• Audience: Planning or sales
• Format: PowerPoint
• Sources: Mainly primary sources – your customers, competitor
customers, and some partners or consultants
• May include:
• Typical buying criteria
• Weighting of importance of various factors:
• Price, features, promotions, demos, solution selling, etc.
• Recommendations
68
Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

69. Competitor Customer List
• Value: Provides a list of customers who have a demonstrated need for your
solution
• If you know you are effective at displacing a competitor, then knowing their
customers can translate quickly into sales
• Audience: Sales
• Sources: OSINT
• Avoid: Current and former employees
• May include:
• Customer name, contact information, how you know they’re a customer, etc.
• Note: Customer lists are trade secret so it is critical that customers are
determined through legal and ethical OSINT
69
Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

70. Tradeshow Intelligence
• Value: Collect a large amount of intelligence in a short amount of
time
• Competitors, partners, and customers are all concentrated in the same
location
• Audience: Planning, marketing, or sales
• Format: Word document bulletins and reports during the event,
PowerPoint rollup after the event
• Sources: Primary sources
• May include:
• Competitor announcements, strategy, roadmap, examination of key
features, analysis of competitor sales pitch, etc.
• Quick recommendations on time-sensitive opportunities and threats
70
Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

71. Human Capital - Investment Tracking
• Value: Provide signals as to where a competitor is investing, where
their product is being utilized, and features that may exist in new
products
• Audience: Sales, Marketing, Planning
• Sources: Job Posting sites, Career Sites, Job Posting API’s
71
Actionable
Insights
OSINT
Qualitative
(IDI’s, etc.)
Hands On
Tech Exp.

72. Deliverable construction
• Conclusions and Predictions up front
• Back them up – OSINT, Qual, Product / Service Experience
• Build a narrative
• More than just a collection of facts
• What does it mean?
• How does this intersect with our business?
• What are the threats and opportunities?
• Presentation style deliverables are typically standard, but they are
not the right tool for every deliverable
• Newsletters are typically developed in Word or an HTML template
• More quantitative findings are delivered (or backed by) Excel
spreadsheets
• Must answer Key Intelligence Questions (KIQ’s)
• Can provide additional insights outside of KIQs
72

73. Synthesize
• Why does it
mean
• Why does it
matter
• How can it be
visualized
73

74. Contact Us
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sean@cascadeinsights.com
scott@cascadeinsights.com