It has been many years, but when I first set out on this blogging journey I made the assertion that as Product Management leaders, having the right “story” is absolutely essential. At the time I was focused on such elements as positioning or messaging, but of late I have been reminded even within areas such as strategic planning and even competitive intelligence, how you frame the story is critically important. We are indeed called to be Master Storytellers, and today I want to key in on one component most stories have … the villain (competition).
Competitive intelligence should not be reduced to a Google searches where you are abstracting news articles; it should not be a thick volume of facts and figures; and it certainly should not be a one-time effort. Competitive intelligence should be able to answer the question: What will my competition do next?