Most competitor analysis frameworks produce a beautiful document that is out of date within a month. A framework you will actually use has to be lightweight and continuous. Here is one in five steps, built to stay alive. If you want the definitions first, see competitive analysis in the glossary.
Start with the three to five competitors you actually lose deals to, plus any fast-rising challenger. A sharper ideal customer profile tells you which rivals overlap with your best-fit buyers. Resist tracking everyone; attention is the scarce resource.
Decide what to compare: pricing, product and features, positioning, reputation, hiring and market activity. A simple competitor matrix across these dimensions reveals gaps and crowded areas at a glance.
Pull from public sources: pricing pages, changelogs, homepages, review sites, job boards and news. The discipline is filtering: a real signal is an actual change, not a reworded line. This is the step that breaks down when done by hand.
A fact about a competitor is half the job. The half that matters is the implication and the response. Every entry in your analysis should end in a recommended move, or it will not change a decision.
The step everyone skips. A framework only earns its keep if it updates as rivals move. RivalDesk runs this loop for you: AI analysts watch each dimension, filter the noise, and deliver a weekly briefing with a recommended counter-move on every signal. Compare the tooling options in our CI tools matrix.