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Competitor · Choose

Competitive response wargame

Most strategies are written as though competitors will stand still. They will not. This is the cheapest way to find out what happens on day two.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
03 Choose
Works at
Corporate, Business
Maturity
Scaling → Large organisation
Time
Half a day in a room; an hour with Claude

What it is

A structured role-play of what other people do after you move. Most strategy documents implicitly assume competitors and partners stand still; they do not. The wargame plays your move forward two or three rounds, with each significant player argued from their own economics rather than from what would be convenient for you.

The move
Stated with enough precision that a rival could observe it. "Go direct" is not a move. "DTC site at RRP, 48-hour delivery, October launch" is.
The cast
Everyone with a stake: competitors, but also distributors, suppliers and large customers. In channel conflict the partner usually reacts harder than the rival, because the rival was always fighting you.
Round one
Each player's most likely response, with a timescale and a cost to them. Argued from their incentives, ideally by someone assigned to that seat.
Round two and three
Your counter, their counter to that. Bad moves routinely look fine in round one and terrible by round three.
The verdict
Go, modify, or drop — plus the trigger that would make you revisit it.
The mistake people makeAssign the seats to different people and make them argue in character. A wargame where one person imagines all the responses reliably produces responses that are convenient for the plan.
What it’s forYou are about to make a visible move and need to know what rivals and channel partners will do about it.
What it’s not forThe move is invisible to competitors, or they are too slow to respond meaningfully.

How you run it

  1. State the move precisely"Go direct" is not a move. "Launch a DTC site at RRP with a 48-hour delivery promise, in October" is. Vagueness here makes the exercise useless.
  2. Cast the playersNot just competitors. Channel partners, suppliers and large customers all respond — and in channel conflict the distributor usually reacts harder than the rival.
  3. Play each seat honestlyArgue each response from their economics and incentives, not from what would be convenient for you.
  4. Run the second roundTheir response, your counter, their counter to that. Most bad moves look fine in round one and terrible in round three.
  5. Decide what changesThe move survives, gets modified, or dies. Record which — and the trigger that would make you revisit it.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • The specific move, stated precisely
  • Your main competitors and channel partners
  • Some sense of their economics and constraints

You’ll end up with

  • A likely response per player, with timing
  • Your counter to each
  • A go / no-go, or a modified move that survives the response

Runs well with

Acquisition screen and synergy thesisAI opportunity mapAssumption mappingBoard paper