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Competitor · Diagnose

Strategic group map

Plots competitors on two dimensions that actually matter, revealing the clusters everyone competes within and the empty space nobody occupies. The empty space is sometimes an opportunity and sometimes a graveyard.

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
01 Diagnose
Works at
Business
Maturity
Scaling → Large organisation
Time
Two hours

What it is

A two-axis map of the competitors in a market, positioned on dimensions of strategic choice rather than performance. Firms cluster into strategic groups that compete more intensely with each other than across groups, and the map makes both the clusters and the gaps visible.

The axes
Two dimensions of strategic choice that meaningfully vary across the market and are independent of each other. Choosing these well is most of the work.
Positions
Where each competitor actually sits, based on evidence rather than perception. Bubble size normally represents revenue or share.
Strategic groups
The clusters that emerge. Members of a group face similar competitive pressures and tend to respond to events in similar ways.
Mobility barriers
What makes it hard to move between groups — capital, capability, brand, channel access. These explain why the map is stable.
White space
Positions nobody occupies. Some are genuine gaps; most are empty because the economics do not work there, which the map itself will not tell you.
The mistake people makePrice against quality produces a diagonal line and no insight, because in most markets the two are correlated. Spend the time choosing axes where competitors have genuinely made different choices — that is where the map earns its keep.
What it’s forThe market has several distinct competitive clusters and you want to see the empty space.
What it’s not forThere are fewer than five meaningful competitors — the map will be sparse and unconvincing.

How you run it

  1. Choose two dimensions that genuinely varyPrice and quality is the lazy default and usually correlates. Pick axes where competitors actually differ: breadth of range, service model, channel, degree of specialisation.
  2. Test that the axes are independentIf the two dimensions correlate, everyone sits on a diagonal and the map tells you nothing.
  3. Plot with real numbersEstimate rather than guess, and size the bubbles by revenue or share so relative weight is visible.
  4. Name the clustersGroups only become useful once they have names and a described strategy. "The content-led challengers" beats "the top left".
  5. Interrogate the white spaceEmpty regions are sometimes unserved and sometimes uneconomic. Work out which before treating one as an opportunity.

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

  • A competitor set with real data on each
  • Candidate dimensions that genuinely vary across the market
  • At least five or six players to plot

You’ll end up with

  • The map, with clusters visible
  • A named characterisation of each group
  • A read on the empty space and why it is empty

Runs well with

AI risk classification and governanceAnalysis planBusiness Model CanvasCapability maturity assessment