# competitive-strategy

A skill for working through competitive strategy: finding sources of durable advantage and judging threats from bigger players.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 482 installs · ★ 1434
- Author: RefoundAI
- License: MIT · policy=mirror · the beginning of the file is at the end of this page
- Source: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/competitive-strategy/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-07-16
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/competitive-strategy

## What it does

The skill draws on 24 guests and posts from Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter. It walks you through four steps — define your real rivals by customer context, audit structural power, pick one winning path, and assess how vulnerable incumbents actually are.

Inside are eight templates and frameworks: a true switching cost assessment, Rumelt's sources of competitive power, Roger Martin's can't-versus-won't test, Porter's two paths, and the competitor iceberg. There's also a list of common mistakes — copying features without context, mistaking growth for power, underestimating organisational inertia. The full list lives in `references/artifacts.md`.

Use it when the product already exists and you can't say what holds it up. It won't crunch numbers or build a competitor matrix; it's a conversational framework that asks uncomfortable questions. One caveat: the source text is truncated, so the last section on mistakes is only partly described.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill competitive-strategy -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/competitive-strategy/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/competitive-strategy/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill competitive-strategy -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/competitive-strategy/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill competitive-strategy -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/competitive-strategy/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install RefoundAI/lenny-skills competitive-strategy
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/competitive-strategy/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill competitive-strategy -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills --path skills/competitive-strategy
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/competitive-strategy/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill competitive-strategy -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/tree/HEAD/skills/competitive-strategy/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- define real competitors through customer context instead of technical category
- choose between low cost and differentiation rather than getting stuck in the middle
- judge whether an incumbent would copy your main feature and what would stop them
- count true switching costs, including internal politics and career risk
- spot an asymmetry your competitors have overlooked

## Example prompts
- walk me through competitive strategy for my product using the skill's framework
- help me figure out which moats we already have and which we're building on purpose
- check whether we're stuck between cost leadership and differentiation

## Source text · SKILL.md · MIT

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BEGIN THIRD-PARTY FILE a783d4a0f0c78a88
```text
---
name: competitive-strategy
description: Help users identify sources of durable competitive power, evaluate market threats, and design products that are uniquely differentiated rather than just better versions of existing tools.
---

# Competitive Strategy

Build durable moats and outmaneuver rivals by identifying structural power and customer-centric differentiation.

Help the user with competitive strategy using insights from 24 guests and posts across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter.

## How to Help

1. **Identify demand-side competition** - Help the user define their rivals based on customer situational context rather than technical categories.
2. **Audit structural power** - Guide the user through identifying moats like counter-positioning, network effects, or switching costs.
3. **Clarify winning paths** - Force a choice between being the lowest-cost provider or being uniquely differentiated to avoid being stuck in the middle.
4. **Assess incumbent vulnerability** - Analyze true switching costs, including organizational politics and career stakes, to find openings.

## Core Principles

### Define competition by customer context
Bob Moesta: "And so when you start to realize that, jobs helps you see the true competitive set from what we call the demand side of the world as opposed to the competitive set from the supply side of the world, which is the technology or the underlying business model by how which we're making it."

True competition is defined by the customer's situational context and what they would use if your product did not exist. Shift from technical category analysis to demand-side analysis to see your real rivals.

### Monitor incumbent moves as market signals
Drew Houston: "Less than a year later, Google Photos launches. And not only does it provide a lot of the same value, but they also gave you free unlimited storage for life. And so, they just totally nuked our business model."

Treat major incumbent product launches as signals of market consolidation or shifts. Even if the immediate impact is low, these moves indicate where the market is heading and when a niche may become commoditized.

### Prioritize counter-positioning for startups
Hamilton Helmer: "So in a book there's a thing called power progression, which says there are... It tells over the cycle of a business, there are times when certain types of power are available and the converse of that is times when they're not available."
```
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