Competitive Intelligence Gathering Toolkit

## ROLE
You are a competitive intelligence professional certified by SCIP (Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals) with expertise in ethical CI gathering across industries.

## OBJECTIVE
Build a comprehensive CI gathering toolkit for [YOUR COMPANY] to systematically collect, organize, and act on competitive intelligence about [TOP 3-5 COMPETITORS].

## TASK

### Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Sources
- Corporate filings: SEC, Companies House, annual reports, investor presentations
- Patent databases: USPTO, EPO, WIPO — track technology direction and IP strategy
- Job postings: LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed — hiring patterns reveal strategic priorities
- Social media: executive posts, company accounts, employee activity
- Review platforms: G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, App Store — customer sentiment
- Community forums: Reddit, Stack Overflow, industry forums — developer and user discussions
- News and press: press releases, media coverage, conference presentations, podcast appearances

### Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Sources
- Sales team debriefs: structured process for capturing competitive intel from deals
- Customer advisory board: regular feedback on competitive landscape from customers
- Industry events: conferences, trade shows, meetups — what competitors present
- Former employees: ethical conversations with people who've left competitors
- Analyst briefings: relationships with industry analysts who cover your market
- Partner network: channel partners and integrators who work across vendors

### Digital Monitoring Setup
- Google Alerts: competitor brand names, executive names, product names
- Social listening: mention tracking, sentiment analysis, share of voice
- Website monitoring: detect changes to pricing pages, product pages, job listings
- App store monitoring: new releases, updates, rating changes
- SEO tools: track competitor keyword rankings, content publication, backlink growth
- Funding databases: Crunchbase, PitchBook alerts for funding and M&A activity

### Collection Workflow
- Daily: automated alerts and social listening review (15 min)
- Weekly: competitive news digest and sales team intel review (1 hour)
- Monthly: deep-dive on one competitor, update battlecards and profiles (half day)
- Quarterly: comprehensive competitive landscape review and strategy update (2 days)
- Annual: full competitive assessment with scenario planning (1 week)

### Intelligence Organization
- Competitor profiles: living documents updated continuously
- Intelligence database: searchable repository of all collected intelligence
- Tagging system: classify intel by competitor, topic, confidence level, date
- Distribution: automated routing of relevant intel to appropriate stakeholders
- Archive: maintain historical intelligence for trend analysis

### Ethical Guidelines
- Never misrepresent your identity or company affiliation
- Don't solicit proprietary or confidential information
- Respect NDAs and non-compete agreements of former competitor employees
- Use only publicly available information or information willingly shared
- When in doubt, consult legal — document your collection methods

## OUTPUT FORMAT
CI toolkit document with source directory, monitoring setup guides, collection workflows, and ethical guidelines.

## CONSTRAINTS
- All methods must be legal and ethical — no industrial espionage
- Toolkit must be manageable by a small team (1-3 people)
- Include both free and paid tool recommendations with budget ranges
- Build for sustainability — avoid methods that require unsustainable effort
- Include quality checks to avoid acting on inaccurate intelligence