Keep a weekly tracker of competitor activity
Gather competitor product news, hiring activity, and public posts into a weekly tracking sheet and concise team briefing.
How this works
Gather competitor product news, hiring activity, and public posts into a weekly tracking sheet and concise team briefing. A competitor tracker needs continuity: readers should see what changed since the last check rather than reread a company profile every week. Product announcements, hiring, and public posts are different evidence types and should not be blended into claims about internal strategy.
Maintain event-level records for a fixed competitor set and update only material changes. Preserve dates, source references, and previous values. The assistant summarizes implications as hypotheses; the underlying tracker records observed public facts.
Before you start
Competitor set
Define relevant organizations and aliases to avoid mistaken matches.
Change taxonomy
Choose product, pricing, hiring, partnership, and publication categories.
Previous snapshot
Use the last reviewed tracker as the baseline; initialize one if absent.
Prepare the inputs
- competitor_registry
- Required
Stable IDs and aliases
Resolve similarly named entities.
- current_evidence
- Required
Public pages and records
Include source and observation date.
- previous_tracker
- Required
Versioned table
Do not overwrite the historical baseline.
- materiality_rules
- Required
Relevant change criteria
Specify which changes merit a briefing.
- review_window
- Required
Weekly interval
Separate event date from discovery date.
Implementation, step by step
Establish the baseline
- Load the previous tracker and list competitors or fields lacking a prior observation.
- Treat first observations as baseline entries rather than changes.
Checkpoint: A comparison-ready snapshot.
Collect public signals
- Read selected product, hiring, and publication sources through available access methods.
- Record unavailable sources and distinguish a live vacancy from a confirmed hire.
Checkpoint: A dated evidence set.
Resolve entities and events
- Match aliases and deduplicate repeated announcements.
- Keep corrections and follow-on developments linked to the original event.
Checkpoint: A normalized change log.
Compare with prior values
- Identify additions, removals, and changed terms with before-and-after evidence.
- Avoid treating a missing page as proof a product or vacancy was discontinued.
Checkpoint: A verified delta table.
Draft the weekly brief
- Select material developments and explain their possible relevance to the team's questions.
- Use conditional language for strategic implications not explicitly established by the evidence.
Checkpoint: A concise briefing draft.
Review and maintain the tracker
- Verify selected changes and save a new snapshot without deleting prior versions.
- Prepare the approved internal message or record an authorized delivery receipt.
Checkpoint: A maintained tracker and accurate distribution status.
Decisions along the way
A source disappears
Mark unavailable and seek corroboration before declaring removal.
A role is reposted
Link the listing history rather than count a new hire.
A major change is discovered late
Record both the event date and the discovery week.
What you will produce
competitor-change-log.csv
CSVSupports longitudinal analysis.
Include: competitor_id · event_type · previous_value · current_value · event_date · source_ref · status
weekly-competitor-brief.md
MarkdownHighlights changes without overstating their meaning.
Include: material_changes · possible_implications · uncertainties · next_checks
Check the result
- Verify changes against both prior and current evidence.
- Check event deduplication across several outlets.
- Keep hiring announcements separate from open vacancies.
- Confirm the brief's implications are labeled as hypotheses where necessary.
When something goes wrong
Alias matching joins two companies
Split the records and recheck dependent summaries.
A source blocks collection
Retain the coverage gap and use permitted alternatives.
The assistant repeats unchanged background
Remove it from the weekly delta brief.
A worked example
SYNTHETIC EXAMPLE · NOT A REPORTED BUSINESS RESULT
Request
Track a competitor's product and hiring changes.
Inputs
Synthetic example. Synthetic baseline lists a 10-seat plan. Current pricing lists 15 seats; a job board reposts the same engineering vacancy.
Expected result
Synthetic expected result. Record the plan change with dated evidence. Do not count the repost as a new hire or infer an engineering expansion.
Run a small pilot
Start small
A small competitor set over several weekly snapshots.
Record the baseline
Record manual checking time and false change alerts.
Agree success criteria
Agree acceptable change accuracy and historical traceability.
Stop or revise
Stop strategic conclusions when the underlying entity or event is unresolved.
Keep the scope clear
- Public signals do not establish internal budgets or operating practices.
- An internal brief does not authorize contacting competitor employees.
Check before using
Verify events and sources, and separate strategic interpretations from facts.
Business activities
- Research customers and markets
FROM A RECIPE TO YOUR WORKFLOW
Bring the company context together.
This workflow needs reliable inputs before it needs a better prompt. Moat8 Vault brings working information into a readable archive for the AI tools you use.
For this recipe: Competitor list · Changes to watch · Briefing schedule
Start with one recurring task, agree which sources to use, and review the first result with your team.
Discuss this workflow