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Competitive Landscape Map

Run the Competitive Landscape Map MicroSim Fullscreen
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About This MicroSim

Ask a first-time founder about competitors and they usually list businesses that sell something like their own offer. This map widens the view to everything Jordan's target customer could choose instead of a mobile dog groomer, and it sorts those alternatives by one question: how directly does this solve the same problem?

The five alternatives sit along a spectrum. The left end is the option that costs the customer nothing to keep choosing. The right end is the option that looks just like Jordan's offer. Each step to the right adds exactly one thing, labeled under the line:

# Alternative Jordan's example What this step adds
1 Do-Nothing Alternative The dog just doesn't get groomed this month Starting point
2 Current Workaround Dry shampoo and at-home brushing A fix
3 Substitute Solution A self-service dog wash station at the pet store A dedicated offer
4 Indirect Competitor A traditional storefront groomer requiring drop-off The same problem
5 Direct Competitor Another mobile dog-grooming service in the area The same approach

Clicking a node turns it fox orange and fills the detail panel with four things:

  • The definition of that kind of alternative.
  • Jordan's example of it.
  • Why it sits here: the step it has taken and the one it has not.
  • Where it falls short for Jordan's customer.

The "falls short" lines are the raw material for a market gap. The indirect competitor, for example, falls short on exactly the problem Jordan validated in Chapter 5: a half-day lost to drop-off and pickup.

On a phone-width screen the spectrum turns vertical, running from top (least direct) to bottom (most direct), with the step labels on the right.

How to Use

  1. Read the question above the spectrum and the two end labels.
  2. Click any node, or its label, to open its details in the panel below.
  3. Click More direct → or ← Less direct to step to the neighboring node. The left and right arrow keys do the same once the MicroSim has focus.
  4. Compare two neighbors: which single difference separates them?
  5. Click Clear to return to the opening prompt.

The status line next to Clear counts how many of the five alternatives you have explored.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/eight-hour-entrepreneur/sims/competitive-landscape-map/main.html"
        height="500px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Audience

Adult early-stage entrepreneurs and aspiring founders in a live virtual cohort.

Learning Objective

Learners differentiate existing alternatives to a venture as the do-nothing alternative, a current workaround, an indirect competitor or substitute, or a direct competitor, by their directness in solving the same problem.

Bloom Level: Analyze (L4). Bloom Verb: differentiate.

Duration

10-15 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Chapter 5 reading on Jordan's problem definition: the half-day lost to an in-person drop-off and pickup
  • Chapter 7 reading through "Direct, Indirect, and Substitute Competitors"

Activities

  1. Walk the spectrum (4 min): Each participant clicks all five nodes from left to right and notes what each step adds.
  2. Name the boundary (4 min): In breakout pairs, pick two neighboring nodes and state the one difference between them. Then discuss the hardest boundary on the map: the self-service wash station and the storefront groomer are both dedicated businesses, so why is only one of them an indirect competitor?
  3. Map your own idea (5 min): Each participant lists one alternative of each kind for their own venture, starting from the question "What would you do about this if my business didn't exist?" Any empty slot, especially the do-nothing slot, is a sign the research is not finished yet.

Assessment

  • Given an alternative that is not on the map, can the participant place it on the spectrum and name the step it has not taken?
  • Can the participant explain why the do-nothing alternative is often the toughest competitor, even though it costs the customer nothing?
  • Can the participant name one shortfall shared by every alternative on their own map, as a first candidate for a market gap?

References

  1. Competitor analysis - Wikipedia - How businesses identify and assess direct and indirect competitors.
  2. Substitute good - Wikipedia - The economics behind substitutes: different products that meet the same underlying need.
  3. Porter's five forces analysis - Wikipedia - Places the threat of substitutes alongside rivalry among direct competitors.
  4. Status quo bias - Wikipedia - Why customers keep choosing to do nothing even when a better option exists.
  5. Obviously Awesome by April Dunford (2019) - A positioning method that starts from a product's competitive alternatives, including doing nothing, rather than from rival companies alone.