Competitive Landscape Mapping

Build a complete competitive analysis deck. This is a two-phase process: gather requirements and get outline approval first, then build.

Environment check

This skill works in both the PowerPoint add-in and chat. Identify which you're in before starting, the mechanics differ, the workflow doesn't:

• Add-in, the deck is open live; build slides directly into it.
• Chat, generate a .pptx file (or build into one the user uploaded).

Everything below applies in both.

Phase 1, Scope the analysis

Competitive analysis means different things to different people. Before any research or slide-building, use ask_user_question to pin down what they actually want. Don't guess, a 20-slide peer benchmarking deck and a 5-slide market map are both "competitive analysis" and take completely different shapes.

Gather in one round if you can (the tool takes up to 4 questions):

• Scope, Single target company with competitors around it? Or multi-company side-by-side with no protagonist?
• Competitor set, Which companies are in scope? If the user names them, use exactly those. If they say "the usual suspects," propose a set and confirm.
• Audience and depth, Quick read for someone already in the space, or a full primer? This drives whether you need market sizing, industry economics, and history, or can skip to the comparison.
• Investment context, Do they need bull/base/bear scenarios and signposts? That's Step 9 below; skip it if this is a strategic review rather than an investment thesis.

If they've uploaded an Excel/CSV with competitor data, confirm which columns map to which metrics before you start pulling numbers. Source-file fidelity matters: use values exactly as given, don't recalculate or re-round.

Phase 2, Outline, approve, then build