Understanding Competition

The section that finds your white space

This is the final piece of Strategy. You've done the inner work in Analysis, and across Brand, Business Model and Value Proposition you've built the outward-facing strategy that takes that identity to market. Understanding Competition closes the stage — and it does one job better than anything else in the framework: it shows you where the white space is.

White space is the bit nobody else is standing in. It's the thing that makes you great, the area you should be pouring your attention into when you introduce people to your business. You can't find it by staring at your own reflection. You find it by mapping the ground around you honestly — and most founders never do.

Why you can't differentiate against a map you don't have

Here's the trap I see again and again. People claim they're different, faster, better, more practical — but they've never actually compared themselves to anyone. They've decided it in their armchair. That's not differentiation, that's a hunch. And a hunch falls apart the moment a prospect asks why they should pick you over the other three names on their shortlist.

So before you claim anything, you build the map. We walk through the territory: who you've worked for in the past, who you want to work with next, which of those clients were actually the best to work with — not just the biggest, the best. The 50%-of-revenue client that caused nothing but pain and lost time is not the one to chase. The 20% client who signs off, pays on time and values what you do — that's the one to lean into.

From there you lay out the rest of the ground. Your channels — referrals, social, whatever they are — ranked by which actually bring in business and what each one costs you in effort and money. Your industry associations, because those are channels too, levers to reach the people you want. Your competitors, and the honest question of whether they're already working where you want to work. And your costs, so you can see where the money goes against where it comes from. Roll all of that onto one page and you've got a picture of your business most people never sit still long enough to draw.

Attribute mapping — the part that actually matters

The map is the setup. Attribute mapping is the payoff.

You pick five to ten attributes that matter in your market, you put your two or three top competitors beside you, and you score everyone one to five, attribute by attribute. It takes some honest self-reflection, and that's the whole point.

Let me show you mine. I once scored myself on speed, practicality, tools and intellectual property. On speed and practicality, I rank high — that's where I dominate. On tools, my competition beats me; I don't have a slick online platform, just canvases and method. And on intellectual property, the big names — the Strategyzers, the established frameworks — are chalk and cheese ahead of me. Their brands have been around for decades.

Now here's the lesson most people get backwards. The map didn't tell me to go fix my tools and IP so I could compete with the giants. It told me to stop trying to win where I was never going to win, and pour everything into where I already lead. I shouldn't market my tools. I shouldn't market my IP. I should market speed and practicality — relentlessly. You're not hunting for your weaknesses to patch them. You're finding the gap between you and the competition and planting your flag in it.

That's the white space. And once you've found it, it doesn't stay in this section — it feeds straight back into your brand, your marketing, every bit of content you put out. You lead with the thing you genuinely dominate.

Where this points

Understanding Competition closes Strategy and hands you a defensible view of where you play and how you win. From here, the framework moves into Planning — turning everything you now know into goals you can actually work towards.

If you've read this and realised you've been claiming a difference you've never actually mapped, that's the signal. This is the kind of work that's far sharper with someone in the room asking the hard questions — and it's exactly what I do with founders inside The Success Framework. Join the list, and I'll walk you through it, one section at a time.