Your First Intelligence Brief

An intelligence brief is a one-page document that tells a decision-maker what a competitor is doing, why it matters, and what to do about it. It is not a research report. It is not a data dump. It is a structured answer to a specific question, written so that a busy person can read it in under three minutes and know what to do next.

1. Company Overview Two or three sentences: what the competitor does, who their customers are, and how big they are. This section exists for context, not analysis. Keep it factual and brief.
2. Strengths What does this competitor do well? Strong brand recognition, deep funding, a specific technical advantage, established customer base. Be honest — underestimating a competitor is more dangerous than overestimating them.
3. Weaknesses Where are they vulnerable? Slow to innovate, high customer churn visible in reviews, over-reliance on a single product line, recent leadership turnover. Support every weakness claim with a source — Glassdoor reviews, public financial data, observable product gaps.
4. Recent Moves What has this competitor done in the last 90 days? New product launches, pricing changes, partnerships, key hires, market expansion. This section should be the most frequently updated part of any brief.
5. What to Watch Two or three specific signals that would indicate this competitor is about to do something that affects your business. "Watch for enterprise sales hires in APAC." "Watch for a pricing page update targeting mid-market." These are the triggers that tell you to pay closer attention.

## COMPETITOR BRIEF: [Company Name]
**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]
**Author:** [Your name]

### OVERVIEW
[2-3 sentences: What they do, who they serve, how big they are.]

### STRENGTHS
- [Strength 1 — source]
- [Strength 2 — source]
- [Strength 3 — source]

### WEAKNESSES
- [Weakness 1 — source]
- [Weakness 2 — source]

### RECENT MOVES (Last 90 Days)
- [Date]: [What happened] — [Source]
- [Date]: [What happened] — [Source]

### WHAT TO WATCH
- [Signal 1]: [What it would mean if observed]
- [Signal 2]: [What it would mean if observed]

Your first brief does not need to be perfect. Pick one competitor — the one you encounter most often in deals or conversations. Spend 30 minutes filling in the template using public sources. The act of writing forces you to organize what you know and identify what you do not know. That gap — the things you cannot fill in — becomes your collection priority for next week. One brief, written and updated regularly, is worth more than a hundred bookmarked articles.