How to Create a Competitive Intelligence Report
Most CI reports collect dust because they answer the wrong questions or arrive too late.
This guide shows you how to create competitive intelligence reports that actually drive decisions—including what to include, how to structure it, and how to make it actionable.
LuminixAI can generate comprehensive CI reports in minutes instead of days. Try it free to see how.
Why Most CI Reports Fail
You've seen it before: a 50-page competitive analysis that took weeks to create, read once, then forgotten. The problem isn't the data—it's the approach.
No Clear Purpose
Reports that try to cover "everything about competitors" end up being useful for nothing specific. Without a decision context, you're just collecting trivia.
Data Without Insight
Listing competitor features isn't intelligence. Intelligence is understanding what those features mean for your strategy and what to do about it.
Stale by Delivery
If your report takes two weeks to create, the market has moved on. Speed matters more than perfection—good enough today beats perfect next month.
Define Your Intelligence Requirements
Before gathering any data, answer these questions:
Key Questions to Ask
- What decision will this inform? (pricing change, market entry, product roadmap)
- Who is the audience? (exec team, product managers, sales team)
- What's the timeline? (board meeting in 2 weeks vs. ongoing monitoring)
- What competitors matter most? (direct competitors, adjacent players, potential entrants)
"We need a competitive analysis"
"We need to understand how Competitor X's new pricing model affects our mid-market positioning, so we can decide whether to adjust our pricing by Q2"
The clearer your requirements, the more focused (and useful) your report will be.
Gather Competitive Data
Good CI comes from triangulating multiple source types. No single source tells the whole story.
Public Filings
10-Ks, earnings calls, press releases, job postings, patents
Market Signals
Product updates, pricing pages, marketing campaigns, conference talks
Voice of Market
Customer reviews, analyst reports, industry publications, social discussions
High-Value Sources by Competitor Type
- Public companies: SEC filings, earnings transcripts, investor presentations
- VC-backed startups: Crunchbase, funding announcements, founder interviews, job postings
- Private companies: LinkedIn employee count trends, G2/Capterra reviews, case studies
- All competitors: Product pages, pricing pages, help docs, blog content
Pro tip: Job postings reveal strategy. If a competitor is hiring 5 ML engineers, they're investing in AI. If they're hiring enterprise sales reps, they're moving upmarket.
Analyze and Synthesize
Raw data isn't intelligence. The value is in what you do with it.
Analysis Frameworks
- SWOT per competitor: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
- Capability gaps: Where do they beat us? Where do we beat them?
- Strategic intent: Based on their actions, where are they heading?
- Threat assessment: How likely are they to win our target customers?
For each insight, ask: "What should we do differently because of this?" If the answer is "nothing," it might not be worth including.
Structure Your Report
Structure depends on your audience, but here's a proven format:
1. Executive Summary (1 page)
Key findings and recommended actions. Busy executives should be able to stop here and know what to do.
2. Market Context (1-2 pages)
What's happening in the market that makes this analysis relevant? Recent shifts, trends, events.
3. Competitor Profiles (2-3 pages each)
For each key competitor: overview, product/service analysis, go-to-market approach, strengths/weaknesses, recent moves, likely next moves.
4. Comparative Analysis (2-3 pages)
Side-by-side comparisons on dimensions that matter: features, pricing, positioning, target customers.
5. Strategic Implications (1-2 pages)
What does this mean for us? Specific recommendations tied to findings.
6. Appendix
Detailed data, source links, methodology notes for those who want to dig deeper.
Formatting Tips
- Use visuals: comparison tables, positioning maps, timeline charts
- Lead with insights, not data: "Competitor X is vulnerable in mid-market" not "Competitor X has 500 employees"
- Make it scannable: headers, bullets, bold key points
- Date everything: competitive intelligence has a short shelf life
CI Report Template
Executive Summary
- 3-5 key findings (most important first)
- 2-3 recommended actions with owners and timelines
- What's changed since last report (if recurring)
Per Competitor Profile
- Overview: What they do, target market, size/stage
- Product: Core offering, key features, recent releases
- Pricing: Model, price points, packaging
- Go-to-market: Sales motion, channels, messaging
- Strengths: Where they win and why
- Weaknesses: Where they struggle
- Recent moves: Last 90 days of activity
- Predicted moves: What we expect next
Comparative Analysis
- Feature comparison matrix
- Pricing comparison table
- Positioning map (2x2 or similar)
- Win/loss patterns by competitor
Want this as a ready-to-use spreadsheet?
Download Free Excel Template →Common Mistakes to Avoid
Boiling the Ocean
Trying to cover 15 competitors in depth. Focus on 3-5 that matter most. You can always expand later.
Feature Obsession
Comparing every feature checkbox misses the point. Customers don't buy features—they buy solutions to problems.
Ignoring Context
"Competitor X launched a new product" is data. "Competitor X launched a new product that directly targets our best customer segment" is intelligence.
No Follow-Through
A report without action items is just documentation. Every finding should connect to a recommendation.
How LuminixAI Helps
Following this guide will help you create better CI reports. But the manual process—gathering sources, reading through them, synthesizing findings—still takes days.
Automated Source Discovery
LuminixAI scans hundreds of sources simultaneously—news, filings, social, reviews—and surfaces what's relevant to your specific competitors.
Instant Synthesis
Instead of manually connecting dots across 50 articles, LuminixAI identifies patterns and generates insights automatically.
Structured Output
Get a formatted CI report with competitor profiles, comparative analysis, and strategic implications—ready for your team.
Always Current
Generate fresh reports whenever you need them. No more stale analysis that's outdated by the time it's delivered.
The methodology stays the same—define requirements, gather data, analyze, structure. LuminixAI just compresses what takes days into minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a competitive intelligence report include?
A comprehensive CI report should include an executive summary, competitor profiles (covering products, pricing, positioning, and strategy), market context, comparative analysis, and strategic recommendations. The depth depends on your audience and decision context—exec summaries should be scannable, while product teams may want detailed feature comparisons.
How often should you update competitive intelligence reports?
Update frequency depends on your industry's pace of change. Fast-moving tech markets may need monthly updates, while stable industries might update quarterly. More important than a fixed schedule: set up monitoring for trigger events (funding rounds, product launches, leadership changes, pricing changes) that warrant immediate updates.
What's the difference between competitive intelligence and competitive analysis?
Competitive analysis is typically a one-time snapshot comparing competitors on specific dimensions. Competitive intelligence is an ongoing process of gathering, analyzing, and distributing information about competitors to support strategic decisions. A CI report is one output of the broader CI process.
How do you gather competitive intelligence ethically?
Stick to publicly available information: company websites, press releases, SEC filings, news articles, job postings, conference presentations, customer reviews, and published research. Avoid misrepresentation (like posing as a customer), accessing confidential information, or pressuring employees for proprietary details. Good CI comes from being thorough with public sources, not from crossing ethical lines.
Ready to Create Better CI Reports?
Use this guide to improve your process. When you want to compress days into minutes, try LuminixAI.