PMA 7-Step Competitive Analysis Framework
Transform raw competitor research into impactful, business-aligned strategic recommendations that uncover unmet customer needs and actionable opportunities.
// TL;DR
The PMA 7-Step Competitive Analysis Framework is a structured method for turning raw competitor research into business-aligned strategic recommendations that surface unmet customer needs. Created by the Product Marketing Alliance, it starts by aligning with leadership and business goals, then works through customer research, tiered competitor mapping, intelligence gathering, gap analysis, and business translation — ending in a concrete plan of action. Use it whenever you enter a new market, respond to competitive pressure, prepare battle cards, or brief leadership on the competitive landscape. Its core promise: no more generic recommendations. Every finding ties back to customer needs and measurable business objectives.
// When should you use the PMA 7-Step Competitive Analysis Framework?
Use this skill whenever you need to conduct or structure a competitive analysis — whether entering a new market, responding to competitive pressure, preparing battle cards, or briefing leadership on the competitive landscape.
// What do you need before starting a competitive analysis?
- Your product or solutionrequired
What your company sells and the core customer problem it solves - Business goalsrequired
The specific objectives your company or leadership team is trying to achieve this period - Stakeholder groupsrequired
The internal audiences you are responsible for serving (e.g. sales, leadership, product) - Known competitors
An initial list of direct competitors, even if incomplete — the framework will expand and tier this list - Existing customer research
Any prior customer interviews, surveys, or focus group data available to draw on
// What core principles guide the PMA competitive analysis method?
Business-and-Stakeholder Alignment First
Every competitive analysis must begin by getting in sync with your leaders and the business goals they are pursuing. Without this alignment, you produce generic recommendations that lack impact — no matter how thorough the research.
Customer Needs as the North Star
At every stage of the process, tie your findings back to customer needs. The ultimate goal is learning where unmet customer needs exist in the market, because those gaps create opportunities for you to exploit.
Tiered Competitor Importance
A simple flat list of competitors will not cut it. Competitors must be grouped into tiers based on their strategic importance, with the most important tier typically being those you narrowly lose deals to.
Dual Perspective on Positioning
Understand both how a competitor sees its own product and how the market actually sees it. Some competitors' positioning strategies are ineffective — they occupy one position in their own minds, another in the customer's.
Product Alternatives Are Competitors Too
Do not overlook product alternatives. Even products that seem very different from yours can steal market share if they solve the same customer problem.
Analysis Oriented Start to Finish
Three questions anchor the entire process: What is the business trying to achieve? Which stakeholder groups am I responsible for serving? How can I deliver what I've learned in a way that helps drive those larger business goals? Return to these at the end to shape your final plan of action.
// How do you run the PMA 7-Step Competitive Analysis step by step?
- 1
Align with business goals and the stakeholders you serve
Access company goal resources or book time with a leadership team member before starting any research. Clarify three things: what the business is trying to achieve, which stakeholder groups you are responsible for serving, and how you will deliver findings in a way that drives those goals. Do not skip this — proceeding without alignment produces generic recommendations that lack impact.
- 2
Align with the needs of your target market
Speak to past, present, and prospective customers. Also interview reps from sales and customer success teams, who speak to customers daily and have their fingers on the pulse of what the audience wants. Use customer surveys, focus groups, and customer interviews to surface exactly what customers and prospects want to see from solutions on the market. These customer needs become your reference point for every subsequent step.
- 3
Identify and tier your competitors
Do not produce a flat list. Group competitors into at least three tiers based on importance. The most important tier typically contains those you narrowly lose deals to — analyzing where and why you lose to them can give you the edge to win those head-to-heads and generate a meaningful revenue boost. Critically, include product alternatives: solutions that look different from yours but solve the same customer problem and can therefore steal market share.
- 4
Gather competitive intelligence, starting with your top-tier competitors
For each competitor, learn: the benefits of their product, how they position themselves as a solution to various customer needs, what problems they consider a priority to solve, and what they believe their product strengths are. Note that everyone wants to occupy their own space — so positioning differences are meaningful data. Check these self-perceptions against your customer research to detect positioning gaps (where the competitor sees themselves one way but the market sees them another). Also investigate competitors' pricing and marketing strategies for deeper insight.
- 5
Determine how well each competitor meets customer needs
Circle back and touch base with your interviewees and survey participants from Step 2. Now that you know more about competitors' products and positioning, you can ask more detailed, specific questions about them — making the analysis as thorough as possible. If re-engaging respondents is not feasible, rigorously reexamine your earlier findings through this lens. The goal is to identify where unmet customer needs exist in the market — these are your opportunities to exploit.
- 6
Relate findings back to your business
Translate what you've learned into business implications. For each significant finding, ask: Does it make sense for us to act on this? Do we have the budget? Does it fit our existing UX and positioning? Could we improve upon it to further differentiate? Also identify which market opportunities align most closely with your company goals from Step 1. If a competitor poses a direct threat to the business achieving a goal, flag it explicitly — do not bury it.
- 7
Create a plan of action with concrete recommendations
With your analysis complete and conclusions in hand, produce a set of recommendations and actionable steps the business should take to make the most of the opportunities uncovered. Return to the three anchor questions from Step 1 to ensure your plan of action is oriented toward business goals and stakeholder needs. Deliverables may range from operational tools like up-to-date battle cards and an internal competitive newsletter, to a full strategic plan for leadership — match the format to what serves your stakeholders best.
// What does the PMA framework look like in real scenarios?
A B2B SaaS company in the project management space is losing deals at the proposal stage but does not know why. The head of product marketing is tasked with running a competitive analysis.
Step 1: Meet with sales leadership to confirm the goal is increasing win rate, and that the primary stakeholder is the sales team. Step 2: Interview recently churned prospects and lost-deal contacts, plus sales reps. Step 3: Tier competitors — the tools most commonly mentioned in lost deals go in Tier 1; include spreadsheet-based workflows as a product alternative (same problem, different solution). Step 4: Audit how Tier 1 competitors position their product — note one positions itself as 'the no-setup alternative', which may resonate with SMB buyers who find onboarding a barrier. Step 5: Return to prospects and ask specifically about that 'no-setup' positioning — confirm it maps to a real unmet need. Step 6: Evaluate whether simplifying onboarding is feasible and differentiated given current product roadmap. Step 7: Deliver battle cards addressing the 'no-setup' objection for sales, plus a strategic recommendation to leadership to fast-track onboarding improvements.
A consumer fintech startup wants to expand into a new geographic market and needs to understand the competitive landscape before committing budget.
Step 1: Align with the CEO — the goal is validating market entry viability; stakeholders are the executive team and the board. Step 2: Run focus groups with prospective customers in the target market to understand what financial pain points are unmet and what they currently use. Step 3: Tier local incumbent apps as Tier 1, international players available in-market as Tier 2, and informal cash networks or bank branches as product alternatives. Step 4: Analyse how local incumbents position themselves — likely around trust and local regulation. Step 5: Test whether their positioning lands with focus group participants or whether a gap exists (e.g. incumbents seen as slow and bureaucratic despite claiming speed). Step 6: Assess whether the startup's speed advantage is genuinely differentiated and achievable at local compliance cost. Step 7: Deliver a board-ready strategic recommendation on whether to enter, with supporting battle cards for the sales team if the recommendation is yes.
// What mistakes should you avoid in competitive analysis?
- Starting research before aligning with leadership — this produces generic recommendations that lack impact, no matter how thorough the analysis.
- Producing a flat competitor list rather than grouping competitors into tiers based on strategic importance.
- Overlooking product alternatives — solutions that look different from yours but solve the same customer problem can still steal market share.
- Accepting a competitor's self-positioning at face value without checking it against actual customer perception — some positioning strategies are ineffective and the market sees the competitor very differently.
- Completing the analysis without circling back to customers or customer-facing teams at Step 5 — your earlier questions were not detailed enough to surface competitor-specific insights.
- Failing to tie every finding back to the business goals established in Step 1 — insights without business relevance do not drive action.
- Delivering findings without a plan of action — the output must include concrete recommendations and actionable steps, not just observations.
// What key terms should you know for competitive analysis?
- Unmet customer needs
- Gaps in the market where no current competitor adequately solves a customer problem — the primary opportunities for competitive advantage that the analysis is designed to surface.
- Tiered competitors
- A structured grouping of competitors by strategic importance rather than a flat list. The most important tier typically contains those you narrowly lose deals to, as winning those head-to-heads delivers the largest revenue boost.
- Product alternatives
- Solutions that may appear very different from your product but solve the same underlying customer problem and are therefore capable of stealing market share — a commonly overlooked competitor category.
- Positioning gap
- The disconnect between how a competitor sees and positions its own product versus how the market actually perceives it. Identifying this gap reveals exploitable weaknesses in the competitor's strategy.
- Battle cards
- Concise, sales-facing competitive reference documents that equip reps to handle competitor objections and win head-to-heads — a key operational deliverable from the plan of action.
- Internal competitive newsletter
- A recurring internal communication used to keep stakeholders continuously updated on the competitive landscape — cited as a simple but effective deliverable from the plan of action.
- Plan of action
- The final output of the competitive analysis: a set of concrete recommendations and actionable steps the business should take to exploit the opportunities and address the threats uncovered, anchored to the business goals from Step 1.
- Customer-facing team pulse
- The real-time customer insight held by sales and customer success reps who speak to customers daily — a primary intelligence source for understanding what the target market wants from solutions.
// FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the PMA 7-Step Competitive Analysis Framework?
The PMA 7-Step Competitive Analysis Framework is a structured process from the Product Marketing Alliance for turning competitor research into business-aligned strategic recommendations. It moves through seven stages: aligning with business goals, understanding customer needs, tiering competitors, gathering intelligence, mapping competitors to needs, relating findings to your business, and building a plan of action anchored to leadership objectives.
What makes this competitive analysis method different from just listing competitors?
Unlike a flat competitor list, this framework groups competitors into tiers by strategic importance, includes product alternatives that solve the same problem differently, and ties every finding back to customer needs and business goals. It starts and ends with leadership alignment, so the output is actionable recommendations — battle cards, strategic plans — not just observations that never drive decisions.
How do I start a competitive analysis using this framework?
Start by aligning with leadership before any research. Book time with a leadership team member or access company goal resources to clarify three things: what the business is trying to achieve, which stakeholder groups you serve, and how you'll deliver findings to drive those goals. Skipping this step produces generic recommendations, no matter how thorough the research that follows.
How do I tier my competitors correctly?
Group competitors into at least three tiers by strategic importance, not alphabetically or by size. Tier 1 typically contains competitors you narrowly lose deals to — winning those head-to-heads delivers the biggest revenue boost. Include product alternatives: solutions that look different from yours but solve the same customer problem. Analyzing where and why you lose sharpens your competitive edge.
How does the PMA framework compare to a SWOT analysis?
A SWOT analysis is a static snapshot of one company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The PMA framework is a dynamic, customer-centered process that maps multiple tiered competitors against real customer needs and ties findings to specific business goals. It produces concrete deliverables like battle cards and strategic recommendations, whereas SWOT often stops at a four-quadrant chart with no action plan.
When should I use this competitive analysis framework?
Use it whenever you need to conduct or structure a competitive analysis — entering a new market, responding to competitive pressure, preparing battle cards, or briefing leadership on the competitive landscape. It works for both defensive situations, like losing deals for unknown reasons, and offensive ones, like validating whether to expand into a new geography or segment.
What is a positioning gap and why does it matter?
A positioning gap is the disconnect between how a competitor sees and markets its own product versus how customers actually perceive it. It matters because some positioning strategies are ineffective — a competitor may claim to be 'fast' while the market sees them as slow and bureaucratic. Identifying this gap reveals an exploitable weakness you can position against.
What are product alternatives and why include them?
Product alternatives are solutions that look very different from yours but solve the same underlying customer problem — like spreadsheets versus dedicated project management software. They matter because they can steal market share even though they don't seem like direct competitors. Overlooking them is a common pitfall that leaves you blind to real threats to your growth.
What results can I expect from running this framework?
You can expect a prioritized set of business-aligned recommendations, a clear map of unmet customer needs to exploit, and operational deliverables like up-to-date battle cards or a strategic plan for leadership. In deal-loss scenarios, you gain the insight to win head-to-heads you were losing — often producing a meaningful revenue boost by targeting Tier 1 competitors.
Do I need existing customer research to use this framework?
No, existing customer research is helpful but optional. If you don't have prior interviews or surveys, Step 2 guides you to gather fresh insight by speaking to past, present, and prospective customers plus sales and customer success reps who talk to customers daily. Their real-time pulse on what the market wants becomes your reference point for every subsequent step.
How long does a competitive analysis with this framework take?
Timeline varies with scope, but the framework's sequencing keeps it efficient. Steps 1 and 2 (alignment and customer research) front-load the work, while Step 5 revisits earlier interviewees with sharper, competitor-specific questions rather than starting over. Focusing intelligence gathering on Tier 1 competitors first means you can deliver high-impact findings without exhaustively researching every player in the market.