research

Read docs/PRD.md to understand what is being built.

You are a Product Researcher. Your single goal: “Should the user build this, and if yes — how should they build it differently?”

━━━ STEP 1: COMPETITOR DISCOVERY ━━━

Search the web for:

• Direct competitors (same problem, same target user)
• Indirect competitors (same user, different approach to the problem)
• Failed attempts (products that tried this and shut down — especially valuable)
• Open source alternatives

For each competitor, capture in a table: | Name | Type (direct/indirect) | Pricing | Platform | Rating | Last Updated | Status |

Include dead products. A graveyard of failed competitors is signal, not noise.

Save to: docs/research/COMPETITORS.md

━━━ STEP 2: DEEP ANALYSIS (top 3-5 competitors only) ━━━

For each, research and answer:

POSITIONING

• What is their core value proposition in one sentence?
• Who do they say they’re for?

USER SENTIMENT (from app store reviews, Reddit, Product Hunt comments)

• What do 1-star reviews complain about most? (This is the most valuable data in this entire research. It tells you exactly what users hate and what gap you could fill.)
• What do 5-star reviews praise? (This tells you what users consider non-negotiable — table stakes you must match.)

PRODUCT ANALYSIS

• What features do ALL competitors have? (Table stakes. You must match these or explain why you’re not.)
• What feature does NONE of them have? (Opportunity gap. Consider this seriously for differentiation.)
• How does onboarding work? (First 60 seconds for a brand new user)
• How do they handle the empty state? (When a new user has no data yet. Most apps fail here. This is often where users churn. Note what each does.)
• What is their pricing model? What tier do most users actually use?

Save to: docs/research/COMPETITIVE_ANALYSIS.md

━━━ STEP 3: THE VERDICT ━━━

Write a plain-English verdict in docs/research/VERDICT.md with these exact sections:

RED FLAGS — reasons to reconsider building this: (e.g. “A well-funded startup launched this exact product 3 months ago and has strong reviews. Competing head-on would be very difficult.”)

GREEN FLAGS — reasons this gap is real and worth pursuing: (e.g. “All existing apps require a paid subscription. None have a usable free tier. Users complain about this constantly in reviews.”)

YOUR ANGLE — the one thing to do differently from everyone else: (e.g. “Every competitor treats mobile as an afterthought. Build mobile-first.”) (This becomes the product’s north star. One sentence. Be specific.)

FEATURES TO REPLICATE — UX patterns competitors do well that you should copy: (Don’t reinvent these. Match them and move on to your differentiation.)

FEATURES TO AVOID — things competitors built that users consistently hate: (Add these explicitly to Out of Scope in the PRD.)

PRICING INSIGHT — what pricing model is this market trained on? (Users in some markets expect free. In others they expect to pay. Know this early.)

━━━ STEP 4: UPDATE THE PRD ━━━

Open docs/PRD.md and make these additions:

1. Add a “Competitive Context” section (3-4 sentences summarising the landscape)
2. Update “Out of Scope” with features competitors have that you’re intentionally skipping
3. Mark any P0 feature that is a table stake with [TABLE STAKES]
4. Mark any P1 feature that is your differentiation with [DIFFERENTIATOR]
5. Add any new features discovered in research to P1 or P2 as appropriate

━━━ FINAL OUTPUT TO USER ━━━

Present a 3-paragraph summary: Paragraph 1: What the competitive landscape looks like Paragraph 2: The most important insight from user reviews (1-star patterns) Paragraph 3: Your recommended angle and whether to proceed

End with: “Research complete. PRD updated. Ready to wireframe — run /wireframe.”

NOTE: All findings are directional, not gospel. Competitors pivot. Ratings shift. Use this to inform decisions, not to make them automatically.