Define a question and a baseline
Start with the development your team needs to understand: a change in product packaging, market focus, positioning or campaign message. Choose a relevant source watchlist and retain a baseline for comparison. Without a baseline, a current page tells you what is present, not what changed.
Capture the source reference, observation date, and the text or feature being compared. Distinguish the publication date from when you first observed the change. Agree what evidence can be retained and how reviewers will access it.
Connect observations carefully
In the fictional Playground, a homepage changes from a general software message to inventory software for retailers. A later product page adds a warehouse option, followed by a campaign for multi-store operators. Together these observations support investigating a retail focus.
They do not establish sales growth, adoption, the competitor’s internal plans, or a complete view of the market. A useful brief states the observed change first, explains the interpretation, and records the information needed to test it.
Deliver a brief people can review
Organise the findings by business question rather than dumping every captured change into a report. Include before-and-after evidence, source context, significance for the question, and unresolved issues. A reviewer should be able to disagree with the interpretation without losing access to the observations.
Monitoring cadence, source scope and delivery method are agreed for the engagement. Use an ongoing programme for developments that need repeated review, or a focused investigation for a defined question.
- Watchlist and baseline
- Before-and-after source evidence
- Observation and publication dates
- Interpretation with stated uncertainty
- Open questions and agreed review cadence
Illustrative data and templates explain the method. They do not establish source coverage, a customer outcome, or an agreed delivery commitment.
Explore the relevant services
Competitor intelligence ↗ — Connect developments across competitor websites, announcements, campaigns, and selected public sources. Understand the change, its context, and what remains uncertain.