Competitive Intelligence Program Template
A lean competitive intelligence program charter covering goals, scope, ethics, sources, roles, cadence, outputs, and measures of impact.
Last reviewed August 4, 2026A CI program needs a charter before it needs more feeds. This template defines the decisions the program supports, the competitors and sources in scope, legal and ethical boundaries, ownership, delivery cadence, and the outcomes used to judge value.
Use this template when
- Formalizing ad hoc competitor research
- Launching CI with a small team
- Resetting a noisy program
- Aligning sales, product, marketing, and leadership
Competitive Intelligence Program
Mission
Which business decisions will CI improve?
Scope
Which competitors, markets, and questions are in and out?
Collection policy
Approved public, licensed, customer, and field sources; prohibited methods.
Operating roles
Program owner, source owners, approvers, contributors, and audiences.
Outputs and cadence
Alerts, weekly brief, battlecards, landscape, and quarterly review.
Measures
Time saved, adoption, action rate, freshness, decision influence, and outcomes.
Worked example
Prevent surprise pricing and positioning moves in our core midmarket segment.
Five direct competitors; pricing, product, messaging, reviews, funding, and hiring.
Daily capture, Friday action brief, quarterly landscape and stakeholder review.
How to use it
- 1
Interview stakeholders about recurring decisions.
- 2
Choose a narrow initial scope.
- 3
Document ethical collection rules.
- 4
Define a repeatable evidence-to-action workflow.
- 5
Review adoption and outcomes after 30 and 90 days.
Frequently asked questions
Who should own competitive intelligence?
Ownership often sits in product marketing, strategy, or CI. The key is one accountable operator with contributions from sales, product, customer success, and leadership.
What is a good first CI deliverable?
A short weekly brief containing only material changes, evidence, implications, and named actions. It establishes trust faster than a giant static landscape deck.
Keep the evidence and action current.
SoWhatHQ monitors the move, explains why it matters, and carries the decision into messaging and battlecards.
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