Yes. Every guide is free to read, with no account and no credit card. If we ever charge for something, it will be a product — never the library.

How long does validating an idea take?

Most founders get to a defensible verdict in two to four weeks: a dozen interviews, three tested assumptions, and one scored decision.

What if the verdict says pivot?

Then you saved months. The pivot guide walks you through which part to keep — usually the customer, rarely the feature.

Do I need a technical co-founder to use this?

No. Everything here happens before code: conversations, evidence, and one honest score.

The complete guide. It's one long read that links out to jobs & journeys, the evidence engine, personas and the launch kit.

Competitive Landscape Map: Visualize Your Market

Text descriptions of competitors are hard to internalize.

A competitive landscape map lets you see the entire market at once. You spot gaps. You see white space. You identify your positioning.

This guide teaches you how to build one.

What Is a Competitive Landscape Map?

A 2D graph that plots competitors on two dimensions.

Example dimensions:

X-axis: Enterprise ↔ SMB (who they serve)
Y-axis: Expensive ↔ Cheap (price positioning)

Each competitor is a bubble on this map.

How to Read a Landscape Map

Imagine a CRM market:

EXPENSIVE
    ^
    |     Salesforce (Enterprise) ●
    |
    |   HubSpot ●
    |   (Mid-market)
    |
    | ●Pipedrive (SMB)
    |        ● Notion (DIY)
    |
    +────────────────────→ ENTERPRISE
CHEAP → SMB

What you can see:

Crowding: Enterprise CRM is crowded (Salesforce, HubSpot). SMB is less crowded (Pipedrive, Notion).
Gaps: No "expensive SMB CRM" or "cheap enterprise CRM"
Your positioning: Where can you win?

Step 1: Choose Your Two Dimensions

Pick dimensions that matter in your market.

Good dimensions:

Price (high ↔ low)
Customer size (SMB ↔ Enterprise)
Use case (DevOps ↔ Business)
Complexity (Simple ↔ Complex)
Speed (Fast ↔ Comprehensive)

Bad dimensions:

"Quality" (too subjective)
"Features" (all have features)

Pick dimensions that actually differ between competitors.

Example Dimensions by Market

Project Management:

X: Enterprise (Asana) ↔ Simple (Notion)
Y: Process-Heavy ↔ Lightweight

Payment Processing:

X: Consumer (Stripe) ↔ Enterprise (Worldpay)
Y: For Developers ↔ For Non-Technical

Design Tools:

X: Professional Designers (Adobe) ↔ Non-Designers (Canva)
Y: Desktop ↔ Web-Based

Step 2: Map Your Competitors

List all direct competitors, map each on your two dimensions.

CRM Example:

Competitor	Price Position	Market Size
Salesforce	High	Enterprise
HubSpot	Mid	Mid-market
Pipedrive	Low	SMB
Notion	Low	DIY/SMB

Now plot them:

             ENTERPRISE
                 ^
                 |
    Salesforce   |
       ●         |
                 |
    HubSpot ●    |
                 |
                 | Pipedrive ●  Notion ●
                 |
            ────────────────────→
            LOW             HIGH
            PRICE           PRICE

Step 3: Identify Gaps

Where are competitors NOT positioned?

In the CRM example above:

Gap 1: "Expensive Enterprise" (maybe there's white space for "Salesforce but simpler"?)
Gap 2: "Cheap Mid-Market" (Pipedrive targets SMB, HubSpot targets mid-market, gap in between?)

Step 4: Position Yourself

Where are you? Where do you want to be?

Examples:

If you're building a CRM for solopreneurs: "You're in the 'Cheap/SMB' position. Problem: Pipedrive and Notion already own that space. Differentiation needed."

If you're building a CRM for scaling startups: "You're in the 'Mid-Market' position. Problem: HubSpot already owns 'affordable mid-market.' You need different positioning (e.g., 'Mid-market + built for SaaS' or 'Mid-market + developer-first')."

Real Example: Project Management Landscape

(Version 2024)

COMPLEX/FEATURE-HEAVY
                ^
                |
                |  Asana  ●
                |
                |    Monday ●
                |
                |
                |  Linear  ●
                |        Jira ●
                |
                | Todoist ●
                |     Notion ●
                |
    ────────────────────→
    SIMPLE      LIGHTWEIGHT

What you see:

Crowding: Everything is clustered around "lightweight to mid-feature"
Gap: "Complex but not Jira" (no one positioned here)
Differentiation: Competitors differentiate on design, speed, integrations (not captured in 2D map)

Multi-Dimensional Visualization

2D map works for most cases. But sometimes you need 3+ dimensions.

Option 1: Bubble size

X-axis: Price
Y-axis: Complexity
Bubble size: Market adoption

Bigger bubble = more popular

Option 2: Multiple maps

Map 1: Price vs. Complexity
Map 2: Price vs. Market Size

Updating Your Map

Maps go stale. Update quarterly:

Do any competitors shift position?
New entrants?
Any white space filled?

Changes in competitive positioning teach you about market evolution.

Using Your Map

For product decisions: "Our map shows a gap at 'mid-market + simple.' Should we pursue it?"

For messaging: "Our map shows we're between HubSpot and Pipedrive. How do we message 'better than both'?"

For positioning: "Our map shows competitors clustered here. We should position there (differentiation) or here (opposite)."

Connection to Competitive Analysis

Your landscape map is the visual output of complete competitive analysis →.

You've researched competitors. Now you visualize them to see the full picture.

See Your Market Clearly

A good landscape map makes strategy obvious.

Build one this week. Update it quarterly.

You'll be surprised what white space you missed.

Use Edmired to build competitive landscape maps and identify your positioning. Join the beta.