company-research

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Why This Works

• Executive perspective: Captures leadership thinking, not just marketing copy

• Product-centric: Focuses on PM-relevant insights (strategy, process, culture)

• Multi-source: Synthesizes interviews, earnings calls, blog posts, case studies

• Strategic intelligence: Informs competitive positioning, partnership evaluation, or interview prep

Anti-Patterns (What This Is NOT)

• Not financial analysis: Focus is product strategy, not valuation or stock performance

• Not SWOT analysis: This documents their perspective, not strengths/weaknesses assessment

• Not surface scraping: Go deeper than "About Us" pages—find executive interviews, product blogs, earnings transcripts

When to Use This

• Competitive analysis (understanding how competitors approach PM)

• Partnership evaluation (assessing cultural fit and strategic direction)

• Interview preparation (understanding company culture, product philosophy)

• Benchmarking best practices (learning from successful companies)

• Market entry decisions (understanding how incumbents operate)

When NOT to Use This

• For internal analysis (this is external research)

• When primary sources are unavailable (executives haven't spoken publicly)

• As a substitute for customer research (this is company perspective, not customer perspective)

Application

Use template.md for the full fill-in structure.

Step 1: Define Research Scope

Clarify what you're researching and why:

## Research Objective

- **Company Name:** [e.g., "Stripe"]

- **Research Purpose:** [e.g., "Understand payment platform product strategy for competitive positioning"]

- **Key Questions:**

  - [Question 1: e.g., "How does Stripe think about platform extensibility?"]

  - [Question 2: e.g., "What's their approach to developer experience?"]

  - [Question 3: e.g., "How do they prioritize roadmap vs. custom enterprise requests?"]

Step 2: Gather Company Overview

Document basic company information:

### Company Overview

**Basic Information:**

- **Name:** [Official company name]

- **Headquarters:** [Location]

- **Industry:** [Primary industries, e.g., "Fintech, Payment Processing, Developer Tools"]

- **Founded:** [Year]

- **Size:** [Employees, revenue if public, funding if private]

**Brief History:**

- [Key milestones that shaped current market position]

- [Example: "2010: Founded by Patrick and John Collison. 2011: Launched 7-line integration. 2018: Launched Stripe Atlas. 2021: $95B valuation."]

Sources to check:

• Company website (About, Press, Blog)

• LinkedIn company page

• Crunchbase / PitchBook (for funding/valuation)

• Wikipedia (for history)

Step 3: Extract Executive Quotes on Strategic Vision

Find recent quotes from key executives:

### Executive Quotes on Strategic Vision

**Quote from the CEO:**

- "[Recent quote discussing long-term vision and market approach]"

- **Source:** [Link to interview, earnings call, blog post, conference talk]

- **Date:** [When the quote was made]

- **Context:** [Brief explanation of what prompted this quote]

**Quote from the COO:**

- "[Recent quote focusing on operational strategies and challenges]"

- **Source:** [Link]

- **Date:** [When]

**Quote from the VP of Product Management:**

- "[Recent quote detailing product strategy and innovation focus]"

- **Source:** [Link]

- **Date:** [When]

**Quote from the Group Product Manager:**

- "[Recent quote discussing specific product initiatives and customer engagement]"

- **Source:** [Link]

- **Date:** [When]

Sources to check:

• Earnings call transcripts (if public)

• Podcast interviews (e.g., Lenny's Podcast, Masters of Scale, How I Built This)

• Conference talks (YouTube, company blog)

• Blog posts by executives

• LinkedIn posts

• Industry publications (TechCrunch, The Verge, etc.)

Quality checks:

• Recent: Prioritize quotes from the last 12-24 months

• Substantive: Look for strategy/philosophy, not generic PR statements

• Attributed: Always cite source and date

Step 4: Document Product Insights

Synthesize product strategy and recent launches:

### Detailed Product Insights

**Product Strategy Overview:**

- [Describe overall product strategy, emphasizing integration of market needs with technological capabilities]

- [Example: "Stripe's product strategy centers on developer experience: reduce integration complexity, provide powerful primitives, enable rapid experimentation"]

**Recent Product Launches and Innovations:**

1. **[Product/Feature 1]** - [Description and market impact]

   - [Example: "Stripe Tax (2021): Automated sales tax calculation. Removed compliance barrier for global expansion."]

2. **[Product/Feature 2]** - [Description and impact]

3. **[Product/Feature 3]** - [Description and impact]

**Product Philosophy:**

- [Key principles that guide product decisions]

- [Example: "Start with developer needs, not enterprise sales. Build for 10x scale before you need it. Default to public APIs."]

Sources to check:

• Product blog or changelog

• Product Hunt launches

• Release notes

• Product team blog posts or case studies

Step 5: Identify Transformation Strategies

Document how the company is evolving:

### Transformation Strategies and Initiatives

**Digital Transformation:**

- [Describe approach to digital transformation, emphasizing integration of cutting-edge technology with existing processes]

- [Example: "Migrated from monolith to microservices architecture (2019-2022). Enabled 10x faster feature deployment."]

**AI Transformation:**

- [Explain how AI is incorporated into core processes, product offerings, and market positioning]

- [Example: "Launched Radar for fraud detection (ML-powered). Reduced false positives by 40%, processing $640B annually."]

**Agile Transformation:**

- [Detail adoption of Agile methodologies, highlighting improvements in collaboration, project management, product delivery]

- [Example: "Adopted Shape Up methodology (6-week cycles, no sprints). Improved focus, reduced meeting overhead."]

Sources to check:

• Engineering blog

• Case studies or white papers

• Conference talks by engineering/product leaders

• LinkedIn posts about process changes

Step 6: Understand Organizational Impact of Product Management

Document how PM functions within the organization:

### Organizational Impact of Product Management

**Role of Product Management in Strategic Decisions:**

- [Discuss how PM influences strategic decisions]

- [Example: "PMs own P&L for their product area. Directly influence company roadmap through quarterly planning process. CEO reviews roadmap with PM leads, not just VPs."]

**Cross-Functional Collaboration:**

- [Outline collaboration between PM and other departments]

- [Example: "PMs co-located with engineering (not in separate 'product' org). Weekly design reviews with Design VP. Monthly GTM sync with Sales/Marketing."]

**PM Career Paths:**

- [If available, describe how PMs grow and advance]

- [Example: "IC track: PM → Senior PM → Staff PM → Principal PM. Manager track: PM → Group PM → Director → VP."]

Sources to check:

• PM job postings (describe role, responsibilities, team structure)

• LinkedIn profiles (track PM career progression)

• PM blog posts or interviews

• Glassdoor reviews (internal culture insights)

Step 7: Analyze Future Roadmap and Challenges

Identify where the company is headed:

### Future Product Roadmap and Challenges

**Upcoming Product Initiatives:**

- [Detail planned initiatives and alignment with strategic goals]

- [Example: "Expanding into embedded finance (Stripe Capital, Stripe Treasury). Goal: Become financial infrastructure for the internet, not just payments."]

**Anticipated Market Challenges:**

- [Identify potential challenges and PM team plans to address them]

- [Example: "Challenge: Increasing competition from Square, PayPal. Response: Double down on developer experience, global expansion (70+ countries)."]

**Competitive Threats:**

- [Document acknowledged or observed competitive pressures]

Sources to check:

• Earnings calls (forward-looking statements)

• Analyst reports

• Industry news (funding rounds by competitors, market shifts)

Step 8: Document Product-Led Growth Insights

If applicable, capture PLG strategies:

### Product-Led Growth Insights

**Implementation of PLG Strategies:**

- [Describe how the company employs PLG to enhance customer acquisition, retention, expansion]

- [Example: "Self-serve onboarding: 7-line code integration. No sales calls required for <$1M ARR. 90% of customers start with free tier."]

**Data-Driven Product Decisions:**

- [Explain role of data analytics in shaping product decisions and driving growth]

- [Example: "Instrumented every API call. PMs have real-time dashboards. Feature adoption tracked within 24 hours of launch."]

Sources to check:

• Product analytics blog posts

• Growth team blog posts

• Case studies on activation, retention, expansion

Step 9: Synthesize Key Takeaways

Summarize the most important insights:

### Key Takeaways

**Strategic Principles:**

1. **[Principle 1]** - [What you learned about their approach]

2. **[Principle 2]** - [What you learned]

3. **[Principle 3]** - [What you learned]

**Product Management Lessons:**

1. **[Lesson 1]** - [Applicable insight for your context]

2. **[Lesson 2]** - [Applicable insight]

3. **[Lesson 3]** - [Applicable insight]

**Questions for Further Research:**

- [Unanswered question 1]

- [Unanswered question 2]

Examples

See examples/sample.md for a full company research example.

Mini example excerpt:

**Company Name:** Stripe

**Research Purpose:** Understand payment platform product strategy

**Key Questions:** Developer experience? Platform extensibility?

Common Pitfalls

Pitfall 1: Surface-Level Research

Symptom: "Stripe is a payments company. They process payments."

Consequence: No strategic insights.

Fix: Go deeper—find executive interviews, engineering blogs, product philosophy posts.

Pitfall 2: No Source Citations

Symptom: "The CEO said the company is focused on innovation"

Consequence: Unverifiable, low credibility.

Fix: Always cite source and date: "The CEO said X (Source: Lenny's Podcast, Episode 185, Sept 2023)."

Pitfall 3: Mixing Opinion with Facts

Symptom: "Stripe's product strategy is great because they focus on developers"

Consequence: Analysis, not research.

Fix: Document what they do, not whether it's "good." Save analysis for "Key Takeaways."

Pitfall 4: Outdated Information

Symptom: Using 5-year-old quotes or strategies

Consequence: Irrelevant insights (company strategies evolve).

Fix: Prioritize sources from the last 12-24 months.

Pitfall 5: Ignoring Negative Signals

Symptom: Only documenting successes, ignoring challenges or failures

Consequence: Incomplete picture.

Fix: Include "Anticipated Market Challenges" and competitive threats.

References

Related Skills

• skills/positioning-statement/SKILL.md — Use company research to understand competitive positioning

• skills/pestel-analysis/SKILL.md — Company research informs market context

• skills/proto-persona/SKILL.md — Executive quotes may reveal target personas

External Frameworks

• Competitive intelligence frameworks

• Strategic analysis methodologies

Dean's Work

• Executive Insights Company Profile Template

Provenance

• Adapted from prompts/company-profile-executive-insights-research.md in the https://github.com/deanpeters/product-manager-prompts repo.

Skill type: Component

Suggested filename: company-research.md

Suggested placement: /skills/components/

Dependencies: References skills/positioning-statement/SKILL.md, skills/pestel-analysis/SKILL.md