Competitive Intelligence → Research Brief

Scenario

Teams often share competitive intel in a dedicated #competitive-intel or #market-intel channel — competitor screenshots, pricing changes, feature launches, customer switches. This job aggregates these organic observations, enriches them through Mave, and produces a structured research brief that product, marketing, and sales can act on.

Flow: Slack conversations.history (#competitive-intel) → Mavera POST /mave/chat → Structured competitive brief

Code

Python

import os, requests, time

SL_TOKEN = os.environ["SLACK_BOT_TOKEN"]
SL_BASE = "https://slack.com/api"
SL_H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {SL_TOKEN}"}
MV = os.environ["MAVERA_API_KEY"]
MV_BASE = "https://app.mavera.io/api/v1"
MV_H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {MV}", "Content-Type": "application/json"}

CHANNEL_ID = "C0123INTEL"
DAYS_BACK = 30

# 1. Fetch intel channel
oldest = str(int(time.time()) - DAYS_BACK * 86400)
messages = []
cursor = None
while True:
    params = {"channel": CHANNEL_ID, "limit": 200, "oldest": oldest}
    if cursor:
        params["cursor"] = cursor
    r = requests.get(f"{SL_BASE}/conversations.history", headers=SL_H, params=params)
    data = r.json()
    if not data.get("ok"):
        break
    messages.extend(data.get("messages", []))
    cursor = data.get("response_metadata", {}).get("next_cursor")
    if not cursor:
        break
    time.sleep(1)

intel = [m for m in messages if m.get("type") == "message" and len(m.get("text","")) > 20]
print(f"Intel input: {len(intel)} (past {DAYS_BACK} days)")

# 2. Build enriched corpus (include thread replies for context)
enriched = []
for m in sorted(intel, key=lambda x: float(x.get("ts",0)))[-50:]:
    entry = f"[{time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d', time.localtime(float(m.get('ts',0))))}] {m.get('text','')[:500]}"
    if m.get("reply_count", 0) > 0:
        replies = requests.get(f"{SL_BASE}/conversations.replies", headers=SL_H,
            params={"channel": CHANNEL_ID, "ts": m["ts"], "limit": 5}).json()
        if replies.get("ok"):
            for rep in replies.get("messages", [])[1:]:
                entry += f"\n  → Reply: {rep.get('text','')[:200]}"
        time.sleep(1)
    enriched.append(entry)

corpus = "\n\n".join(enriched)

# 3. Mave research brief
brief = requests.post(f"{MV_BASE}/mave/chat", headers=MV_H, json={
    "message": f"Competitive intelligence analyst. Synthesize {len(intel)} internal observations from our #competitive-intel channel.\n\n"
        f"RAW INTEL:\n{corpus[:8000]}\n\n"
        "Produce a COMPETITIVE RESEARCH BRIEF with:\n\n"
        "1. **Executive Summary** (3 sentences)\n"
        "2. **Competitor Activity Matrix** — What each competitor did, our assessment\n"
        "3. **Pricing Intelligence** — Any pricing changes detected\n"
        "4. **Feature Gap Analysis** — What competitors have that we don't\n"
        "5. **Customer Movement** — Any switching signals (theirs to us, ours to them)\n"
        "6. **Recommended Actions** for Product, Marketing, and Sales\n"
        "7. **Watch List** — Emerging threats to monitor next month\n\n"
        "Format as a brief that can be shared directly with leadership."
}).json()

print(f"\n{'='*60}\nCOMPETITIVE RESEARCH BRIEF — {DAYS_BACK}-day window\n{'='*60}")
print(brief.get("content", "")[:3000])

Example Output

Intel messages: 94 (past 30 days)

COMPETITIVE RESEARCH BRIEF — 30-day window
============================================================

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Competitor X launched a free tier targeting our SMB segment. Competitor Y
raised Series C ($45M) and is hiring aggressively in EMEA. Three customer
switch signals detected — two inbound (from Competitor X), one outbound.

COMPETITOR ACTIVITY MATRIX:
| Competitor | Action | Assessment |
|------------|--------|------------|
| X | Free tier launch | Direct threat to our starter plan |
| Y | $45M raise + EMEA expansion | Market expansion, not feature |
| Z | Acquired data provider | Enriches their analytics moat |

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:
- Product: Ship SSO before Q3 (Competitor X just added it)
- Marketing: Publish "Why Free Isn't Free" comparison content
- Sales: Arm reps with updated battlecards (Competitor X pricing)

Error Handling

Thread depth

conversations.replies returns the full thread. For very long threads (50+ replies), paginate with the cursor parameter.

Attachments and links

Intel often contains screenshots (attachments) and links. The code captures text only. For link-heavy channels, extract URLs from the blocks field and fetch their titles.

Confidential intel

Competitive intelligence may include sensitive information. Review the Mave output before sharing — remove any data that shouldn’t leave internal channels.