COMPETITOR EVIDENCE BRIEF

DECISION THIS SUPPORTS
I am deciding whether to [decision]. I will decide by [date].

BUYER AND REGION
Buyer: [who buys this]. Region: [country/area]. Use case: [specific job].

IN SCOPE
Published price, inclusions, usage rights, turnaround, minimum order,
revisions, extras, [add fields].

OUT OF SCOPE
Social following, branding, funding, staff, SEO rankings, [add exclusions].

COMPETITORS (proposed; I approve the final list)
1. [name] - included because [same buyer/problem/region/use case]
2. [name] - included because [reason]
3. [name] - included because [reason]
4. [name] - included because [reason]
5. [alternative/substitute] - included because buyers may choose this instead
Considered and excluded: [name] - [reason]

SAMPLE ROW FIRST
Complete ONE row for ONE competitor and send it before doing anything else.
Wait for my written approval.

EVIDENCE LOG FIELDS (one fact per row)
Competitor | Claim/field | Observed wording or value (exact quote) |
Source URL | Page section | Checked date | Market and currency |
Billing and quantity | Status (confirmed/unclear/not found/conflicting) |
Interpretation | Missing information
A separate summary tab may use one competitor per row, built only from
rows in the log.

SOURCE RULES
Official pricing, terms and help pages first. Secondary sources in a
separate tab, clearly labelled. Quote the exact relevant sentence.
Search snippets are leads, not evidence: open the page.
Five blogs repeating one source is one source.
"Not found" means pages checked and date, not "not offered".
Leave conflicts and promotions unresolved with a question for me.
No characterisation of named businesses beyond what they publish.

PRICE BASIS
All prices in [currency], state whether tax is included, converted to
[per unit / per package of X]. Show the arithmetic for any derived figure
and label it derived. Do not call anything cheapest until usage rights,
retouching, backgrounds, shipping, turnaround, setup fees and minimum
commitment are checked. If a field is not stated, record unknown.

ALLOWED ACTIONS
Public pages only. No impersonation, fake trials, competitor contact,
bypassing logins or paywalls, scraping, or buying paid tools without my
written approval. No client data in AI tools without my approval.

FEE AND TIME CAP
Estimate hours against this brief. Agreed cap: [hours/fee].
Stop at the cap and send progress plus outstanding items.

IF PRICING IS NOT PUBLISHED
Record "not published", list pages checked and the date, and continue
with the rest of the scope.

PAUSE AND MESSAGE ME IF
Sources conflict materially, the list or scope needs changing, the cap is
reached, or anything would require non-public access or an action not
listed above.

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA
Every row has URL, page section and checked date. Quotes match the pages.
Unknowns recorded as unknowns. Derived figures show arithmetic.
Memo claims reference specific rows.

DELIVERABLES
1. The evidence log.
2. A one-page decision memo with three sections: observed facts,
   interpretations, open questions for me.

OWNER APPROVAL
Sample row approved by [name] on [date]. Final sheet approved on [date].