How Spyglass Calculates Threat Scores & Battle Cards

📐 1. Threat Score Methodology

The Competitve Threat Score tool (try it here) rates a competitor's danger level on a 0–100 scale using 8 equal-weight dimensions. It's designed as a structured thinking framework — not a black-box algorithm.

Core Formula

Each dimension is rated 1–10. The sum is normalized to a 0–100 scale. A score of 50 means the competitor averages 5/10 across all dimensions. All dimensions carry equal weight — this prevents bias toward any single threat vector and forces balanced competitive thinking.

The 8 Dimensions (Equal Weight)

Threat Level Thresholds

Why Equal Weight?

We chose equal weighting for three reasons:

1. Transparency: No hidden multipliers. You can audit the math yourself.
2. Context independence: Weighting would require knowing your specific market (e.g., brand matters more in B2C, pricing in commoditized markets). We don't assume your context.
3. Bias prevention: Weighting "marketing reach" higher than "customer love" would privilege certain business models. Equal weight forces balanced thinking.

Self-Assessment, Not Automated CI

The Threat Score Calculator is a structured thinking framework — not automated competitive intelligence. You rate each dimension based on your knowledge of the competitor. This forces you to break "threat" into measurable pieces and confront your assumptions. For real-time, data-backed monitoring with actual website scraping and AI change detection, use our Tracker plan ($79/mo).

⚔️ 2. Battle Card Methodology

Our Battle Card Generator (try it on the homepage) produces structured competitive comparisons by analyzing two SaaS products across multiple data sources.

What Goes Into a Battle Card

1. Pricing Comparison: Starting prices, free tiers, enterprise pricing, and pricing model (per-seat, per-usage, flat). Sourced from verified pricing pages and our tools database.
2. Feature Matrix: Core features compared side-by-side with checkmarks for availability. Categories include integrations, API access, self-hosting, SSO, audit logs, and platform-specific capabilities.
3. Positioning Analysis: Target audience, use case, and value proposition for each tool. Highlights strategic differences in who each tool is built for.
4. Category Classification: Every tool is mapped to one or more categories (Development, Analytics, Design, CRM, etc.) from our curated taxonomy.
5. Key Differentiators: 3-5 unique advantages for each tool, backed by real product capabilities (not marketing claims).
6. Strategic Verdict: A synthesis of the comparison that explains trade-offs, ideal use cases, and when to pick one over the other.

Data Pipeline

When you generate a battle card, here's what happens:

1. URL Resolution: We normalize the SaaS URL and extract the domain for lookup.
2. Database Lookup: We check our 125+ tool database for pre-verified data (pricing, features, categories). Our DB is manually curated and regularly refreshed.
3. Public Data Fetch: For tools not in our database, we attempt to fetch publicly available information from their website, sitemap, and documentation pages.
4. Structured Output: Data is organized into the battle card format — a standardized, comparable template that works across any tool pair.
5. Confidence Flagging: Data sourced from our verified database is marked as "verified." Real-time fetched data is marked as "unverified" — so you know what you can trust.

Why Battle Cards Don't Hallucinate

Unlike ChatGPT (which will confidently invent pricing and feature data), our battle cards draw from a curated, human-verified database. When we don't have data, we tell you — rather than making it up. The "unverified" flag on real-time lookups is our commitment to honesty over confidence.

🗄️ 3. Data Sources & Reliability

Spyglass combines multiple data sources to produce reliable competitive intelligence. Here's our hierarchy, from most to least reliable:

1. Curated Tools Database (Highest Reliability): Our manually maintained database of 125+ SaaS tools. Each entry includes verified pricing, feature lists, categories, founding year, funding status, and competitive positioning. Refreshed quarterly. This is the foundation of all battle cards and comparison pages.
2. Public Website Data (Medium Reliability): We fetch publicly available information from tool websites — pricing pages, feature pages, changelogs, and documentation. This data is marked as "unverified" because websites can be outdated or misleading.
3. Community-Submitted Intelligence (Variable Reliability): Users can suggest tools and submit competitive intelligence through our suggest-tool API. This data is reviewed before being added to the database.
4. Review Aggregation (Contextual Only): Public reviews from G2, Capterra, and similar platforms provide sentiment context but are not used for factual claims (pricing, features).

What we do NOT use: Paywalled content, authenticated pages, internal data, or any source that requires credentials. We respect robots.txt and rate-limit all requests.

🤖 4. Why We're Better Than ChatGPT for Competitive Intel

This is a common question. Here's the honest breakdown:

Capability	Spyglass	ChatGPT
Pricing data accuracy	✓ Verified DB	✗ Hallucinates
Structured comparison format	✓ Consistent	~ Inconsistent
Monitors competitors over time	✓ Weekly	✗ Cannot
Change detection alerts	✓ Email/Slack	✗ Cannot
Historical trend data	✓ Timeline	✗ Cannot
Admits when data is unverified	✓ Flagged	✗ Never
Shareable battle cards (PNG/MD)	✓ Built-in	✗ Manual

ChatGPT is great for general research and brainstorming. It is not reliable for competitive intelligence — it will confidently invent pricing, features, and competitive positioning because it has no persistent, verified data source. Spyglass gives you data you can trust, clearly marks what's unverified, and (on paid plans) monitors competitors over time.

⚠️ 5. Known Limitations

We believe in transparency. Here's what Spyglass cannot do (and what we're working on):

• Cannot access authenticated/gated content: We only analyze public information. Private dashboards, customer-only pricing, and internal tools are invisible to us.
• Cannot guarantee real-time accuracy: Our database is refreshed regularly but pricing and features change. Always verify critical competitive data directly.
• Cannot predict future moves: We tell you what competitors are doing, not what they will do. Strategic forecasting is still a human skill.
• Limited to tools in our database: The 125+ tools cover the most popular SaaS products, but niche tools may not be in our database yet. Use the universal battle card for any URL.
• Threat Score is self-assessment: The Threat Score Calculator depends on your ratings. It's a thinking framework, not objective truth. The value is in the process of evaluating each dimension, not just the final number.
• Battle cards for unknown tools are less detailed: When you compare tools not in our database, the battle card relies only on public website data — which may be incomplete. These cards are flagged as "unverified."