Graduate Module — Competitive & Market Intelligence (GE 630)
The session-by-session teaching plan for GE 630. Follows the module contract in modules/module-template.md, extended to the 14-week graduate arc. The intelligence canon is always at concept altitude (doctrine/08); the public-record boundary is absolute and graded.
Audience: graduate students in the MS program. Prerequisites: GC 510 recommended. Readings: the doctrine and literacy folders, plus the course reader on competitive intelligence. Data: the public record only — award data, forecasts, registries, debriefs, bid-protests.
Session 1 — Intelligence vs. espionage
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) define the public-record boundary; (2) explain why the line is absolute; (3) write a personal boundary statement.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "The public record is fair game. What is not — and why?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/04 + the course reader on CI ethics. Intelligence as the discipline of the published; the absolute line.
- Apply (25 min): write your personal intelligence boundary — what you will collect, what you will not, why.
- Discuss (15 min): "Why does the discipline draw the line at the public record rather than at legality?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What is the cost of a gray zone to the firm that lives there? 2. How does the public-record boundary make intelligence better, not worse?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/04. Deliverable: a boundary memo.
Comprehension check. What is the public-record boundary? Why is it absolute?
Session 2 — The public-record substrate
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) enumerate the public sources; (2) state what each reveals; (3) name each source's blind spot.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "Where does the market publish its own intelligence?"
- Teach (25 min): literacy/where-the-money-flows + the course reader on procurement data. Award data, forecasts, registries, debriefs, bid-protests.
- Apply (25 min): for one market, list the public sources and what each would tell you.
- Discuss (15 min): "What is the biggest blind spot in the public record?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What can award data not tell you about the competitors? 2. How do you read a forecast as a demand signal?
Homework / reading. Read literacy/where-the-money-flows. Deliverable: a source map for one market.
Comprehension check. What are the public sources? What is each source's blind spot?
Session 3 — Market segmentation and mapping
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) segment a market; (2) map the competitive set; (3) position the players.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "Draw the market you compete in. Who is on the board?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/01 + the market-map canon at concept altitude. Agencies, NAICS bands, vehicles, set-asides.
- Apply (25 min): draw the structure of a chosen market segment with the players positioned.
- Discuss (15 min): "What does a good market map make visible that a spreadsheet does not?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. How do you choose the segment boundary? 2. What does the map reveal about where the money concentrates?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/01. Deliverable: a market map with players positioned.
Comprehension check. How do you segment a federal market? What does the map reveal?
Session 4 — Competitor identification
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) separate the real field from the registered universe; (2) rank competitors; (3) explain why most registrants never bid.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "A hundred firms register for the pool. How many actually bid?"
- Teach (25 min): the competitor-profiling canon at concept altitude. The real field vs. the registered universe; the actual bidders.
- Apply (25 min): identify and rank the real competitors in your chosen segment.
- Discuss (15 min): "What separates a real competitor from a registered one?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What signals predict that a firm will actually bid? 2. When does the registered universe mislead you?
Homework / reading. Read the competitor-profiling canon. Deliverable: a ranked competitor list.
Comprehension check. Who is a real competitor? What signals actual bidding?
Session 5 — Competitor profiling
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) build a competitor file; (2) profile strengths and weaknesses; (3) read a competitor's behavior pattern.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "You are building a file on a rival. What goes in it?"
- Teach (25 min): the competitor-profiling canon at concept altitude. Wins, focus, strengths, weaknesses, behavior patterns.
- Apply (25 min): build a one-page profile for your top competitor.
- Discuss (15 min): "What can you infer from a competitor's win pattern — and what cannot you infer?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What does a competitor's focus reveal about its strategy? 2. Where is a strong competitor most likely thin?
Homework / reading. Read the competitor-profiling canon. Deliverable: a one-page competitor profile.
Comprehension check. What goes in a competitor file? How do you read a win pattern?
Session 6 — Incumbent analysis
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) profile the incumbent; (2) rate incumbency pressure; (3) identify vulnerability.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "The incumbent has held the contract for eight years. What do you need to know?"
- Teach (25 min): the incumbent-analysis and incumbency-pressure canon at concept altitude. The holder, the advantage, the churn, the pressure band.
- Apply (25 min): profile the holder in your segment and rate its pressure band.
- Discuss (15 min): "Which churn signal most reliably predicts displacement difficulty?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What makes an incumbent entrenched rather than merely long-tenured? 2. When does an incumbent's own record point to its weakness?
Homework / reading. Read the incumbent canon. Deliverable: an incumbent file with a pressure-band rating.
Comprehension check. What is incumbency pressure? What signals entrenchment vs. churn?
Session 7 — Price intelligence
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) estimate the competitor price band from public evidence; (2) state the uncertainty; (3) use the band to set a posture.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "You cannot see rival bids. What can you see?"
- Teach (25 min): the price-intelligence canon at concept altitude. Public evidence for the band; the honest gap.
- Apply (25 min): estimate the competitive price band for a case pursuit with sources and uncertainty stated.
- Discuss (15 min): "When is a price-band estimate worth less than its confidence suggests?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What public evidence moves your estimate of the band? 2. How do you stay honest about the gap between evidence and estimate?
Homework / reading. Read the price-intelligence canon. Deliverable: a price-band memo with sources and uncertainty.
Comprehension check. How do you estimate a price band from public evidence? What is the honest gap?
Session 8 — Customer intelligence
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) read customer signals from the public record and legitimate engagement; (2) convert signals into ghost themes; (3) keep the boundary.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "What does the customer want that they have not written down?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/02 + the customer-intelligence canon at concept altitude. Engagement, signals, the unstated preference.
- Apply (25 min): collect three public signals about a customer and convert them into ghost-theme candidates.
- Discuss (15 min): "Where does reading customer signals end and manipulating them begin?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What is the difference between a signal and a rumor? 2. When is a ghost theme a fair reading of the requirement?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/02. Deliverable: a customer-signal memo with ghost-theme candidates.
Comprehension check. What is a customer signal? How do you keep the boundary?
Session 9 — Midterm
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students demonstrate: (1) market mapping; (2) competitor and incumbent profiling; (3) boundary discipline.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): exam logistics.
- Exam (65 min): a real market is distributed. Students build the intelligence picture — map, competitors, incumbent, price band — in 75 minutes.
- Close (5 min): what to review for the second half.
Discussion prompts. n/a (examination).
Homework / reading. Review weeks 1–8. Deliverable: midterm submission.
Comprehension check. n/a.
Session 10 — The intelligence collection plan
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) write a collection plan; (2) name questions, sources, cadence, and owners; (3) treat intelligence as a production system.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "Intelligence is a production system, not a scramble. What does it produce, when, for whom?"
- Teach (25 min): the collection-plan canon at concept altitude. Questions, sources, cadence, owners.
- Apply (25 min): write the collection plan for your market.
- Discuss (15 min): "What is the minimum cadence that keeps a picture fresh?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What questions does a collection plan exist to answer? 2. Who owns the freshness of the picture?
Homework / reading. Read the collection-plan canon. Deliverable: a collection plan.
Comprehension check. What are the parts of a collection plan? Why is intelligence a production system?
Session 11 — Analysis and synthesis
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) corroborate findings; (2) label confidence; (3) state "what we do not know" as a first-class output.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "You have ten facts. Which five survive a second source?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/05 + the course reader on analysis. Corroboration, confidence labels, the unknown column.
- Apply (25 min): synthesize your collected facts into a one-page brief with confidence labels.
- Discuss (15 min): "Why is 'what we do not know' a deliverable, not a confession?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What does corroboration buy you beyond confirmation? 2. How do you write a confidence label that is honest and usable?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/05. Deliverable: a one-page intelligence brief with confidence labels.
Comprehension check. What is corroboration? Why is the unknown a first-class output?
Session 12 — The intelligence artifact set
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) produce the standard artifacts; (2) match each artifact to its consumer; (3) keep the set current.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "Who consumes a competitive landscape? An incumbent analysis? A price band?"
- Teach (25 min): the intelligence-artifact canon at concept altitude. The landscape, the incumbent analysis, the price band, the market map; their consumers.
- Apply (25 min): produce the standard artifact set for your segment.
- Discuss (15 min): "Which artifact is most often built and never used?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. What makes an artifact usable rather than filed? 2. Who keeps each artifact fresh?
Homework / reading. Read the intelligence-artifact canon. Deliverable: the standard artifact set.
Comprehension check. What are the standard intelligence artifacts? Who consumes each?
Session 13 — Intelligence into strategy
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) convert intelligence into discriminators; (2) convert it into displacement plays; (3) draw the line between intelligence and strategy.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "Where does intelligence end and strategy begin?"
- Teach (25 min): doctrine/05 + doctrine/07. The translation from picture to play.
- Apply (25 min): translate your intelligence into two discriminators and one displacement play.
- Discuss (15 min): "What does strategy add that intelligence cannot?"
- Close (5 min): assignment.
Discussion prompts. 1. Which intelligence finding most directly drives a discriminator? 2. When does intelligence seduce you into a strategy the facts do not support?
Homework / reading. Read doctrine/05 and doctrine/07. Deliverable: a strategy memo translating your intelligence.
Comprehension check. How does intelligence become strategy? Where is the line between them?
Session 14 — Synthesis
Learning objectives. By the end of this session, students can: (1) integrate the course; (2) defend a complete intelligence package; (3) connect intelligence to the degree.
Session plan (75 min).
- Open (5 min): "The market tells you everything it is allowed to tell you. The disciplined firm reads it."
- Teach (15 min): course synthesis.
- Apply (35 min): panel defense of the market-intelligence dossiers; the panel probes the sources and the confidence labels.
- Discuss (15 min): "What will you read differently after this course?"
- Close (5 min): bridge to GC 510 and the capstone.
Discussion prompts. 1. What is the most common intelligence failure in the discipline? 2. How does intelligence connect to strategy and to the public-record discipline?
Homework / reading. Course synthesis. Deliverable: final market-intelligence dossier, defended.
Comprehension check. How do source, corroboration, and confidence form one intelligence discipline? What is the one idea you will carry forward?