This piece of work is part of our two core engines. We don’t sell it as a standalone, one-off service. Every project with Asymmetric starts with the 1-Day Pathfinder Sprint, where we size up your competitors and match this work to your real numbers.
Competitor Stress-Test
Your plan almost certainly assumes the competition stands still while you get to work, and it won’t. The moves that look strong on a slide are the ones that fall apart the moment a stronger rival responds, and you find out after the budget’s committed. This proves it first: a guided run-through where teams play your company, your rivals, and the market, then work through moves and counter-moves across rounds, so you see how a competitor actually reacts before the market makes you learn it the hard way.
Stress-test the plan before the market does.
The weakest part of your plan is the part you trust most: the competition section, usually a thin size-up of your competition that quietly assumes your rivals do nothing while you get to work. They won’t, and the cost of that assumption is a plan that looks airtight until a stronger competitor responds, by which point the budget and the time are already spent. This buys that knowledge back early. It stress-tests your plan against competitors who fight back, shows the counter-moves and blind spots a normal plan never sees, and points you to a position you can actually defend. We do it by building a guided run-through from real research on your competitors, teams play your company, your key competitors, and the market, working through moves and counter-moves across rounds so the other side behaves the way the market actually would, not the way it’s convenient to assume.
It’s the most direct expression of what this firm is about. Out-competing a bigger rival means finding where they’re strong, where they’re slow, and where a sharper smaller player can take a position they can’t easily protect. This is how you find those openings on purpose, by making someone in the room think like the big competitor and respond. It’s a way of planning our founder used long before applying it to business, and it earns its place here because it answers the one question most plans dodge: what does the other side do next?
A project is structured work, not a brainstorm. We start by setting the goal, the decision or plan the exercise exists to test. We assign teams and roles, including the rivals whose response matters most. We build the scenario from real research on your competitors, so the other side behaves the way the actual market would, not the way it’s convenient to assume. Then we run the rounds, capturing every move, counter-move, and knock-on consequence as it comes up.
The output isn’t a transcript of the exercise. We pull what happened into a sharper game plan: the moves that held up under pressure, the ones that fell apart the moment a competitor responded, and the position you can actually defend that the exercise pointed to. You leave with a plan that has already been tested against competitors who fight back, and a clear-eyed view of the risks you’d otherwise have met for the first time in the market.
Frame, build, run, decide.
Frame
We start by naming the decision the exercise exists to test, the plan, the move, or the bet you’re about to commit budget and time to, because an exercise that tests everything tests nothing. Together we name the specific question on the table and set what counts as a win, so we can tell, clearly, whether your move holds up or falls apart. You bring the real decision you’re wrestling with; we sharpen it into something the run-through can actually settle. What you get is a clear goal and a clear bar for success, and it matters because the rest of the project is only as useful as the question it’s built to answer.
Build
Then we assign the teams and roles and build the scenario from real research on your competitors, so the other side behaves the way the market actually would, not the way it’s convenient to assume. We put someone in the room in the shoes of each rival whose response matters most, especially the big competitor, and we brief those roles from a genuine read on how those competitors are positioned, priced, and motivated. You bring the market knowledge you have; we bring the research that makes the rivals respond like themselves rather than like strawmen. What you get is a playable scenario grounded in fact, which matters because this is only as honest as the competition it puts in front of you.
Run
We run the rounds, playing your move against the competitors’ counter-moves and then the counters to those, capturing every response and knock-on consequence as it comes up. This is where the assumption breaks: the slide-strong move meets a rival who reacts, and you watch in the room whether it holds up or falls apart. You and your team play it live, making the calls, defending the position, taking the responses, rather than reading about it afterward. What you get is a full record of what happened across the rounds, and it matters because seeing your plan fail in a run-through costs a session; seeing it fail in the market costs the budget.
Decide
Finally we pull the exercise into a sharper game plan, not a transcript, but a decision. We separate the moves that held up under pressure from the ones that fell apart the instant a competitor responded, name the position you can actually defend that the exercise pointed to, and name the risks you’d otherwise have met for the first time in the market. You leave with a plan that has already been tested against competitors who fight back and a clear-eyed view of where it’s exposed. What you get is a written game plan you can act on and the openings a bigger rival can’t easily protect, which matters because the whole point was to buy that knowledge early, while there’s still time and budget to adjust.
What you walk away with.
A position you can defend, the kind of opening that grew Venturi Restoration from one location to 18+ by out-positioning entrenched big players, and turned category confusion into an opening Citrus America claimed outright.
The competitor counter-moves you’d otherwise meet for the first time in the market, shown to you while there’s still time and budget to adjust.
A plan that has already been tested against competitors who fight back, won on being the right answer, the way our selected work was, rather than by outspending the field.
Where this has paid off.
Each of these was won the way this exercise is meant to find it, on being the right answer, by reading where a stronger or more entrenched rival was exposed, rather than by outspending the field.
Selected work
Won on being the right answer in a big-player-heavy category
Venturi Restoration
Out-positioned entrenched big players in a fragmented category to grow from one location to 18+, finding the opening a larger field couldn’t defend.
Read the case study →
Out-positioned the category confusion
Citrus America
Turned the market’s confusion around a European partner brand into an opening, and claimed the category instead of competing inside it.
Read the case study →
Out-positioned, not outspent
Doudlah Farms
Beat established marketplace sellers on being the right answer rather than budget, taking share a better-funded rival assumed was safe.
Read the case study →
These run $15,000–$45,000, priced per project. Cost depends on the decision in play, the number of competitors and market forces we model, and how deep the research behind the scenario goes.
Frequently asked questions
What does a competitor stress-test cost?
These run $15,000–$45,000, priced per project. Cost depends on the decision in play, the number of competitors and market forces we model, and how deep the research behind the scenario goes.
What exactly is it?
A guided run-through. Teams play your company, your key competitors, and the market, then work through moves and counter-moves across rounds, so you see how a competitor actually reacts before the market makes you learn it the hard way.
What do I walk away with?
Not a transcript, a sharper written game plan: the moves that held up under pressure, the ones that fell apart the moment a rival responded, and the position you can actually defend that the exercise pointed to, plus the competitor counter-moves you’d otherwise meet for the first time in the market.
Every engagement starts with a 1-Day Pathfinder Sprint.
One day, $950 (credited to your first month if you go on to a plan). We go through your real numbers and hand you a ready-to-run 90-day system. Prefer to talk it through first? Book a call with Mark.
/services/capabilities/business-wargames/ · Capability 08
This piece of work is part of our two core engines. We don’t sell it as a standalone, one-off service. Every project with Asymmetric starts with the 1-Day Pathfinder Sprint, where we size up your competitors and match this work to your real numbers.