Description of the competitors and trends that are driving the landscape in which your idea will compete.

The solution you are seeking to develop will compete with others. Knowing the strengths and weakness of those competitors as well as the forces driving both customers and competitors is key to being able to define a solution that be a commercial success. In addition, doing this research now will let you know the type of business that will result - if all the competitors are low margin business, yours is likely to be as well. If the market is a growing or declining will have a significant impact on the attractiveness of entering.

There a number of techniques to creating a competitive landscape, which should include profiles of the competitors and an analysis of the market itself. You can use secondary research to find the players and industry trends, usually without the need to purchase a report - which can be expensive (thousands of $s or more). Talking to stakeholders is also a key source. It allows you to get a good sense of perceptions as well as reality - which are not always the same!