What is key intelligence topics?

Key intelligence topics (KITs) are the prioritized questions a competitive intelligence program exists to answer — defined by what decision-makers actually need to decide, not by what is easy to collect. Jan Herring introduced the framework from government practice; each KIT breaks down into key intelligence questions (KIQs) specific enough to research: not “what is competitor X doing?” but “will X move downmarket into our segment in the next year?”

KITs are the antidote to the most common CI failure: drowning in competitor trivia nobody acts on. Defining even three or four — typically covering strategic threats, competitor moves, and early-warning signals — turns monitoring from a news feed into a decision tool, because every alert can be judged by whether it advances a question that matters.