A simple UX Design framework for competitor analysis.
Let’s start by asking “Why”. Why is it important to do a competitor analysis?
It is really necessary to scope out the competitor products that are trying to solve the same problem that you are trying to solve. This would help to track what competitors are doing, in terms of their strengths which can inspire us while also identifying their weaknesses that can, in turn, make your product stronger. Also, this might help us to stay away from accidental imitations or copying the features that may fail according to Nielsen Norman Group.
Now let’s dive into the framework
1) Find “Who” are your competitors.
It’s extremely important to research the competitor solutions that are top in the market. This might completely depend on parameters based on which you have decided to choose a competitor. A competitor can be a direct competitor that solves the same problem, and often have the same core functions and overlapping user base or they can be Indirect competitors that either has a different user base or different service offering, and some aspects of the product overlap.
You can ask a few questions yourself like; Is their pricing strategy to be considered? Is their MVP features that are exciting to the users? Should we consider the number of users or downloads for a product? Is it the service that is integrated with the product that makes it exciting? Is it any other features that align well with the users? Are there any functionalities provided beyond the user’s expectations as a solution to their problem?
You can map your competitors in a perceptual positioning map based on the parameters that we have decided on.
This exercise will help us to prioritize the competitors and focus on the top competitors.
2) Take a step back and ask again “ Why” are they your competitors?
It is an important step to reflect if the parameters and the competitors whom you have chosen, would help you in this competitor study and the key takeaways would bring value to your business and also to your users. Always ask the Five Whys to understand and discover the root of any such situation.
Why do the parameters decide by your team matter for your product success? Why are the top competitors prioritized in the previous step are still top in the market? Why do they solve the same problem as yours?
For validating if the parameters are still aligned to the users, we can always tie these parameters to the user needs and user satisfaction based on the Kano Model.
This would help us in arranging parameters into
a)Mandatory Characteristics ( Must have’s ), b)Performance benefits ( One Dimensional ) and c)Delighters.
Kano graph can cross-check if the parameters we considered align with the user’s needs in the current market, and also help to categories them into strengths (all that fall in 1st quadrant ) and Weaknesses ( all that fall in the 3rd quadrant ) corresponding to your competitors.
3) Get your “Hands-on”.
To understand any product or service it’s always better to use them and experience them directly. Any method can be chosen based on your preferences. For example, you can learn from your competition by conducting Competitive Usability Evaluations, you can conduct a Heuristic Evaluation on the competitors by checking if your competitor product meets all the basic Usability Heuristics, you can focus on the visual design and other aspects of the surface level design by just doing a Guerilla testing with the users to find the visual design impressions created by your competitor on the users.
Or you can straight away use your competitor product yourself and make a note of the strengths (or likes), weaknesses (or dislikes) and the key takeaways as an example as shown below.
Remember to take notes of the critical points as listed below:
- Action items from the analysis of each of the identified competitor products.
- Screenshots along with annotations explaining the specifics of each feature/UX flow.
- Feature list of each competitor’s platform/product.
- Strengths and areas of improvement for each of the analyzed products.
4) Consolidating the analysis.
Create a consolidated view of the gaps that you found in your competitor products and your analysis from the previous step. This can be done by creating a Competitor analysis matrix that contains the following:
- Features/solutions of the platform you are building. You can also include the aspects of Visual design, user experience and usability.
- Confirmation that the competitors have/don’t have the same feature/solution.
- Key findings and learning from each of your competitors and reasons they would have considered for providing certain features.
- Score the features based on their importance. For example, in the sample below, Report and statistics may carry 10 points and Cloud Backup may carry 5 points. Add all the points together and divide by the number of features = competitor score in percentage.
This can be your point of reference throughout your design process and your team can get back to this and reflect and make design decisions based on your findings at any time.
Conclusion:
The competitor analysis is to learn from mistakes that your competitors made and also get inspired from something that they have done right as well. This might even help you to understand the right market where your product can be placed even before you start designing your product.
It also helps to understand the context of a design or interaction element to be considered when deciding to actually use that element. And finally, you can avoid using the features or design elements in the wrong context and also see if the new product could successfully incorporate that element. So, go ahead and try this out in your design journey.
