UX Strategy, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4. Conducting Competitive Research

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Conducting Competitive Research

You were right. I was on the wrong track.We’re deep in the valley, how deep in the gully. And now in the canyon. Out in the yonder.

—SONIC YOUTH*

Now that you have a strong positive signal from actual real-life users, you need to ask, “Why hasn’t this solution been built yet?” Or, as in the case of Bita and Ena after their customer discovery, “Who else is solving this problem now, and how?” I hesitate to say that everything has been done, but pretty much everything has been attempted. After all, individuals and companies have been designing products for distribution and consumption on the internet for more than 25 years! Knowing what has worked or failed is crucial to identifying a competitive advantage and defining your business model. So, in this chapter and the next, we will look more deeply into Tenet 1: Business Strategy (Figure 4-1) so that you can develop a framework for making competitive assessments and strategic decisions.

FIGURE 4-1

Tenet 1: Business Strategy

Learning Lessons, the Hard Way

Doing solid investigative competitive research is like peeling an onion. The more layers you peel, the more you reveal. And it might also bring tears to your eyes if you discover that your product vision is not unique. But don’t you want to know what it will take to beat the competition sooner rather ...