A Fantastical Series

Lessons on Design Deliverables

Part 2: Competitive Analyses

Standing out (Unsplash)

Welcome to Part 2 of this series on, as the title says, design deliverables. If you missed Part 1 on user personas, you can find it here.

I wanted to write an article series that speaks mainly to design students about UX deliverables and how, when I was a student, my teams and I always struggled to feel comfortable with what was necessary when creating them. We often encountered conflicting information concerning proper formats and elements necessary to do them correctly. It was pretty annoying, and it caused us to take a lot more time to create them than was necessary. So, if you are a student, or just trying to learn a little more about UX practices, I offer this opportunity to learn from my struggles. Hopefully what I discuss in this series can save you some confusion and time.

So, let’s begin Part 2: The Competitive Analysis.

The Competitive Analysis

At least I have more design sense..

Today we will talk about competitive analyses and how to do them properly so as to avoid common pitfalls and prevent you and your team from wasting oh-so-valuable time… Much like you just might’ve done when trying to read over my self-competitive analysis above. Although, I do appreciate you taking the time. That took me a minute to do, believe it or not. I had to be quite *shivers* introspective.

Anyway…

Before I get to explaining some good practices for performing a competitive analysis, let’s talk about what it is.

What is a competitive analysis?

A real competitive analysis (Source: Jules Ang)

A competitive analysis (CA for short) cross-compares different products that are similar to yours in a number of ways while taking into account both direct and indirect competition (Michael Keenan wrote a good resource on understanding competition here). They can compare things like design features, purpose, popularity, target demographics, ratings/review scores, platforms (iOS, Android, etc.), and even the color schemes that belong to your competitors. The ultimate goal being to obtain a strong understanding of what your competitors are doing and how well they are doing it. They are often performed early in the research phase. However, if resources allow, they theoretically can be conducted as your scope narrows throughout the design process.

Here’s a little breakdown of the top benefits to performing a competitive analysis for your project:

1. Learning about which direct and indirect competitors currently exist in your product space
2. Showing the similarities and differences of these competitors’ solutions in solving the same or similar problem as you
3. Identifying market gaps based on these similarities and differences that can help you leverage the need for your product
4. Understanding what design features are commonly or uncommonly used in your product’s domain, and whether or not they are effective

Competitive analyses are great for getting a mid to high-level overview of the domain in which your product is trying to exist in. With these, teams can understand where their products can fit in the market, and design the solutions accordingly.

Make sure they are done correctly!

I remember as a student we were once following the list of assignments for a project which required us to do a competitive analysis before we were fully ready to do so. We were given a project brief for a very large domain with no real direction to help point us to a smaller, more manageable section of that space. Then we were asked to do a competitive analysis on a HUGE industry well before we had any idea of what would be helpful to look for. We panicked.

The result: A far too broad and nearly useless spreadsheet. Get ready to scroll.

As robust as it is difficult to comprehend

What you see above you is a scattershot of nearly all of the different kinds of criteria we could think of. The thought process at the time was that the breadth of this CA would, in some obscure corner of it, show a market gap (or so we pleaded). Of course, it really didn’t. Not that the criteria we laid out were wrong, but our problem was that we set off not knowing what we were looking for. That’s why it resulted in nothing. Unfortunately, because of the Agile method we were working in, we weren’t allowed time to go back and perform a much more well structured analysis later on.

Ah well, our mistakes don’t have to be yours!

Competitive analysis best practices

Like I said before, competitive analyses are great for understanding your product space. However, in order for them to be effective and a good use of your time, they must be done correctly. That means being methodical. But never fear, I have taken the time to list out some foundational guidelines to help you grow your method for conducting these analyses:

1. Start by listing out the goals of what you hope to attain through doing a C.A.

• This is SO important for beginning any type of research, so please don’t forget this. Really try to think about what you need out of the CA. Do you want to compare features? Evoked feelings? Target audiences? Etc.
• You can ask questions like: “Who is currently trying to solve this problem and where do they succeed/fail?” or “What design features are popular in this space and how successful are they?” to help you get started

2. Choose ~5 direct competitors and ~3 indirect competitors

• Be sure to do your research on the competitors before you put them onto the list as well. Really vet them, don’t go by assumptions.
• The more you add to your list, the longer it will take and the more cumbersome it will be, so keep that in mind. Effective CAs can take a long time to complete depending on your needs.

3. Establish a scoring rubric or rating system

• This is to help you and the others involved in the product’s development to have at-a-glance understandability.
• Danforth Media has a good example of how this could be done

4. Add your product onto that list to see how it compares

• If you don’t yet have a defined product, that’s okay. Your objective could then be to focus on identifying where market gaps are and see how they could be filled.

5. Break up the criteria into sections for better readability

• For example, if you’re comparing features (calendars, maps, ticket wallets, etc.) and color schemes, be sure to make visual distinctions between those sections. Remember, your work isn’t just for your eyes
• Consider adding different Excel worksheets to avoid length and cluttering

I know that reading these may make even starting a competitive analysis seem daunting. Truthfully, they take a good bit of time to do. But ultimately they are necessary foundational guidelines that will help you get the best possible research.

Wrapping up

Don’t worry, you‘ll find where you fit in (Unsplash)

To ease your mind, dear reader, it is OKAY to not have an airtight CA that gives your team just the most beautiful and perfect insights. These are high level overviews of your competition. Consider them like aerial photos of your potential construction sight. You see where you can build between or around where others have, but you’ll learn more once you’re actually on the ground.

So, as a quick recap, here are the guidelines to keep you in check when conducting a competitive analysis:

1. List out the goals of what you hope to attain
2. Choose ~5 direct competitors and ~3 indirect competitors
3. Establish a scoring rubric or rating system
4. Add your product onto that list to see how it compares (if you have one)
5. Break up the criteria into sections for better readability

I certainly hope this helps and that you’ve learned something from this article. Now go on and get it done!

Thank you for reading!

This article was written based on research, experience, and the insights that I’ve gained throughout my UX journey. Please feel open to discussing any thoughts, questions, or conflicts that you may have and I’d be happy to learn more.

Moreover, I encourage you to add me on LinkedIn. Just be sure to say hi let me know where you’re coming over from :)

My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samueljaklich/

Author’s note: Throughout my experience, there has been some discourse as to the differences between a “competitive analysis” and a “comparative analysis.” The primary difference would be that comparative analyses include indirect competitors, whereas competitive analyses focus solely on direct competitors. I recognize that some will disagree with this distinction, and some will not. Personally, I have always included indirect competitors on competitive analyses and it has never caused a problem. To me, “competitive analyses” and “comparative analyses” are interchangeable for they both follow the same principles and purpose. I don’t believe the issue has yet been officially settled. So, as it stands, the naming conventions are a matter of opinions and preferences.. but that’s just my preferred opinion.

Check out Part 1: User Personas