How to make a competitive product analysis report?

1. Preliminary preparation:

Before making any competitive product report, you should ask yourself three questions:

Why is this report being made?

Why is this report made? That is the purpose of this report. If it is a competitive product analysis, then what is the purpose of analyzing competitive products? Is there a problem that needs to be improved but you can't think of a solution, so you want to see what your competitors are doing? Or looking for ways to regularly optimize during product iterations? Or do you want to understand the differences between your feature settings and those of your competitors? Or is it to verify an idea or understand the dynamics of the opponent?

Who will see this report?

The second question that needs to be thought through is who to show it to. Is the report shown to the examiner during the interview? Is it convenient for you as a product manager to organize your thoughts? Is it the need for internal communication and cross-departmental communication? Is it material for requesting support from leaders or decision-making groups? Or to product team members? Or R&D and testing personnel? There should be different emphases for different audiences.

What should the output of this report be?

What is the output of this report? The decision should be made in combination with the first two points. That is, what is the background and purpose of this report? Who to see? What did he want to know from the report? What do you want him to know from the report? If you think clearly about the first two questions, the third question will be easily solved. It should be noted that the report must have corresponding conclusions. A report without conclusions is just a presentation.

The above three points are not only applicable to competitive product analysis reports , but also to the basic preliminary preparations for all types of reports.

2. Competitive product analysis report structure (the structure is not fixed, for reference only):

1. Experience Environment
2. Market conditions (market capacity, competition landscape, market share distribution)
3. Industry analysis (historical changes, development trends)
4. Demand analysis (playing the role of user, selecting research subjects)
5. Identify competing products (collect product information and select products with the same or similar services/target users)
6. Comparison of competitive products (multiple analysis methods)
7. Business model differences and similarities
8. Differences and similarities in business/product models
9. Operation and promotion strategy
10. Summary and Conclusion

3. Commonly used analysis methods:

1. Five Elements of User Experience

Strategic Layer

(Corporate vision, product positioning, demand control, user habits, business model)

Range layer

(Main functions, core functions, secondary functions, functional architecture, business process design)

Structural Layer

(Information architecture, general functions, special functions, implementation status, user flow analysis)

Framework layer

(operation status, refresh, page jump, query, interaction framework, interface design, navigation design, label design, details)

Presentation Layer

(Visual performance, layout, color matching, typography)

2. Yes/No method:

It is mainly applicable to the functional level. Simply put, it lists all the functional points. Product A with this functional point is marked as "Yes", and product B without this functional point is marked as "No". By comparing, you can clearly understand the differences and similarities between products in terms of functional points.

3. Scoring method:

This method is often used in user research work, and is usually applicable to questionnaire surveys in quantitative research, that is, a range of 1-5 points is given to score according to a certain aspect or point in the product.

4. Analytical description method:

Refers to describing the characteristics of different products in a comparative form.

5. SWOT analysis:

For the competitors to be analyzed, compare and sort them out from the four dimensions of "strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats".

6. Base+Solution analysis method:

Base: Who are the target users? What are the core needs of target users? What solution can satisfy this? Compared with other products, what are the differentiation and selling points of the solution? How to promote marketing? What is the market effect?

Solution: How is the solution implemented? How much space is left? How can an unfamiliar user use it? How is information organized and interacted? Why do this? Does it meet user expectations? Do the color matching and UI conform to the user’s aesthetic taste? Where do users get confused? How often do users open the product? Would users recommend the product to others?

7. Kano model:

Kano Model

8. Four-quadrant analysis method:

It is mostly used when listing problem points or arranging the next plan. The elements, characteristics, functional points and problem points of your own products can be divided into four quadrants according to actual conditions and comparative analysis, such as the area in need of urgent improvement, the area of ​​competitive advantage, the area of ​​minor improvement and the area for continued maintenance.

9. Comparative research method:

Set analysis goals, group similar functional modules or appearance details into tables, and conduct further analysis based on the comparison results.

10. Comparison methods under different dimensions:

According to specific needs, you can choose to compare a certain problem point, a certain functional point, a certain core point (focus), etc.

4. Report support:

1. Data reference

The user experience elements in the report are easily mixed with too many subjective factors. For example, we are prone to make subjective judgments such as "I don't like this design, so it is bad!" In a job application report, if you want to explain a certain point, quantitative data must be one of the important references. Therefore, the data becomes more convincing.

Where does the data come from? Monthly active rankings can come from Appannie and Usage Intelligence, and website rankings come from Alexa. Other data include Baidu Index, Taobao Index, Analysys, CNNIC, iResearch, Sina Weibo, WeChat, and financial reports of listed companies, which are all mainstream platforms and channels that can be used as data sources.

2. There are screenshots for reference when comparing

This makes it easier for readers to understand, and also helps to ensure that the entire report is clear and readable, with key points highlighted and conclusions highlighted.

3. Add tasks or cases when necessary

The roles of tasks and cases are, first, to provide supporting evidence, and second, to help readers understand clearly in corresponding scenarios. For example, when comparing a certain function or business logic problem of product A, introducing an appropriate typical case or a simulated task will make the readers feel more involved and make it easier to explain.

In addition, real user reviews can also be appropriately introduced here.

5. Common Mistakes

1. Judging is too subjective

In our daily lives, we may often make decisions based on our personal likes and dislikes. Some people who do competitive product analysis may include factors such as "I don't like this color" or "I often use this app and it is very convenient for me, so I like it more" as factors in the judgment. This is very inappropriate. Competitive analysis should be a well-reasoned report with its own background, purpose, structure, and output, rather than relying solely on personal preferences.

It should be noted that since a competitive product analysis report is a report, it will have conclusions, which means it has subjective elements. So the above means don’t add too strong personal preferences, and don’t use personal likes and dislikes as the main factor to judge the quality of a product.

2. Lack of scene substitution and global perspective

When doing competitive product analysis, one should look at the product from the perspective of the product as a whole, or even from the perspective of the product's target user group, target market, business model and other factors, to determine whether the product's functions are appropriate. For example, product A and product B have the same function. Although they are similar products, a certain functional point of product A may not be applicable to product B. However, we cannot conclude that product A should not have this functional point. On the contrary, we need to consider factors such as product A's target users, target market, business model, etc. before judging whether A needs to have this function. We should not judge A from B's perspective. When doing competitive product analysis, you need to have a holistic perspective and consider the deep-level logical relationships as much as possible, so that you can better understand the substantive connections and differences between products.

3. Not updated to the latest version

This may seem unimportant, but it is actually very important. We all know that product iteration is very fast, especially for mobile apps. Therefore, if you need to conduct a competitive product analysis, you need to ensure that the comparison is made under the existing version. First, it is meaningless to compare the latest version 2.0 of product A with the historical version 1.0 of product B. Second, competitive product analysts may discover, sort out, and summarize some problems, features, and conclusions during the analysis process, but these may no longer exist in the next version, which is also meaningless. Of course, if you want to compare version evolution, you can add historical version comparison.

Competitive product analysis is one of the methods commonly used by product people. The analysis is also applicable to different stages of the product based on different needs. During the analysis process, it is of utmost importance to understand how to analyze, for whom to analyze, and what conclusions and results to draw.

Author: Jackie Liang

Source: BingoLight