Only 3 steps to complete practical and effective competitive product analysis

This article mainly goes over with you how to effectively complete competitive product analysis in practice to improve the quality and efficiency of our work output.

1. Determine who your competitors are

First, let’s make a clear concept: there are many kinds of competing products. Some look exactly like the app you are making, some look somewhat similar, and some have the same specific functions. As long as there are parts that we can learn from, they can be called competing products.

Usually, what we analyze most often should be vertical competitors (after all, products like to copy culture). Its definition is that as long as it meets two or more of the following similarities: 1. Business field 2. User group 3. Core functions, it is considered to be a vertical competitor.

For example: QQ Music/NetEase Cloud Music (music tool + community/listening to music); DingTalk/Feishu (enterprise-level communications/IM); Hema/Yanxuan (digital new retail/mid- to high-end users/shopping). These products, which are almost identical in the same track, have a lot in common regardless of their respective scales, because they are the top vertical competitors in each other's competitive product analysis.

In addition to vertical competitors, we will also encounter many similar competitors, which are defined as products that are similar only in business areas or core functions.

For example: Dianping/Xiaohongshu (grass-seeking communities); Guazi/Xiaoju Car Rental (automotive field); Momo/Huya (live streaming function). When individual incubation projects have no vertical competitors to refer to, we can more or less get some reference help by expanding the scope to similar competitors. In addition, since similar competing products have obvious differences from our own products in product strategy or user group, it is more convenient for us to understand the design strategies corresponding to different strategies and user groups by analyzing different similar competing products.

2. Analyze several dimensions of competitive products

Competitive analysis is usually divided into two situations: reporting to the boss and using it as a reference in actual work.

Let’s first talk about what we need to pay attention to when doing competitive product analysis to improve efficiency in actual work?

1. Search for similar designs and differentiated designs among vertical competitors

In vertical competitive products, similar designs often appear. First, analyze why everyone has the same design. If you make an extraordinary innovative design in this similar design, will it affect the user's habitual experience or violate technical operations?

For example: If I don’t tell you which one is Huya and which one is Douyu, can you tell them apart just by looking at the interface? It looks like almost 80% similarity, what we need to analyze is why this similarity occurs:

1. The fixed ratio of video stream is 16:9

2. Screen effect of barrage

3. Display the operation floating layer as soon as possible

All of the above commonalities are what we need to learn from and avoid pitfalls.

In addition, what are the reasons for the different design differences between competing products? Is it because of the brand design language or the different user groups?

By analyzing the similarities and differences between vertical competitors, we can quickly gain directly relevant design case experience, allowing us to quickly have a matching picture in our minds when we actually get started from 0-1.

2. Learn to use similar competitive products to inspire inspiration

If we are trapped in the reference of vertical competitors, it will be difficult to get out of the dilemma of "copycat culture", so we need to learn to use similar competitors to create more possibilities. Because selecting similar competing products greatly expands the range of online success cases that we can refer to. We can even find some applicable inspiration through some small details.

Or we may find some designs with good experience and scalability to replace our original old and low-end designs.

For actual competitive product analysis, you don’t need to have document-type output. The above two points are enough to respond to needs quickly, accurately and ruthlessly. But if you are making a very complete and academic competitive product analysis report .pdf for a report to your boss, a portfolio, or a large 0-1 project, then please honestly analyze each of the five elements of user experience (you can refer to a previous article: Are you using the five elements of user experience correctly?).

Strategic analysis points: Business positioning (what type of product) / business model (how to make money) / scale and development cycle (number of users? What stage of product development is it in?)

Scope layer analysis point: product core functions/product functional architecture

Structural analysis point: Information architecture/user flow

Scope layer analysis points: interaction framework/operation experience/control interaction

Performance analysis points: brand visual communication/layout/emotional details

3. Conclusion after analysis

Whether a competitive product analysis is good or not depends on whether the analysis dimensions are comprehensive, and more importantly, whether there are independent thinking, reasonable and effective conclusions after the analysis that can guide our future design implementation. Our most fundamental purpose in conducting competitive product analysis is to make our designs the best in the industry rather than to waste time. Therefore, we must avoid turning competitive product analysis into a product manual.

Comparative Method

In different dimensional analyses, we can use “product comparison (screenshots/text description)” to draw conclusions about the design differences between different competing products, and then use the differences to draw specific application conclusions. The usual conclusion is the disadvantages of such a design + the design solutions and reasons we can learn from.

The interpretation of the content given as an example here is a bit too simple. Don’t learn from it. Just look at the methods and dimensions.

For example, I guess the comparison and summary of Tencent Weishi’s competitive analysis should be as follows:

Why are the switching gestures between Douyin and Kuaishou different, and what different experiences do they bring? If I change the switching gesture of my product to be consistent with TikTok, will it be in line with the product goals and can it improve the experience?

Fusion Method

In the competitive product comparison method, when we cannot fully learn from one of the parties to perform design optimization, we can consider integrating the design solutions of competing products to obtain a design solution with a relatively transitional zone. In the summary of the competitive product analysis, we can point out that we think we can refer to and learn from the integrated element modules and give the basis.

IV. Conclusion

Through two types of competing products (vertical/similar), we can conduct comprehensive or single-dimensional analysis on a large scale. By comparison or integration, we can draw conclusions that are suitable for our own products and innovate the design of the transition zone.

Finally, I suggest that when you are implementing competitive product analysis or applying it in your portfolio, don’t discuss the entire article. It will be more convincing if you focus on the key points and put them in the design plan description.

Author: Nana's Design Tips

Source: Nana's design tips (morning_misszuo)