Competitive Analysis

Why

Find a niche or unique selling point (USP) not occupied by your competitors.

How

Identify the most important competitors and list their offerings. See which user needs are unaddressed by the competition. If you can deliver this, you have found your niche.

Ingredients

• Willingness to offer something unique.

• A good idea about who the competition is (also outside your domain).

• Analysis of what users want besides the competitors’ offerings.

• A positioning matrix and a competitive matrix.

Practice

A competitive analysis is a regular precursor to developing new product offerings; it is often required before 'real money' is spent on a project. Large-scale competitive analyses often include a field study to identify user needs.