Competitive User Experience Intelligence: A Primer
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Analyzing your competition can be quite informative and motivating. Brands compare themselves based on strategies, market share, and feature sets, but what about the user experience? This presentation discusses the unique characteristics of competitive analysis from a UX perspective, ways to think about “the competition” beyond the obvious, and methods for competitive analysis. As a bonus, it also includes frameworks for going beyond basic usability comparisons, and common pitfalls to avoid.
Transcript of Competitive User Experience Intelligence: A Primer
“Nicely, please?”
Competitive UX Intelligence
Why? Methods
Frameworks
Competition = ?
Traps
Product lens
Strategy lens
Brand lens
UX lens
abstract concrete
user defined
company defined
STRATEGY
BRAND
PRODUCT
UX
How the UX lens enriches the story
Plot Characters
Types of UX competitors
[start] [end]
upstream downstream
direct
companion
analogous
Upstream competitor
Someone or something that makes people choose not to use your product because of what they have to deal with before using your product
[start] [end]
upstream
Downstream competitor
Someone or something that makes people choose not to use your product because of what they have to deal with after using your product
[start] [end]
downstream
Companion competitor
Someone or something that makes people choose not to use your product because of what they have to deal with while using your product
[start] [end]
companion
Analogous competitor
Someone or something in a different domain that provides inspiration for or impacts people’s expectations of your product
[start] [end]
analogous
Transparency
“Do it for me”
Interaction paradigms
Engagement in unexpected places
Types of UX competitors
[start] [end]
upstream downstream
direct
companion
analogous
3 sample methods
light heavy
Usability add-ons
Mental model diagrams
Competitive benchmarking
Usability add-ons
Add tasks on competitor products to your existing studies
• Cheap and easy!
• Learn about the baggage and expectations users bring with them
• “Free prototypes” means more learning from alternative approaches
Mental model diagramming
Courtesy Vince Frantz, Sprokets
Add a competitor layer to a visualization of users’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
• Map competitor offerings to users’ mental spaces
• Highlight opportunities for integrations, partnerships, or acquisitions
Competitive benchmarking
Compare yourself to the competition in an apples-to-apples manner
• Effective wake-up call to decision makers
• Blind studies + large samples = $$$
Us vs. the competition… based on what?
Usability metrics
e.g. success rates, time on task, errors, satisfaction
The four elements of user experience
“While usability is an important aspect of product design, it is certainly not the most critical when it comes to driving business success. There are many products that have good usability, but do not enjoy success in the marketplace.”
-- Frank Guo
The Golden Circle
“People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. When a company clearly communicates their WHY, what they believe, and we believe what they believe, then we will sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to include those products or brands in our lives.”
-- Simon Sinek
Starting with the wrong goal
“The real goal of competitive user experience research is to figure out how to creatively differentiate your product from the competition - not just fix other
people’s mistakes.”
Not isolating the impact of the UX
Competitor A Competitor B Competitor C Competitor D
Pre-to-post lift
Initial perception
“How likely are you to use [product] in the future?” (Top 2 box)
Woohoo! Invest in marketing
Invest in UX
@#$%?!
Being too competitor-focused
“Companies that study their competitors in hopes of adding the features and benefits that will make their products ‘better’ are only working to entrench the company in WHAT it does. Companies with a clear sense of WHY tend to ignore their competition, whereas those with a fuzzy sense of WHY are obsessed with what others are doing.”
In summary…
• Your product doesn’t exist in a vacuum
• The UX lens reveals interesting “competitors”
• You may find an ally in your competitor’s upstream/downstream/companion competitors
• Competitive UX research can be lightweight (and it can go beyond usability)
• User-focused > competitor-focused
