Stop 02 · Product Strategy & VisionTopics · 6/11

Competitive Analysis

In short

Your users compare you with something, even if you don't. Competitive analysis means knowing those options better than your users do.

Systematically studying competitors' products, pricing, positioning and reviews to find gaps your product can exploit — done well, not as a copy-paste feature checklist.

The purple blob peeks through binoculars at a rival fruit stall across the lane.

Think of it like this

Scouting the next fruit stall

A fruit seller walks down the market lane. Who sells cheaper? Who has fresher mangoes? Who gives credit to regulars? Then she goes back and decides: match the price, or win on freshness.

Watch it happen

A competitive analysis in five moves

List rivals

Use them

Compare

Find gaps

Decide

1/5List direct rivals, indirect ones, and what users do today without any product, like a notebook or WhatsApp.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Rivals include non-products

For a budgeting app, a diary and a spreadsheet are competitors. Users solve problems somehow already.

Read their reviews

Play Store and Reddit reviews show what users love and hate about rivals, for free.

Compare on user needs

Pick columns users care about, like price, speed and language support, not just feature checkboxes.

Choose, don't copy

The goal is to decide where you'll be different, not to match every feature.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Building a 60-row feature checklist and calling it analysis.

Do this instead

Focus on the few things users choose by. End with a clear "so we will…" decision.

Oops

Saying "we have no competitors".

Do this instead

Every user does something today. That current habit is your toughest competitor.

Your mission

Compare three apps

~40 min

Quick check

You're building a shared expense app for hostel friends. Which is an indirect competitor worth studying?

Go deeper

1Pick 3 competitors of a product you use and build a comparison table.
2Read their public reviews (App Store, G2) for recurring complaints — that's your opportunity map.
3Avoid the trap of treating competitor feature parity as the strategy itself.