Whether we like it or not, we all need to be competition-aware as PMs. Most of us have competitors, and understanding what they do might help us to win in the market.
Competitive research is one of the key activities for product managers. How often and how deeply you do competitive research depends on the nature of the product you create, the stage of your business and the strategy you follow.
Who does competitive research?
There could be variations depending on the size of the organisation, but most commonly competitive research is done by either a product manager, product marketing manager or marketeer. Even though those roles are usually leading the efforts to collect, organise and communicate competitive intel - everyone in the organisation can and should chip in.Competitive research comes in different shapes and flavours. Some of the most useful sources are:
- Using your competitor's product
- Interviewing your competitor's clients
- Sourcing reviews for your competitor's product
- Attending competitors' presentations and road shows
- Finding publicly available info on your competitors, such as news, financials, hiring and strategic plans
- Mystery shopping
How you do competitive research depends on the skills, preferences and resources of a PM or PMM doing the research. Some of us do all the research manually, while others make use of the tools or partners. We also have different processes for sharing competitive insights inside our organisations, so all other parts of the business can benefit from them.
No matter your job title, if you have ever done competitive research - please fill out this short survey.
In a future post, I will share the results. And for now, here are my answers and commentaries.
Competitive research survey
Every organisation is different, and so is every PM. There is no one right way to do competitive research - it always depends on the situation at hand and the people involved. So with this survey, I'd like to get a better understanding of how we, product people, keep an eye on our competitors. And I will bring this knowledge back to you.No matter your job title, if you have ever done competitive research - please fill out this short survey.
In a future post, I will share the results. And for now, here are my answers and commentaries.
For me, doing competitive research a few times per quarter is enough to stay on top of competitors and general market movements. I wouldn't say no to receiving a snapshot of competitors' news every month, so I can scan it quickly and see if there's something important going on that I need to pay special attention to.
I usually keep an eye on 4 - 8 different competitors in my market, as it gives me a general understanding of the ideas they are trying and bets they are making. I pick competitors in a few different categories: those I want to beat, those who try to beat me and some possible "black horses", players who can disrupt the market.
When doing competitive research, I start by looking at the latest product updates my competitors have done and the reaction (reviews, rankings) of their customers. If I have time, I'd research my competitors' latest financial and hiring news, as those might hint at some new tactical or strategic direction they're going.
Having sourced competitive insights, I would usually share them with my immediate team as a way to promote the activity itself (I think everyone in the org should chip in with the competitive intel). I also often use competitive insights as an evidence base for my backlog or roadmap items. Sometimes, I'll put a deck together to present the insights to a wider stakeholder group. If my organisation has a centralised competitive insight database - I will add my findings there.
I feel like Marketing and Sales teams are the most interested in the competitive research Product has made. They need different data and in different formats, though. The executive team is also the prime receiver of the competitive intel. They often use it as an additional context for strategic decisions they need to make.
When it comes to product and marketing strategy, I prefer not to make sudden changes based on what competitors are doing. I believe in a strong product vision and that chasing it is more beneficial in the long term than reacting to every competitor move. However, tactics often can be informed by the competitive intel as a way to counteract or differentiate yourself.
Google search and using competitors' products myself used to be my main tools for gathering market intel. Lately, I've been using LLMs to source and synthesise data available. In both cases, I often left frustrated by how much time it took me to get actionable insights. Even with LLMs, the prompt engineering and reformatting data takes a while. And every minute spent on someone else's product is a minute not spent on yours.
But what are your ways to do competitive research? Please fill out this short survey.