It’s nice to have valid competition;
It pushes you to do better.
Gianni Versace
On a scale of 1 – 10, how proud do you think Adam Smith would be of that statement? (Yeah… that Wealth of Nations guy…)
How often do you find yourself thinking about your competition with such grace? Sometimes? Never? More prone to waking up in the middle of the night to a cold sweat wondering how long it would take for your hair to turn to dreads if you grabbed your bug-out-bag, changed your name to Delilah and left for Southern Ohio in the next 14 minutes? Yeah same.
Competition should scare you. To remain stagnant is to die… especially in technology. If you take some time to study your competitors – to respect them – I believe they would become an invaluable source of information for your MVP.
Unfortunately, scanning for competition is not a task that completed once and then forgotten about. Existing and potential competition must be continually monitored, reconsidered and evaluated alongside your product.
Finding your competition is not that hard. For your consideration:
- Google it. Yeah… all those keywords you’ve been using to describe your product to other people? See what already exists in the Google Machine.
- Super fun tip… why not setup a Google Alert and let the Googles come to you!
- Ask your [potential] users. If they have a need for your product, they are likely fulfilling it with some kind of other service already.
- If they are open to it – ask them what they find valuable and challenging about it.
- Read! Blogs, magazines, comments, books, tweets, whatever. Be a sponge!
- Listen! Networking events, TED talks, Podcasts, seminars, etc.
- It’s like Reading but with your ears!
There you are with your hit-list inventory of competitors. What next?
First, I suggest comparing features of your product with theirs. What do they do that you don’t? What do you do that they don’t? Is the product a mature service or new to the market? It’s important to compare objectively. Just because it works for their users doesn’t mean it will work for yours. On that note…
Who are their users? Based on your research, would your users be overlapping with theirs at all, a little bit or entirely? What phase in the adoption life cycle are most of their users?
Company demographics can give you some insight on what they’re capable of delivering. Things to consider: company size, types of skillsets on their team, their financial position, location (access to talent), board of advisors (connections), etc.
What is their market share? Are they are giant or just a little guy?
Feeling pretty bad about yourself yet? Don’t. There are silver linings. As you continue to research, you may find an app or business that does something similar to you but not exactly. They might have a much larger market share and cater to a wider audience. Embrace the niche! Perhaps this is an opportunity to build a partner relationship or position yourself to be bought out (if that’s your end goal). The important thing is to gather information first and then strategize on how best to use that intel.
Let’s try this out with Share My Spots…