Competition can be scary. But in UX, competitive research is insightful.
You don’t want to chase your competitors, but you need to know what they are doing to know how you can improve.
Rachel Miles joins the Awkward Silences podcast to discuss the value of competitive research in UX and design. As the UX research lead at IBM, Rachel integrated competitive research at IBM to measure their products’ performance and to align their existing internal measures with external measures. She shares insights on selecting benchmark competitors or metrics, communicating competitive insights, and navigating legal challenges.
Tune into this episode to learn how competitive research can inform your product development and strategy 👇
Highlights:
[00:00:41] Rachel’s interest in competitive research
[00:02:27] What makes up competitive research?
[00:05:54] Choosing your competitors to benchmark against
[00:10:08] Determining benchmarking metrics
[00:16:33] Rule #1: Avoiding over fixating on the competition
[00:21:37] Opportunities for non-researchers to do competitive research
[00:23:28] Creating and sharing benchmark assets
[00:27:95] Managing participants for competitive methods
[00:30:11] Navigating legal challenges
[00:34:56] Priming participants for fake scenarios
[00:38:05] Teamwork makes the dream work in competitive research
About Our Guest
Rachel Miles, UX Research Lead at IBM, is a user experience researcher and strategist. A self-proclaimed nerd of all trades, she loves to learn about everything that crosses her path. In her spare time, you might catch her reading, drawing, traveling, or working on her blog where she talks about where technology meets wellness.
#146 - Building a UX Research Team From Scratch with Julian Della Mattia of the180
#145 - Kick-Start Creativity Using Desk Research with Victoria Sakal of Wonder
#144 - The Craft of Sample Sizes with Lauren Stern of WHOOP
#143 - Harnessing AI For Better Insights with George Whitfield of MIT and FindOurView
#142 - Quantifying Research Impact with Ruby Pryor of Rex
#141 - The Chaos Theory of Event Networking with Bryan Dosono of eBay
#140 - Should You Leave Academia? Advice for Researchers with Joe Stubenrauch
#139 - Content Design and the Power of Simple Language with Erica Jorgensen
#138 - Designers as Change Agents with Maria Giudice
#137 - Practical Strategies to Foster Customer Obsession with Prayag Narula, CEO and Co-Founder of Marvin
#136 - Designing Generative AI at Notion with Linus Lee
#135 - How to Influence Stakeholders with Strategic Research with Andrea Amorós, Associate Principal Researcher at ADP
#134 - The End of an Era: A Fond Farewell to JH
#133 - Driving Actionable Decisions from Insights with Pejman Mirza-Babaei, UX Research Consultant
#131 - Designing Beyond the Product: Systems Thinking with Sheryl Cababa, Chief Strategy Officer at Substantial
#130 - The Art of Great Facilitation for Better Collaboration with Marsha Acker, Founder and CEO of TeamCatapult
#129 - How to Upskill Product Teams in UX Research with Helen Devine, UX Research Manager at The Economist
#128 - The Value of “Scrappy” Research with Varun Murugesan, Co-Founder of Apple and Banana
#127 - The Power of Failure with Kevin Kelly, Publisher and Founding Editor of Wired
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Insight Story: Tech Trends Unpacked
Zero-Shot
Fast Forward by Tomorrow Unlocked: Tech past, tech future
Black Wolf Feed (Chapo Premium Feed Bootleg)
Bannon`s War Room