competitive audit.xlsx

A competitive audit is an overview of your competitor's strengths and weaknesses. Analyzing the brands and products of competitors, or the companies who offer similar products as you do can give you a well-rounded foundation of knowledge about the market your product will enter.

Your competition falls into two categories:

• Direct competitors are companies that have offerings similar to your product and focus on the same audience.
• Indirect competitors can have a similar set of offerings and a different audience or a different set of offerings with the same audience.

Steps to conduct a competitive audit

• Step 1. Outline the audit goals

  • You can grade competitors on a scale of:
    • Needs work: The app is not usable, and users aren’t getting what they need from this aspect of the app.
    • Okay: This aspect has some issues, but with some work, it could meet user needs.
    • Good: This aspect works well, but doesn’t always provide users with the necessary information easily.
    • Outstanding: This aspect feels consistent, and it meets or exceeds the user’s needs.

• Step 2. List competitors

• Step 3. Determine the specific competitor aspects you want to compare

  For this example, imagine that you check out each of the competitors’ websites and rate them based on the following categories:

  • First impressions:

    Check out the website on both desktop and mobile devices, and make note of your first impressions. Is the website responsive, meaning that it resizes across devices? Does the design complement the product? How do you feel about the website?

  • Interaction:

    Explore the user flow and navigation of the website. What features are available for users? Is the website accessible to all users, including those using screen readers? How inclusive is their website to non-English speakers? Will the user get confused as they click through the website pages, or is the navigation clear?

  • Visual design:

    Review competitor branding and their overall consistency. Does the website appear and feel the same throughout all sections and pages? Does the branding match the intended audience? Is the imagery and color palette memorable?

  • Content:

    Examine the written content included on the website. Does the tone of the content match the company’s branding? Will users be able to find the details they’re interested in

  • Audience

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  Tips for your slides and presentation structure

  

  

Presenting data effectively

• If your presentation has a lot of numbers or quantitative data, a chart or graph can help your audience grasp how the numbers compare to one another.
• To demonstrate a specific function or issue with a competitor’s product, consider including a screen recording in your presentation.
• It can be helpful to include a rubric that explains the grading system you used in your audit. For example, the rubric system used in the example audit graded the burger restaurants from “needs work” to “outstanding.” Using that rubric, each restaurant was rated on a scale of one to four in each category to create a final rating.