Customer Research vs Competitor Analysis

Developers should learn customer research to build user-centric products, reduce development waste by avoiding features users don't need, and improve product-market fit meets developers should learn and use competitor analysis when building or improving software products to ensure they create competitive and market-relevant solutions. Here's our take.

Customer Research

Nice Pick

Developers should learn customer research to build user-centric products, reduce development waste by avoiding features users don't need, and improve product-market fit

Pros

• It's crucial during the discovery phase of a project, when prioritizing features, or when iterating on an existing product based on user feedback
• Related to: user-experience-design, product-management

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Competitor Analysis

Developers should learn and use competitor analysis when building or improving software products to ensure they create competitive and market-relevant solutions

Pros

• It is crucial during product planning, feature prioritization, and user experience design to avoid reinventing the wheel and to identify gaps that can be exploited
• Related to: market-research, product-management

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use Customer Research if: You want it's crucial during the discovery phase of a project, when prioritizing features, or when iterating on an existing product based on user feedback and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Competitor Analysis if: You prioritize it is crucial during product planning, feature prioritization, and user experience design to avoid reinventing the wheel and to identify gaps that can be exploited over what Customer Research offers.

The Bottom Line

Customer Research wins

Developers should learn customer research to build user-centric products, reduce development waste by avoiding features users don't need, and improve product-market fit