March 8, 2022 • 25 mins
William Ntim discusses how waiting to do a competitive analysis can improve your design ideation.
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Episode Transcript
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Dan Berlin (00:14):
Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of
the 97 UX Things podcast. DanBerlin here, your host and book
editor. I'm joined this week byWilliam Ntim, who wrote the
chapter Don't PerformCompetitive Analysis Before
Ideating. Welcome, William.
William Ntim (00:30):
Thank you, Dan.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Dan Berlin (00:32):
Thanks for joining the podcast. Can you please tell
us a little bit about yourself?
William Ntim (00:37):
Yes, my name is William Ntim. I was actually
born and raised in West Africa,Ghana, and I migrated or
immigrated into the UnitedStates in 2009, at 19 years old.
And my major was in multimediadesign. But then it evolved over
(00:59):
time into what I now do as aSenior UX Designer and it's been
about 10 years so far in theindustry. But I'm based in
Austin, Texas and currently aSenior UX Designer at PayPal.
Dan Berlin (01:12):
Gotcha. Can you tell us a little bit more about that
transition between multimedia toUX? What helped with that
transition?
William Ntim (01:20):
Yeah, so honestly, the college course was set up
beautifully in my opinion,because the primary focus was on
3D animation, which was prettycool. But then it did have
supporting courses such asPhotoshop, which is graphic
design, so focus on graphicvisual design, as well as sound,
(01:46):
audio, and then video, and then3D animation, plus web design
and development. Yeah, so thatwas that was an incredible
variety of multimedia or justmedia to really consume and
delve into and I think thathelped develop my passion for
(02:08):
all things communication,digital media, which has been
useful in UX design, becauseyou're designing for multiple
devices.
Dan Berlin (02:16):
Right, right. Great.
And can you dig in a little bitmore about your UX journey? So
you mentioned discovering it inthose courses, but can you tell
us about your UX journey and howyou wound up where you are
today?
William Ntim (02:30):
Yeah, so my first job was, I was a graphic
designer intern at the collegethat I went to, Lone Star
College in Houston, Texas. Andthen I got my first real job as
a graphic designer at a localYellow Pages publishing company.
(02:51):
Yeah, it's crazy, they stillexist for some reason. So that
was my first real job. And itwas a nice promotion and a good
hourly rate I was really excitedfor. But because I took web
development, which we now wouldcall that front-end development,
right? Because I really didn'tdo a lot of backend, mySQL, I
(03:16):
just focused on the front-endside, the design, the beauty of
it, Java, JavaScript, etc. So, Igot into this role as a graphic
designer and while in this role,I was able to convince the
owner... it was a small localcompany, but they were making
multi-million dollars. So I toldthe CEO, hey, I know how to
(03:38):
build websites, we can leveragethe current customer base, who
are local businesses in thatparticular city and offer web
services to them. So it took meabout three months of convincing
her, I got a promotion to seniorweb developer for the company,
and then at that point, Istarted building the websites.
(04:01):
So I'm doing the WordPress, PHPside, the backend of it, as well
as the design of it. That, tome, was when I really started
forming my passion around whichside of the of the process I
want to be really focused in on,because the development was
just... I mean, I enjoyed it,but that wasn't my passion. I
(04:24):
was always going back to thefonts and to the space in the
margin, the pattern, and howthat experience really generated
sales, what it looked like onmobile, different devices. So,
that was when the world of UXreally occurred to me. And then
(04:45):
prior to that, I went to acareer fair prior to getting
that job, that had a UI role.
And I remember speaking to thecompany, and I said, hey, I'm a
graphic designer, I'm reallygood, I have a portfolio of
print and I had, you know, backin those days you had those huge
PDF, you're walking around withyour graphic prints and
(05:07):
everything. You know, you alwayshad the physical prints, right?
I had that, I showed it to them,and they're like, well, we're
looking for a mobile designer.
And I said, what do you mean?
Well, it's for mobile apps. Isaid I'm a graphic designer, I
could do it, it's the samething. They're like, no. So I
was turned down back then and Ithink that was a curiosity and
frustration as well, because Ithought to myself, I know I'm a
(05:33):
really good graphic designer,but these guys just turned me
down for some UI/UX role. And Idecided to look into it some
more. So fast forward with thisweb design and designing for all
these different devices. Thatwas when I really realized, oh,
this is what UX really is andthere's a whole discipline with
processes and principles andmethodologies that really bring
(05:56):
this to life even more and I waslike, wow. So then I started
focusing on the design. I toldthem, hey, look, I don't want to
do the development anymore. Andthen I started pursuing
UX-centered roles. That's how itreally formed for me there.
Dan Berlin (06:14):
Wonderful. I love hearing that transition from the
development and graphic design,to getting the more holistic
view and realizing that you'releaning towards the other side
of that, and following that, sothank you for sharing that.
William Ntim (06:30):
Yeah, definitely.
Dan Berlin (06:32):
Your chapter, Don't Perform a Competitive Analysis
Before Ideating. Can you pleasetell us about that?
William Ntim (06:40):
Yes. So there's a lot to say about that chapter.
The background of that chapterreally stemmed from working with
a distributed team around theworld of UX designers, great UX
designers, but then noticingthis very minute, but also very
important part of the process.
Because during design meetingsor product requirement meetings,
(07:05):
etc., whatever you want to callit, intake meetings, right? I
found out that designers werequick to pull up what the
competitor was doing, or whatother businesses and companies
are doing. And I think that wasa shock to me in the beginning
because I thought to myself, oh,that's what we do? Okay. And
(07:30):
then it was just so normal. ButI never did that. I always
wanted to craft the experienceor ideate first of what I
thought the perfect solutionwould be based on the data
points and the datasets that Ihad in that particular project
or business or company ormoment. So that really was
(07:52):
something that took me aback alittle bit and I pondered over
that for about a week and I hadto vent. I was like, this needs
to go out. And I put thosethoughts together and realized,
you know what, I do have apoint. I did some more research
on that and realized, yeah,there is bias that's formed with
that, because you cannot atfirst instant, just reach out or
(08:14):
view what competitors are doing,and then come back and produce
original work. So that was thatcycle for me where I reached
that conclusion, but I needed tovalidate it. So I got on
YouTube, I read some books, Ithink one of them that stood out
to me was the Blue OceanStrategy. It talks about
(08:42):
competitive analysis, but alsobuilding products based on what
competitors are not doing. Sothere is a whole world around
competition, what competitorsare doing, and then even to find
out that our sprint cycles alsoaffect what's out live in
production. So if we're lookingat what Amazon or these other
(09:04):
competitors are doing, well,that was six months ago work,
estimatedly, right? So now if wetry to build that and develop
that we're actually going to besix months behind because
they're already working onsomething now that's set to come
out pretty soon, etc. So you'realways going to be one step back
(09:24):
and I think that was importantfor me to highlight and just
break it out. Hey guys, this iswhat we're missing when we are
quick to look at what thecompetitors are doing. We're
going to do that in the nextstep, but right now let's get
our notebooks, whiteboards,let's ideate, let's brainstorm,
whatever we need to do tocollect the fresh data, or not
even data, fresh ideas and let'sjust seal that now before we see
(09:49):
what other people are doing. Andthen it helps you validate what
you're working on, what ideasyou had. And that has been so
helpful for me honestly, in mycareer so far, because I will
put down ideas that I think willwork based on research and all
of that information I haveconcerning the project and then
perform competitive analysisonly to find out that, oh,
(10:11):
wow... either competitors aredoing the same thing, so that
validates the idea, orcompetitors are doing something
completely different that is notworking. So then you realize
that you have gold, you havesomething that's going to be
even more effective than what'sout there without any bias.
Dan Berlin (10:30):
Do you have a specific steps that you take
when you do that? Is there amethodology that you take when
doing that next step, andcomparing what's out there to
what you've ideated?
William Ntim (10:44):
Yeah, so I would say the competitive analysis as
a methodology itself, is what Iperform. But before I do that, I
ideate or sketch with verylittle intrusion, even from team
members. So it might be a littleextreme, but what I do, I will
(11:04):
actually tell my team members,okay, I got the PRD, I got the
project requirements, and giveme some time to collect my
thoughts. I would actually stepaway if I need to, back in days
pre-COVID when we were in theoffice, I would actually step
into one of the whiteboardrooms, and just map out what I
think, how I understand the ask,and how I see the solutions or
(11:29):
possible solutions working, andthen come back and have that
brainstorming session. Becausewith cognitive bias, you're
looking at bias not just fromcompetitive analysis, but also
from your team members from thesame people you're going to be
working with, but you have tomake sure that you're being
original with your thoughts. Ifevery team member can protect
(11:50):
their thoughts, you're going toend up having a collective of
just incredible thoughts. It'sstill possible in brainstorming
sessions, where everybody's justspewing ideas, that still works.
But the thing is, there's stillgoing to be that cognitive bias
which comes in from differentangles, because now you say
something, you might trigger anidea from me. But the initial
(12:10):
thought that I would have hadwithout your influence is now
either gone with the wind, and Imay never be able to get that
back. So, protecting my originalthoughts is the first step and
then the next step iscompetitive analysis. Okay,
well, the next step is actuallyopening up to the team members.
So collecting team membersthoughts, which are also
(12:32):
supposedly protected so it'soriginal, authentic. And then we
put those together, brainstorm,and then also introduce
competitive analysis, figure outwhat are our competitors doing,
how can we involve our researchteam? What data do they have to
support or influence kind of thesolutions that we're proposing
or thinking about? And then wego from there, and then we can
(12:54):
analyze and use affinity mappingor card sorting, or whatever we
need to do to group and sort outthe possible solutions that we
have for this particularproblem.
Dan Berlin (13:06):
Yep. Yep. Thank you for that. It sounds like you've
been doing this for a while.
Tell me about resistance tothis. Have you encountered
resistance to this way ofideating? And are there ways of
overcoming this?
William Ntim (13:22):
I have, I have. I think it's not really done
purposefully. I would honestlysay it's mostly just habit and
also time constraints ordeadlines. So that also forces
the process to be short and tobe very fast and swift, and
(13:44):
leaves very little room for usto really be attentive to
individual steps of the process.
But I think personally, like yousaid, I've been doing this for a
while, and that has also helpedme develop my own way of
protecting these thoughts. Andyou can't really 100% avoid
cognitive bias, right? Becausewe're always using apps and
(14:07):
we're watching... there's media,there's ads, so you always have
some kind of information comingin. But to take that extra step
to protect the little that youhave left is still useful. So
yeah, I do get the pushback, butnot willingly. It's just normal,
natural constraints ofdeadlines. We need this
yesterday. So then you're eitherstuck with okay, I need to
(14:30):
ideate and pour everything outright now, or I need to not be
so overprotective of it and justlet maybe this one go. Because
you have team members that arearound the world. They're in
different time zones. And thisparticular moment is the only
moment that you might have tohave everyone in the room. So
(14:50):
there's so many littlesituations that affect your
ability to follow thisprinciple. But if you do it well
enough, you're still able to,upon hearing that process...
because it's all about speed toosometimes. But you're able to...
I can actually be hearing orlistening to a product
(15:14):
requirement and alreadyformulating ideas and solutions
in my mind before that productrequirement is done being read.
So that helps me already know,okay, I'm either jotting things
down, writing things out, typingon my TextEdit or notepad before
the team is invited to speak orfor ideas. And so that helps
(15:36):
collect a little bit of gold. Icall that those gold nuggets,
before it's influenced.
Dan Berlin (15:44):
Yup. Well, even just taking those few moments, even
if it is just a few moments orhopefully a day, to collect your
thoughts, before digging intolooking at what's out there,
that small little bit can canhelp so much.
William Ntim (15:59):
Yes and to add to that too, I just throw out this.
Sometimes, as the PRD is beingread, you have team members or
even the project manager willalready suggest some solutions
as they're presenting thisproblem statement to you. So
being able to say, okay, give mesome time, right? So, I'll do
(16:21):
that. Like you said, you say,hey, give me some time to figure
out, explore some options first,and then I'll circle back with
you and we can brainstorm andfigure out what ideas that we
want to put together. Thatdefinitely helps, because I've
had some of those slip throughthe cracks, where it's like,
your brain or my brain getsstuck with what was said, or
(16:44):
that solution that was presentedalong with the PRD. And then I
find myself going down this roadof trying to make that solution
work and then only to go all theway, create the the mocks and
present it and do a designreview, and then come back to
the same place that I would havearrived at, if it was just my
(17:06):
idea, because that initial ideathat came with the problem
statement didn't work. Ofcourse, it wasn't something that
a UXer really thought about...
okay, knowing what I know,having the experience I have,
this other solution is probablygoing to work better, right? But
also giving in to what theproject managers bringing down,
that does affect the experiencesyou create and the effectiveness
(17:29):
of it.
Dan Berlin (17:31):
Yeah, yeah. And all this is not to say that
competitive analysis isn'timportant, because it still can
be very important. It's just amatter of when is that right?
William Ntim (17:42):
Yeah. Yeah, that's right. It's super important
because like I said, it helpsvalidate your solutions, it also
helps you identify gaps in yourown user experience or in
competitors' user experience. Sothat also helps you identify
(18:02):
the... what would you call them?
Not gaps, but the opposite ofgaps? Strengths! Right? So it
helps you identify the strengthsin your user experience, as
compared to your competitors.
And you can use those strengthsfor marketing campaigns... I
mean, you can really run with itand drive those numbers up when
(18:24):
it comes to conversion, etc.
But, it's super important, it'sjust a matter of when.
Dan Berlin (18:29):
Yup. And when doing those competitive analyses are
there certain ways we should bedoing them to make them most
effective?
William Ntim (18:38):
You know, that's a good question. I mean, with with
the influx of data and theconstant shifts of user
behavior, the volatility of userbehavior has also increased over
just this past year and coupleof years. It goes back with
(18:58):
starting with your user andtruly identifying true
competitors, that would be mybaseline. That would be the
foundation that I'll build thison. Because sometimes from the
outside two businesses mightseem like they are in
competition with each other,just because they might be in
the same category. If you diginto the demographics and
(19:21):
geographics of your users, thehousehold income, etc., you
realize that you might actuallybe targeting different
consumers. And then that alsoaffects how you perform
competitive analysis because youcan rule that competitor out and
just focus on the ones that aretruly your competitors. I think
(19:42):
the big part will be trulyidentifying your users, and
identifying the users of yoursupposed competitors and
comparing to make sure that youhave at least, I would say, over
70-80% similarities betweenthose users, that would be
quality information. But ifyou're looking at anything,
(20:05):
50%... Yeah, that's not reallystrong data. I think that would
be something hurtful to try tobase your experiences and
updates and optimization on a50% competitor, you want to make
sure it's a higher amount inthat regard. That would be the
biggest one for me. And then, ofcourse, making sure that you're
(20:27):
collecting data the right wayand you have a good research
team that has access, of course,ethical ways of collecting this
data... practical ways of nothurting the market and being
considerate of the methods, theway we collect the data, how
(20:50):
we're infiltrating thecompetitive systems, etc. It's a
whole ethical part that followsthat. Yeah.
Dan Berlin (21:00):
That's a whole nother episode there.
William Ntim (21:01):
Yeah, I agree.
Dan Berlin (21:02):
So William, this has been a wonderful conversation
about making sure to get yourideation out before doing
competitive analysis. Was thereanything else you were hoping to
convey to folks here today?
William Ntim (21:16):
Yeah, so I would say definitely paying
attention... not justcompetitive analysis, but paying
attention to every step of theuser experience process. Design
thinking... just, our process oftaking a problem statement and
then collecting data, obtainingdata, synthesizing, and then
(21:36):
ideating. etc., all the way toproduction and shipping, right?
I want users to pay very closeattention to the steps of this
process, and then also the orderof the steps. Because if it's
not done in an orderly manner,then you are bound to get
(21:57):
different results at any step ofthe process that would affect
your overall output. So that'san important thing, the order of
the steps, and then also thesteps itself, right? And then,
lastly, why we do every step? Ithink it's important for users
to understand why do we evenideate? Why do we brainstorm?
(22:18):
Why do we bring the teamtogether? Why do we do
competitive analysis research?
Understand why each of theseprocesses are in place to arrive
at the outcomes that we'relooking for. And once you do
that, it helps you perform orcreate experiences just
naturally. Because even if youhave tight deadlines, you're
still able to either performcertain steps faster, or shrink
(22:41):
certain steps together, butyou're looking at the underlying
value throughout each part ofthe process together to produce
that overall, perfect... well,it's never gonna be perfect, but
that maximal output in the end.
So yeah, that's all I got.
Dan Berlin (23:02):
And if we are mindful about those steps,
similar the conversation we'vebeen having here, we can find
ways to eliminate bias at eachstep, whether it's at the
competitive analysis step or theuser interview step, there's
always ways to be doing this.
William Ntim (23:16):
Exactly.
Beautifully said.
Dan Berlin (23:18):
So, thank you for all of this. In our last segment
here, we like getting a careertip, whether it's for folks
breaking into the field or forfolks who have lots of
experience, do you have a careertip for our listeners?
William Ntim (23:31):
I would say, and I'm not sure this has been said
before, but I would say be trulypassionate about helping people
through your work as a UXdesigner, or UX professional.
Because the passion is what'sgoing to carry you through the
ups and downs of our discipline.
It's very emotionally tasking.
(23:53):
And you can have your work, yourexperiences that you create, be
pushed back, be ignored, berejected. Now, if you're not
truly passionate about it, thiscan sway your motivation levels,
right? Which would affect yourperformance and eventually lead
to burnout. So I'd say make surethat you're protecting your
(24:13):
passion, and you're stillfalling in love with what we do
as user experiencepractitioners, because we are
shaping the future oftechnology, and really human
computer interaction. So let'skeep that keynote in mind.
Dan Berlin (24:28):
Wonderful, thank you for that. Yeah. And the passion,
and the passion for the user,and making sure we keep the user
in our UX conversations.
William Ntim (24:38):
Exactly, yeah.
Dan Berlin (24:39):
So William, this has been a wonderful conversation.
Thank you so much for joining metoday.
William Ntim (24:44):
This has been awesome. I appreciate you
putting this together for UXerout there. I know they're gonna
find this very useful.
Dan Berlin (24:50):
I hope so. That's that's the goal, right? Thank
you for listening, everyone.
You've been listening to the 97UX Things podcast. My guest
today has been William Ntim, whowrote the chapter Don't Perform
a Competitive Analysis BeforeIdeating. Thanks for listening.
You've been listening to the 97UX things podcast companion to
the book 97 Things Every UXPractitioner Should Know
(25:12):
published by O'Reilly andavailable at your local
bookshop. All book royalties goto UX nonprofits as well any
funds raised by this podcast.
The theme music is Moisturizethe Situation by Consider the
Source and I'm your host andbook editor Dan Berlin. Please
remember to find the needs inyour community and fill them
(25:32):
with your best work. Thanks forlistening.
Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of
the 97 UX Things podcast. DanBerlin here, your host and book
editor. I'm joined this week byWilliam Ntim, who wrote the
chapter Don't PerformCompetitive Analysis Before
Ideating. Welcome, William.
William Ntim (00:30):
Thank you, Dan.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Dan Berlin (00:32):
Thanks for joining the podcast. Can you please tell
us a little bit about yourself?
William Ntim (00:37):
Yes, my name is William Ntim. I was actually
born and raised in West Africa,Ghana, and I migrated or
immigrated into the UnitedStates in 2009, at 19 years old.
And my major was in multimediadesign. But then it evolved over
(00:59):
time into what I now do as aSenior UX Designer and it's been
about 10 years so far in theindustry. But I'm based in
Austin, Texas and currently aSenior UX Designer at PayPal.
Dan Berlin (01:12):
Gotcha. Can you tell us a little bit more about that
transition between multimedia toUX? What helped with that
transition?
William Ntim (01:20):
Yeah, so honestly, the college course was set up
beautifully in my opinion,because the primary focus was on
3D animation, which was prettycool. But then it did have
supporting courses such asPhotoshop, which is graphic
design, so focus on graphicvisual design, as well as sound,
(01:46):
audio, and then video, and then3D animation, plus web design
and development. Yeah, so thatwas that was an incredible
variety of multimedia or justmedia to really consume and
delve into and I think thathelped develop my passion for
(02:08):
all things communication,digital media, which has been
useful in UX design, becauseyou're designing for multiple
devices.
Dan Berlin (02:16):
Right, right. Great.
And can you dig in a little bitmore about your UX journey? So
you mentioned discovering it inthose courses, but can you tell
us about your UX journey and howyou wound up where you are
today?
William Ntim (02:30):
Yeah, so my first job was, I was a graphic
designer intern at the collegethat I went to, Lone Star
College in Houston, Texas. Andthen I got my first real job as
a graphic designer at a localYellow Pages publishing company.
(02:51):
Yeah, it's crazy, they stillexist for some reason. So that
was my first real job. And itwas a nice promotion and a good
hourly rate I was really excitedfor. But because I took web
development, which we now wouldcall that front-end development,
right? Because I really didn'tdo a lot of backend, mySQL, I
(03:16):
just focused on the front-endside, the design, the beauty of
it, Java, JavaScript, etc. So, Igot into this role as a graphic
designer and while in this role,I was able to convince the
owner... it was a small localcompany, but they were making
multi-million dollars. So I toldthe CEO, hey, I know how to
(03:38):
build websites, we can leveragethe current customer base, who
are local businesses in thatparticular city and offer web
services to them. So it took meabout three months of convincing
her, I got a promotion to seniorweb developer for the company,
and then at that point, Istarted building the websites.
(04:01):
So I'm doing the WordPress, PHPside, the backend of it, as well
as the design of it. That, tome, was when I really started
forming my passion around whichside of the of the process I
want to be really focused in on,because the development was
just... I mean, I enjoyed it,but that wasn't my passion. I
(04:24):
was always going back to thefonts and to the space in the
margin, the pattern, and howthat experience really generated
sales, what it looked like onmobile, different devices. So,
that was when the world of UXreally occurred to me. And then
(04:45):
prior to that, I went to acareer fair prior to getting
that job, that had a UI role.
And I remember speaking to thecompany, and I said, hey, I'm a
graphic designer, I'm reallygood, I have a portfolio of
print and I had, you know, backin those days you had those huge
PDF, you're walking around withyour graphic prints and
(05:07):
everything. You know, you alwayshad the physical prints, right?
I had that, I showed it to them,and they're like, well, we're
looking for a mobile designer.
And I said, what do you mean?
Well, it's for mobile apps. Isaid I'm a graphic designer, I
could do it, it's the samething. They're like, no. So I
was turned down back then and Ithink that was a curiosity and
frustration as well, because Ithought to myself, I know I'm a
(05:33):
really good graphic designer,but these guys just turned me
down for some UI/UX role. And Idecided to look into it some
more. So fast forward with thisweb design and designing for all
these different devices. Thatwas when I really realized, oh,
this is what UX really is andthere's a whole discipline with
processes and principles andmethodologies that really bring
(05:56):
this to life even more and I waslike, wow. So then I started
focusing on the design. I toldthem, hey, look, I don't want to
do the development anymore. Andthen I started pursuing
UX-centered roles. That's how itreally formed for me there.
Dan Berlin (06:14):
Wonderful. I love hearing that transition from the
development and graphic design,to getting the more holistic
view and realizing that you'releaning towards the other side
of that, and following that, sothank you for sharing that.
William Ntim (06:30):
Yeah, definitely.
Dan Berlin (06:32):
Your chapter, Don't Perform a Competitive Analysis
Before Ideating. Can you pleasetell us about that?
William Ntim (06:40):
Yes. So there's a lot to say about that chapter.
The background of that chapterreally stemmed from working with
a distributed team around theworld of UX designers, great UX
designers, but then noticingthis very minute, but also very
important part of the process.
Because during design meetingsor product requirement meetings,
(07:05):
etc., whatever you want to callit, intake meetings, right? I
found out that designers werequick to pull up what the
competitor was doing, or whatother businesses and companies
are doing. And I think that wasa shock to me in the beginning
because I thought to myself, oh,that's what we do? Okay. And
(07:30):
then it was just so normal. ButI never did that. I always
wanted to craft the experienceor ideate first of what I
thought the perfect solutionwould be based on the data
points and the datasets that Ihad in that particular project
or business or company ormoment. So that really was
(07:52):
something that took me aback alittle bit and I pondered over
that for about a week and I hadto vent. I was like, this needs
to go out. And I put thosethoughts together and realized,
you know what, I do have apoint. I did some more research
on that and realized, yeah,there is bias that's formed with
that, because you cannot atfirst instant, just reach out or
(08:14):
view what competitors are doing,and then come back and produce
original work. So that was thatcycle for me where I reached
that conclusion, but I needed tovalidate it. So I got on
YouTube, I read some books, Ithink one of them that stood out
to me was the Blue OceanStrategy. It talks about
(08:42):
competitive analysis, but alsobuilding products based on what
competitors are not doing. Sothere is a whole world around
competition, what competitorsare doing, and then even to find
out that our sprint cycles alsoaffect what's out live in
production. So if we're lookingat what Amazon or these other
(09:04):
competitors are doing, well,that was six months ago work,
estimatedly, right? So now if wetry to build that and develop
that we're actually going to besix months behind because
they're already working onsomething now that's set to come
out pretty soon, etc. So you'realways going to be one step back
(09:24):
and I think that was importantfor me to highlight and just
break it out. Hey guys, this iswhat we're missing when we are
quick to look at what thecompetitors are doing. We're
going to do that in the nextstep, but right now let's get
our notebooks, whiteboards,let's ideate, let's brainstorm,
whatever we need to do tocollect the fresh data, or not
even data, fresh ideas and let'sjust seal that now before we see
(09:49):
what other people are doing. Andthen it helps you validate what
you're working on, what ideasyou had. And that has been so
helpful for me honestly, in mycareer so far, because I will
put down ideas that I think willwork based on research and all
of that information I haveconcerning the project and then
perform competitive analysisonly to find out that, oh,
(10:11):
wow... either competitors aredoing the same thing, so that
validates the idea, orcompetitors are doing something
completely different that is notworking. So then you realize
that you have gold, you havesomething that's going to be
even more effective than what'sout there without any bias.
Dan Berlin (10:30):
Do you have a specific steps that you take
when you do that? Is there amethodology that you take when
doing that next step, andcomparing what's out there to
what you've ideated?
William Ntim (10:44):
Yeah, so I would say the competitive analysis as
a methodology itself, is what Iperform. But before I do that, I
ideate or sketch with verylittle intrusion, even from team
members. So it might be a littleextreme, but what I do, I will
(11:04):
actually tell my team members,okay, I got the PRD, I got the
project requirements, and giveme some time to collect my
thoughts. I would actually stepaway if I need to, back in days
pre-COVID when we were in theoffice, I would actually step
into one of the whiteboardrooms, and just map out what I
think, how I understand the ask,and how I see the solutions or
(11:29):
possible solutions working, andthen come back and have that
brainstorming session. Becausewith cognitive bias, you're
looking at bias not just fromcompetitive analysis, but also
from your team members from thesame people you're going to be
working with, but you have tomake sure that you're being
original with your thoughts. Ifevery team member can protect
(11:50):
their thoughts, you're going toend up having a collective of
just incredible thoughts. It'sstill possible in brainstorming
sessions, where everybody's justspewing ideas, that still works.
But the thing is, there's stillgoing to be that cognitive bias
which comes in from differentangles, because now you say
something, you might trigger anidea from me. But the initial
(12:10):
thought that I would have hadwithout your influence is now
either gone with the wind, and Imay never be able to get that
back. So, protecting my originalthoughts is the first step and
then the next step iscompetitive analysis. Okay,
well, the next step is actuallyopening up to the team members.
So collecting team membersthoughts, which are also
(12:32):
supposedly protected so it'soriginal, authentic. And then we
put those together, brainstorm,and then also introduce
competitive analysis, figure outwhat are our competitors doing,
how can we involve our researchteam? What data do they have to
support or influence kind of thesolutions that we're proposing
or thinking about? And then wego from there, and then we can
(12:54):
analyze and use affinity mappingor card sorting, or whatever we
need to do to group and sort outthe possible solutions that we
have for this particularproblem.
Dan Berlin (13:06):
Yep. Yep. Thank you for that. It sounds like you've
been doing this for a while.
Tell me about resistance tothis. Have you encountered
resistance to this way ofideating? And are there ways of
overcoming this?
William Ntim (13:22):
I have, I have. I think it's not really done
purposefully. I would honestlysay it's mostly just habit and
also time constraints ordeadlines. So that also forces
the process to be short and tobe very fast and swift, and
(13:44):
leaves very little room for usto really be attentive to
individual steps of the process.
But I think personally, like yousaid, I've been doing this for a
while, and that has also helpedme develop my own way of
protecting these thoughts. Andyou can't really 100% avoid
cognitive bias, right? Becausewe're always using apps and
(14:07):
we're watching... there's media,there's ads, so you always have
some kind of information comingin. But to take that extra step
to protect the little that youhave left is still useful. So
yeah, I do get the pushback, butnot willingly. It's just normal,
natural constraints ofdeadlines. We need this
yesterday. So then you're eitherstuck with okay, I need to
(14:30):
ideate and pour everything outright now, or I need to not be
so overprotective of it and justlet maybe this one go. Because
you have team members that arearound the world. They're in
different time zones. And thisparticular moment is the only
moment that you might have tohave everyone in the room. So
(14:50):
there's so many littlesituations that affect your
ability to follow thisprinciple. But if you do it well
enough, you're still able to,upon hearing that process...
because it's all about speed toosometimes. But you're able to...
I can actually be hearing orlistening to a product
(15:14):
requirement and alreadyformulating ideas and solutions
in my mind before that productrequirement is done being read.
So that helps me already know,okay, I'm either jotting things
down, writing things out, typingon my TextEdit or notepad before
the team is invited to speak orfor ideas. And so that helps
(15:36):
collect a little bit of gold. Icall that those gold nuggets,
before it's influenced.
Dan Berlin (15:44):
Yup. Well, even just taking those few moments, even
if it is just a few moments orhopefully a day, to collect your
thoughts, before digging intolooking at what's out there,
that small little bit can canhelp so much.
William Ntim (15:59):
Yes and to add to that too, I just throw out this.
Sometimes, as the PRD is beingread, you have team members or
even the project manager willalready suggest some solutions
as they're presenting thisproblem statement to you. So
being able to say, okay, give mesome time, right? So, I'll do
(16:21):
that. Like you said, you say,hey, give me some time to figure
out, explore some options first,and then I'll circle back with
you and we can brainstorm andfigure out what ideas that we
want to put together. Thatdefinitely helps, because I've
had some of those slip throughthe cracks, where it's like,
your brain or my brain getsstuck with what was said, or
(16:44):
that solution that was presentedalong with the PRD. And then I
find myself going down this roadof trying to make that solution
work and then only to go all theway, create the the mocks and
present it and do a designreview, and then come back to
the same place that I would havearrived at, if it was just my
(17:06):
idea, because that initial ideathat came with the problem
statement didn't work. Ofcourse, it wasn't something that
a UXer really thought about...
okay, knowing what I know,having the experience I have,
this other solution is probablygoing to work better, right? But
also giving in to what theproject managers bringing down,
that does affect the experiencesyou create and the effectiveness
(17:29):
of it.
Dan Berlin (17:31):
Yeah, yeah. And all this is not to say that
competitive analysis isn'timportant, because it still can
be very important. It's just amatter of when is that right?
William Ntim (17:42):
Yeah. Yeah, that's right. It's super important
because like I said, it helpsvalidate your solutions, it also
helps you identify gaps in yourown user experience or in
competitors' user experience. Sothat also helps you identify
(18:02):
the... what would you call them?
Not gaps, but the opposite ofgaps? Strengths! Right? So it
helps you identify the strengthsin your user experience, as
compared to your competitors.
And you can use those strengthsfor marketing campaigns... I
mean, you can really run with itand drive those numbers up when
(18:24):
it comes to conversion, etc.
But, it's super important, it'sjust a matter of when.
Dan Berlin (18:29):
Yup. And when doing those competitive analyses are
there certain ways we should bedoing them to make them most
effective?
William Ntim (18:38):
You know, that's a good question. I mean, with with
the influx of data and theconstant shifts of user
behavior, the volatility of userbehavior has also increased over
just this past year and coupleof years. It goes back with
(18:58):
starting with your user andtruly identifying true
competitors, that would be mybaseline. That would be the
foundation that I'll build thison. Because sometimes from the
outside two businesses mightseem like they are in
competition with each other,just because they might be in
the same category. If you diginto the demographics and
(19:21):
geographics of your users, thehousehold income, etc., you
realize that you might actuallybe targeting different
consumers. And then that alsoaffects how you perform
competitive analysis because youcan rule that competitor out and
just focus on the ones that aretruly your competitors. I think
(19:42):
the big part will be trulyidentifying your users, and
identifying the users of yoursupposed competitors and
comparing to make sure that youhave at least, I would say, over
70-80% similarities betweenthose users, that would be
quality information. But ifyou're looking at anything,
(20:05):
50%... Yeah, that's not reallystrong data. I think that would
be something hurtful to try tobase your experiences and
updates and optimization on a50% competitor, you want to make
sure it's a higher amount inthat regard. That would be the
biggest one for me. And then, ofcourse, making sure that you're
(20:27):
collecting data the right wayand you have a good research
team that has access, of course,ethical ways of collecting this
data... practical ways of nothurting the market and being
considerate of the methods, theway we collect the data, how
(20:50):
we're infiltrating thecompetitive systems, etc. It's a
whole ethical part that followsthat. Yeah.
Dan Berlin (21:00):
That's a whole nother episode there.
William Ntim (21:01):
Yeah, I agree.
Dan Berlin (21:02):
So William, this has been a wonderful conversation
about making sure to get yourideation out before doing
competitive analysis. Was thereanything else you were hoping to
convey to folks here today?
William Ntim (21:16):
Yeah, so I would say definitely paying
attention... not justcompetitive analysis, but paying
attention to every step of theuser experience process. Design
thinking... just, our process oftaking a problem statement and
then collecting data, obtainingdata, synthesizing, and then
(21:36):
ideating. etc., all the way toproduction and shipping, right?
I want users to pay very closeattention to the steps of this
process, and then also the orderof the steps. Because if it's
not done in an orderly manner,then you are bound to get
(21:57):
different results at any step ofthe process that would affect
your overall output. So that'san important thing, the order of
the steps, and then also thesteps itself, right? And then,
lastly, why we do every step? Ithink it's important for users
to understand why do we evenideate? Why do we brainstorm?
(22:18):
Why do we bring the teamtogether? Why do we do
competitive analysis research?
Understand why each of theseprocesses are in place to arrive
at the outcomes that we'relooking for. And once you do
that, it helps you perform orcreate experiences just
naturally. Because even if youhave tight deadlines, you're
still able to either performcertain steps faster, or shrink
(22:41):
certain steps together, butyou're looking at the underlying
value throughout each part ofthe process together to produce
that overall, perfect... well,it's never gonna be perfect, but
that maximal output in the end.
So yeah, that's all I got.
Dan Berlin (23:02):
And if we are mindful about those steps,
similar the conversation we'vebeen having here, we can find
ways to eliminate bias at eachstep, whether it's at the
competitive analysis step or theuser interview step, there's
always ways to be doing this.
William Ntim (23:16):
Exactly.
Beautifully said.
Dan Berlin (23:18):
So, thank you for all of this. In our last segment
here, we like getting a careertip, whether it's for folks
breaking into the field or forfolks who have lots of
experience, do you have a careertip for our listeners?
William Ntim (23:31):
I would say, and I'm not sure this has been said
before, but I would say be trulypassionate about helping people
through your work as a UXdesigner, or UX professional.
Because the passion is what'sgoing to carry you through the
ups and downs of our discipline.
It's very emotionally tasking.
(23:53):
And you can have your work, yourexperiences that you create, be
pushed back, be ignored, berejected. Now, if you're not
truly passionate about it, thiscan sway your motivation levels,
right? Which would affect yourperformance and eventually lead
to burnout. So I'd say make surethat you're protecting your
(24:13):
passion, and you're stillfalling in love with what we do
as user experiencepractitioners, because we are
shaping the future oftechnology, and really human
computer interaction. So let'skeep that keynote in mind.
Dan Berlin (24:28):
Wonderful, thank you for that. Yeah. And the passion,
and the passion for the user,and making sure we keep the user
in our UX conversations.
William Ntim (24:38):
Exactly, yeah.
Dan Berlin (24:39):
So William, this has been a wonderful conversation.
Thank you so much for joining metoday.
William Ntim (24:44):
This has been awesome. I appreciate you
putting this together for UXerout there. I know they're gonna
find this very useful.
Dan Berlin (24:50):
I hope so. That's that's the goal, right? Thank
you for listening, everyone.
You've been listening to the 97UX Things podcast. My guest
today has been William Ntim, whowrote the chapter Don't Perform
a Competitive Analysis BeforeIdeating. Thanks for listening.
You've been listening to the 97UX things podcast companion to
the book 97 Things Every UXPractitioner Should Know
(25:12):
published by O'Reilly andavailable at your local
bookshop. All book royalties goto UX nonprofits as well any
funds raised by this podcast.
The theme music is Moisturizethe Situation by Consider the
Source and I'm your host andbook editor Dan Berlin. Please
remember to find the needs inyour community and fill them
(25:32):
with your best work. Thanks forlistening.
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