With every app I provide strategy for—whether that’s the data or AI strategy—I start with a comprehensive deep dive into competitor offerings in the same vertical. I sign up for apps, if they’re publicly available, take copious screenshots, compile them into some kind of visualization (e.g., Miro board) or spreadsheet (e.g., Airtable over Excel/Sheets because you can embed a lightbox for images and/or video into a cell). I categorize features and compare the approaches as well as provide analysis on features that are under-baked.
Then I take a deep dive into reviews for each competitor’s app to see if there are features users really love and issues that engender negative reviews. As you can see in the demo below, some decisions (like moving a feature that was at one time free behind a paywall) evoke outrage. These insights serve as cautionary tales for clients because those initial reviews can make the difference between an app that rises to the top of searches or one that’s suppressed in app stores or search results.