Search for the problem, not for your idea, and look for every solution people use rather than only apps. It takes about a day at this stage. Finding something similar is usually good news, because it means the problem is real and somebody already pays to have it solved.

It's called competitive research, or the competitive landscape, but it doesn't have to be a competing product. It can just be a competing solution.

Start with what your users already told you

The first list of competitors should come out of your own research, not out of the App Store. When you read what people say online about the problem, and when you talk to them, they name what they are using. Gather those.

For my nanny app, the competing solutions were shared albums on iPhone and Google, WhatsApp groups and group chats, saving photos to a thumb drive, printing photo books, and a paper book. None of those are apps competing with me, and all of them are things I have to be better than. People are just sharing albums on their phone. It's super easy. Why would they use my product when they could do that?

So the question to ask is not "what other apps exist". It's: what do people do today instead of the thing I want to build?

Then search properly

Search the app stores and the web for the problem in the words your users used, not the name of your idea. If your app helps salon owners manage bookings, search for salon booking, appointment management, client scheduling.

Two things I do at this stage that people find surprising:

• I only look at the App Store listing. I don't download the app. The listing, the screenshots, the description and the reviews tell you what they claim to solve and who they think they are for. That is what you need right now.
• I take screenshots. More than once I have thought, I have seen this screenshot before, and that is how I worked out that one company was running two apps.

Also look outside software. Is there a pack of cards people use? A Notion template? A binder? You might have to go looking for these.

Stay in the problem space while you do it

When you look at competing solutions you are still trying to see what problem they solve, not designing your product. And for each one, ask the better question: why is this person choosing this over everything else they could use?

The answer either tells you what you need to address, or tells you that this is not your user at all. I would bet the person using Headspace, which is bright and busy, is a different person from the one using Calm, even though both are meditation apps.

Be careful asking AI to do this for you

If you ask an AI what the main problems are, it can hand you back a tidy answer and leave out the part that matters. It might tell you photo sharing is the big problem for nannies, because it found lots of comments about photos, and never surface the comments where people explain the twelve things they already use for photos. Then you build a really cool photo feature into a market with enormous competition.

Use it to speed up reading. Don't let it decide what is true.

What if you find nothing at all?

Treat it as a red flag rather than an open field. No competitors can mean nobody is willing to pay for this, or that the demand is a flame that burns bright and fast. Go and find those users online, read what they say about products in that space, and make sure people are talking about it before you commit.

How much is enough?

For an initial pass, about a day. You are not trying to catalogue an industry, you are getting an idea of what is out there so you can feel confident you are going in the right direction. Capture the things you know you will not build too, just so you know what they do.

Keep reading

The App Idea Everyone Thinks Is Unique, and Why That's Not the Problem

Is My App Idea Good Enough? Here's How to Actually Find Out

How Do I Validate an App Idea Without Building It?

Learn this with me

Surveying what already exists is class 3 of From Passion to Product, my free six-week live course, and the full competitive analysis is class 5. Two separate classes, deliberately, because listing what is out there and working out where it falls short are different jobs. Class 3 also covers the solutions that are not apps, which is what most people miss.

You come out of week three with a feature analysis of your competitors written down, which is a document you will use again when you scope and again when you hire.

Join the waitlist to hear when the next free cohort opens. The App Strategy Workbook has every step of it with the templates if you want to run the research now.