Competitor Feature Analysis 📊 Prompts

SUMMARY

Purpose: Identify and analyse competitor features to inspire new ideas, prioritise differentiators, and improve UX strategy.

Design Thinking Phase: Ideate

Time: 45–60 min session + 1–2 hours analysis

Difficulty: ⭐⭐

When to use:When exploring feature opportunities for a new product or MVPWhen repositioning an existing product in a saturated marketWhen preparing for stakeholder workshops or roadmap planning

What it is

Competitor Feature Analysis is a UX method used to evaluate the features, user flows, and UI patterns of competing products. Rather than copying functionality, the goal is to uncover usability conventions, gaps in competitor offerings, and ideas worth adapting — then translate those insights into novel, actionable design directions.

📺 Video by NNgroup. Embedded for educational reference.

Why it matters

Too often, product teams either blindly clone competitor features or ignore them altogether. Competitor analysis done right enhances creativity while grounding it in market reality. It gives UX teams a shared vocabulary of what's standard, what's broken, and where standout opportunities exist. Most importantly, it boosts confidence during product ideation by showing what’s working — and what’s not — for real users out there.

When to use

• During early product strategy or MVP planning
• When exploring value propositions in discovery research
• Before conducting usability testing to benchmark existing flows

Benefits

• Rich Insights: Helps uncover user needs that aren’t visible in metrics.
• Flexibility: Works across various project types and timelines.
• User Empathy: Deepens understanding of behaviours and motivations.

How to use it

Run a structured feature analysis workshop with your product and design team:

1. Identify direct, indirect, and aspirational competitors — you want breadth, not just the obvious.
2. Assign each team member one product to explore deeply. Focus on user journeys rather than landing page fluff.
3. Capture screenshots, flows, and interactions — ideally across at least 2–3 core tasks.
4. Log features in a shared matrix: What’s standard, unique, or poorly executed?
5. Cluster findings under themes (e.g. onboarding, navigation, user feedback loops).
6. Discuss: Where are the usability gaps? What patterns are trending? What could we do differently?
7. Translate standout features into problem-centric ‘how might we’ statements.

Example Output

Theme: Onboarding Experience

• Competitor A: Skippable intro, biometric ID setup, shows tips after login
• Competitor B: Mandatory tutorial, too long; no skip option
• Competitor C: Uses AI to customise onboarding suggestions based on user type

Insights: Users expect personalisation but value control. Over-educating can be frustrating.

Opportunity Statement: How might we dynamically adapt onboarding flow based on user signals without delaying access to the core experience?

Common Pitfalls

• Conflating inspiration with imitation — copying competitors leads to parity, not innovation.
• Focusing on surface-level UI instead of actual user flows and pain points.
• Failing to synthesise findings into actionable opportunity areas.

10 Design-Ready AI Prompts for Competitor Feature Analysis – UX/UI Edition

How These Prompts Work (C.S.I.R. Framework)

Each of the templates below follows the C.S.I.R. method — a proven structure for writing clear, effective prompts that get better results from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or any other LLM.

C.S.I.R. stands for:

• Context: Who you are and the UX situation you're working in
• Specific Info: Key design inputs, tasks, or constraints the AI should consider
• Intent: What you want the AI to help you achieve
• Response Format: The structure or format you want the AI to return (e.g. checklist, table, journey map)

Level up your career with smarter AI prompts.Get templates used by UX leaders — no guesswork, just results.Design faster, research smarter, and ship with confidence.First one’s free. Unlock all 10 by becoming a member.

Prompt Template 1: “Generate a Competitor Feature Comparison Table:”

Generate a Competitor Feature Comparison Table:

Context: You are a Senior UX Designer preparing for a strategy workshop on [user onboarding flows] across top apps in [finance or similar regulated industries].  
Specific Info: You’ve analysed [3–5 products] and captured screenshots of core journeys including sign-up, profile setup, and first action. 
Intent: Help the product team visualise trends, gaps, and uniqueness using a matrix.  
Response Format: Deliver a table comparing each product’s onboarding based on: steps required, personalisation level, ability to skip, and feedback nudges.

Ask clarifying questions if the app category or core actions are unclear.  
Then, propose 2 unexpected feature patterns worth deeper exploration.