Competitive Analysis 🔍 Prompts

Purpose: Competitive Analysis (Strategy & Goals) helps product teams systematically examine direct and indirect competitors to uncover patterns, gaps, and strategic opportunities that inform UX design and positioning.

Design Thinking Phase: Define

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

Difficulty: ⭐⭐

When to use:When entering a crowded market or launching a new productTo realign product strategy based on UX differentiationBefore redesigning a core experience

What it is

Competitive Analysis (Strategy & Goals) is a UX research method used to examine competitors' products, content patterns, interaction models, and strategic positioning. Rather than surface-level feature comparisons, this method focuses on the deeper “why” behind design choices—revealing strengths, weaknesses, and whitespace opportunities that can guide your own design direction.

📺 Video by NNgroup. Embedded for educational reference.

Why it matters

Without a clear picture of the user and business landscape, teams risk duplicating generic UX patterns instead of solving user needs uniquely. Competitive analysis helps teams avoid “feature parity” mindsets and push toward product-market fit through informed differentiation. It grounds UX strategy by aligning it with user expectations, industry trends, and behavioural patterns already familiar to your audience—while helping you avoid the usability missteps of others.

When to use

• Before stakeholder alignment workshops, strategy sprints or roadmapping
• During discovery as part of product-market fit exploration
• When auditing an existing product for UX/brand gaps

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

• Start by identifying 3–5 relevant competitors (direct, indirect, aspirational).
• Assess their positioning, UX patterns, information hierarchy, product flows, and content strategies.
• Create a matrix: columns for competitors, rows for product areas and strategic criteria (onboarding, trust signals, CTAs, etc).
• Summarise each competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, user assumptions, and UX values (e.g., fast, transparent, robust).
• Identify opportunities to differentiate—based not just on what’s lacking, but on what matters most to your user personas.
• Document clear takeaways for how design can express your product’s strategic goals.

Example Output

Strategy Matrix Summary (Fictional Example – EV Charging App)

• Competitors: Tesla App, ChargePoint, VoltMate
• Strengths:
  • ChargePoint = Strong station discovery tools, localised info
  • Tesla App = Seamless product/vehicle integration
  • VoltMate = Clean UI, accessible booking
• Weaknesses: Fragmented feedback flows, inconsistent pricing clarity, lack of scheduling
• Differentiation Opportunity: Emphasise transparency in pricing estimates, reward incentives for eco-routing, real-time availability preferences

Common Pitfalls

• Feature Dumping: Simply listing what competitors do without analysing intent or UX impact.
• Context Ignorance: Making assumptions without understanding each competitor's business model or user base.
• Shallow Analysis: Focusing only on visual UI without diving into flow, feedback, or behaviour.

10 Design-Ready AI Prompts for Competitive 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 UX Strategy Comparison Table”

Generate a UX Strategy Comparison Table

Context: You are a Senior UX Researcher preparing a stakeholder presentation on strategic gaps in your product design compared to competitors.
Specific Info: You’ve analysed 3 main competitors across onboarding, IA clarity, key conversions, and content trust signals.
Intent: Summarise each competitor’s UX strategy strength and weakness in a high-level matrix.
Response Format: Provide a markdown-style table with columns for: Competitor, UX Strengths, UX Gaps, Observed User Goals, Strategic Implication.

If any category or assumption seems unclear, ask a clarification question before starting. Suggest a follow-up action to validate one of the gaps internally.

Prompt Template 2: “Analyse Competitor CTAs for Tone and Friction”

Analyse Competitor CTAs for Tone and Friction

Context: You are a UX Designer comparing how different competitors handle primary and secondary calls-to-action in mobile apps.
Specific Info: Examples include onboarding flows, checkout, and subscription prompts. You want tone insights and trigger strategies.
Intent: Uncover best practices in CTA microcopy, trust signals, and button placement hierarchy.
Response Format: Table with CTA text, emotional tone, button hierarchy, visual context, and heuristics evaluation.

Add insights on how these choices affect decision confidence. Suggest one shift you could test in your current UI.

Prompt Template 3: “Identify UX Differentiators from Competitor Benchmarks”

Identify UX Differentiators from Competitor Benchmarks

Context: You're leading a UX audit for a fintech platform preparing for product relaunch.
Specific Info: You’ve benchmarked 5 competitor signup experiences using video walkthroughs and user reviews.
Intent: Craft a shortlist of strategic experience differentiators not currently covered by market players.
Response Format: Bullet list of differentiators with UX rationale and user value explanation.

Ask if you'd like a content tier (basic vs premium) mapping as follow-up.

Prompt Template 4: “Spot missed expectations via App Store reviews”

Spot missed expectations via App Store reviews

Context: You are researching competitor user frustrations using public app store ratings and reviews.
Specific Info: Focus on top-3 competitor apps, sorted by most recent and critical reviews.
Intent: Surface themes around unmet needs, friction points, and UX delighters.
Response Format: Canva-style persona board with 3–5 pain point clusters, supporting quotes, and impact priority.

Flag any repeat complaints and correlate with UI design features if relevant.

Prompt Template 5: “Compare UX messaging vs value proposition”

Compare UX messaging vs value proposition

Context: You’re comparing how different digital banks present their value proposition through UI copy.
Specific Info: Include home screen, pricing page, FAQs, and CTA microcopy.
Intent: Evaluate clarity and alignment between brand promises and actual flow support.
Response Format: Table with column for: Competitor, Positioning Message, Supporting UX Evidence, Gaps or Contradictions.

At the end, suggest one content-first experiment you’d prototype.

Prompt Template 6: “Benchmark conversion flows with dropout risks”

Benchmark conversion flows with dropout risks

Context: Your team is redesigning a B2B checkout flow and wants to learn from productised SaaS competitors.
Specific Info: Focus on freemium conversion, pricing page transition, and formload behaviour.
Intent: Identify common dropout points and UX contrast opportunities.
Response Format: Flow chart annotated with friction patterns and trust-building strategies.

Prompt a follow-up prompt for micro-iteration ideas if needed.

Prompt Template 7: “Validate competitor feature gaps using UX heuristics”

Validate competitor feature gaps using UX heuristics

Context: You’re auditing competitors in the HR platform space before roadmap prioritisation.
Specific Info: You’ve listed 6 features they offer, but aren't sure how usable or consistent they are.
Intent: Evaluate usability against recognised heuristics (e.g., Nielsen Norman’s 10).
Response Format: Table of features with heuristic grade, known issues, UX notes.

Offer one follow-up feature we should prototype that flips the expected pattern.

Prompt Template 8: “Summarise emotional tone in copy and animation”

Summarise emotional tone in copy and animation

Context: You’re conducting a tone-of-voice audit across competitors’ onboarding experiences.
Specific Info: You’ve screen-recorded the first 3 mins of product entry flows for 4 apps.
Intent: Decode how tone is expressed through words, transitions, and visuals.
Response Format: Moodboard framework with tone category, example phrases, animation pace, and symbolic cues.

Suggest an alternative tone direction based on your brand.

Prompt Template 9: “Extract UX best practices from highly rated flows”

Extract UX best practices from highly rated flows

Context: You’ve shortlisted 3 best-in-class insurance claim platforms based on customer CSAT and NPS scores.
Specific Info: Documented their flows using annotated screenshots.
Intent: Identify UX best practices worth adapting or stress-testing.
Response Format: List of practices with implementation tips and cautions.

Recommend one test you could run to measure impact in your product.

Prompt Template 10: “Compare ethical UX patterns in competitor flows”

Compare ethical UX patterns in competitor flows

Context: Researching dark patterns and persuasion techniques used in health and wellness apps.
Specific Info: Focus on commitment UI (e.g., subscriptions, time-based access, cancellation).
Intent: Expose harmful vs helpful techniques and their ethical implications.
Response Format: Table with Competitor, UX Pattern, Ethical Risk, Better Alternative.

Suggest a UX principle to include in your team’s design review checklist.

Recommended Tools

• Figma + FigJam (for matrix + synthesis boards)
• SparkToro (for audience overlap and brand sentiment)
• UXtweak or Maze (for competitor flow testing)
• ChatGPT (for fast synthesis and thematic summaries)

Learn More

• NNGroup: UX Research & Design Articles
• Interaction Design Foundation – Topics
• Google Design Sprint Kit