Your competitors have already done the work—why not learn from them?

Each week, we're sharing one experiment from our playbook that consistently delivers results for our clients. This week: the Rival Test—one of the simplest, lowest-cost ways to figure out where the real opportunities are.?

The idea is radically simple—your competitors have already spent time and money building products. Why not learn from what they got right and wrong before you build anything?

What's a Rival Test?

It’s not feature benchmarking. It’s not looking at competitors’ roadmaps. It’s watching real customers use your competitors’ products and seeing where they struggle.

No prototypes. No expensive builds. Just watching and learning.

Most teams focus on feature gaps - but the biggest opportunities are often in experience gaps.

A bank we worked with saved $1.8M doing this

A financial services client we work with was gearing up to drop $2.4M on a new investment platform. Their business case looked solid (doesn't it always!?), stakeholders were pretty much agreed and they were ready to build.?

Before they did, we suggested running a quick Rival Test. We looked at:

• Their biggest competitor’s platform
• A popular fintech app
• Their existing solution

We found that the real problem wasn’t the interface. It was decision paralysis. Users were getting overwhelmed by too many investment options and dropping off.?

Instead of rebuilding the platform, they pivoted to a recommendation engine to help customers make faster decisions.

They got to market in half the time, saved ￡1.8M, and saw 3x higher adoption.

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How to run a Rival Test

To run this test, you'll need:

• 5-7 representative users (any more than that, you'll start hearing the same thing over and over)

• 3-4 competitor products
• 1-2 days of testing plus prep and analysis time

1. Pick 3-4 interesting targets

Include a mix of established players and newer disruptors. Remember, you're not trying to copy features—you’re seeing how different approaches solve (or hopefully fail to solve) the same problems.

2. Set up real-world tasks

What do customers actually want to do? Design realistic tasks based on the goals of your user (not what the product team wants to showcase).

3. Let them struggle

It’s painful to watch, but this is where the insights come from. The moments where people get frustrated, create workaround hacks, or misunderstand certain features is where the biggest opportunities are.

4. Look for patterns

The most useful insights come from where users struggle, what they ignore, and what they try to hack together.

Common mistakes to avoid:

• Copying features instead of understanding why they work
• Only testing one or two competitors (aim for at least three)
• Over-guiding users instead of letting them explore
• Forgetting that physical products can be just as valuable to test

The total cost typically runs $8,000-$15,000—far less than the cost of building even a basic prototype.

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Try this now (without spending a penny)

Find one competitor product.

Watch three customers try to use it.

See where they hesitate, what frustrates them, and what they ignore.

I guarantee it’ll tell you more than a 30-page market research report.

Next week: The Fake Door test—how to validate demand before building anything.

P.S. If you’re working on something and want to figure out where your competitors are missing the mark, grab 15 minutes with me here.