Sam Ostrom's Work Portfolio
Competitive Analysis
Summary: I analyzed our competitors to better understand our market, where our advantages were, and our unique selling points
Why did we undertake this initiative?
About a year into my tenur at Autify, I began to realize that our company did not have a good handle on our competitors. I kept hearing new company names pop up in our demos, online forums, and when I searched for testing tools. Our incoming leads often asked us how we differentiated from x company and we had no good answers. I knew we needed to have a better handle on our competitors so I undertook the analysis from that point on.
What did I do to complete this initiative?
1) I listed up at the top a number of our competitors with links. That list is not even half of the companies that exist in the testing world. I created this list first and foremost.
2) I then went and researched every single one them. My research included their pricing, main features that they had, were they indirect or direct competitors of ours, number of employees, reviews on G2 and capterra, how much revenue they brought in, how well they were doing in the market, who their main customers were and how they differentiated themselves. Some of this information I was unable to find for each of them and had to make my best estimations through research into forums and communities. I even went and tried out the free trial products I could get access into to try out their tool.
3) After that, I analyzed the data and compared them to us. I presented the board and sales teams with the information.
4) I kept tabs on new competitors and old competitors every 6 months to understand if they underwent massive changes. The advent of AI shifted the market immensely in the last year.
Results of the initiative?
Here are the results of this initiative:
1) Very few of these competitors were in Japan, were our company was based. It opened our eyes to the fact that the US market was an entirely different market that was saturated with tools.
2) We realized that we were vastly behind in terms of features which spurred the creation of our newer products so that we could differentiate ourselves.
3) We also realized we were WAY too highly priced. We had to change our pricing (which I talk about in another section of my work portfolio).
4) With the advent of AI, everyone began to incorporate it into their products, which meant we no longer held the one advantage we had. That was last year. As a result, we had to come up with new improvements and features.
5) We also were able to see what everyone else was doing and where there were gaps in coverage for testing. A few of our feature productions came about because we saw an opportunity that no one else had at the time.
6) Sales and marketing came up with battle cards for when customers asked how we compared to other companies. We finally had good answers to those questions.