#132 - Unveiling UX Insights with Competitive Research with Rachel Miles, Research Lead at IBM

<p>Competition can be scary. But in UX, competitive research is insightful.</p> <p>You don’t want to chase your competitors, but you need to know what they are doing to know how you can improve.</p> <p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelmiles/">Rachel Miles</a> joins the Awkward Silences podcast to discuss the value of competitive research in UX and design. As the UX research lead at IBM, Rachel integrated competitive research at IBM to measure their products’ performance and to align their existing internal measures with external measures. She shares insights on selecting benchmark competitors or metrics, communicating competitive insights, and navigating legal challenges. </p> <p>Tune into this episode to learn how competitive research can inform your product development and strategy 👇</p> <p><strong>Highlights:</strong></p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:00:41<strong>] </strong>Rachel’s interest in competitive research</p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:02:27<strong>] </strong>What makes up competitive research?</p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:05:54<strong>] </strong>Choosing your competitors to benchmark against </p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:10:08<strong>] </strong>Determining benchmarking metrics</p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:16:33<strong>] </strong>Rule #1:<strong> </strong>Avoiding over fixating on the competition</p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:21:37<strong>] </strong>Opportunities for non-researchers to do competitive research</p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:23:28<strong>] </strong>Creating and sharing benchmark assets</p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:27:95<strong>] </strong>Managing participants for competitive methods</p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:30:11<strong>] </strong>Navigating legal challenges</p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:34:56<strong>] </strong>Priming participants for fake scenarios</p> <p><strong>[</strong>00:38:05<strong>] </strong>Teamwork makes the dream work in competitive research</p> <p><strong>Sources mentioned in the episode:</strong></p> <ul> <li><p><a href="http://userinterviews.com/awkward">userinterviews.com/a