Companies operate in a competitive marketplace, and therefore, having a deep understanding of the competition is critical to a company's success and survival. Here are few of the questions that competitive research helps address:

• How does a product or service compare to the competition?
• What are the strength and weaknesses of competing offerings?
• What alternatives and choices does the target audience have?

Experience strategists use several methods to collect and analyze competitive information. From interviews with stakeholder and SMEs, they know who the direct competition is. In some product categories, such as automobiles and consumer products, companies can reverse-engineer competitive products and try to match or surpass their capabilities. Additionally, designers can develop extensive experience analysis of such competitive products, because access to and experience with the product is possible.

In some hi-tech products capabilities may be cocooned within proprietary software or secret production processes. In these cases, designers can glean the capabilities from an indirect evidence of use.

These days, the internet is a main source of competitive information - from direct access to a product online, to help manuals, user guides, bulletin boards, reviews, and analysis in trade publications. Occasionally, unauthorized photos or documents are leaked to the public domain, and they provide clues, sometimes real and sometimes bogus, about a secret upcoming product. Social media too is an important source of competitive data in the form of customer reviews on Yelp, Amazon, or Facebook. With the wealth of such information it is easier to focus the thinking of a differentiating and superior product experience.

For example, Uber, the car hailing service, generated public controversy which led to dissatisfied riders and drivers who were unhappy with its policies, including - until recently - its resistance to allowing riders tip their drivers: By design, a tipping function was not available in the app - the primary transaction method between rider, company, and driver.

Research indicates, however, that tipping for service is a common social norm, and that most people tip because it makes them feel better. Not being able to tip places riders in an uncomfortable social setting and stirred negative emotions against Uber. The evidence of dissatisfaction could be easily collected from numerous web sources and interviews with riders and drivers.

For Uber competitors such as Lyft and Curb making tipping an integrated part of their apps provided an immediate competitive edge that improves the experience of both riders, who have an option to reward the driver for their good service, and drivers, who benefit from an increased income. This, and additional improvements over the inferior Uber experience, become a part of an overall experience strategy focused on improving the likelihood that riders and drivers will dump Uber in their favor.