Study Your Competition

Once you know who the market leaders are in your specific domain, then you want to study them too. Studying the competition is completely normal in sports, and it is rare in the realm of software development. A logical question is, “How do you study your competition?” The software development team needs to compare its products with the competitor’s products. You should be gathering and studying any marketing materials and user guides you can get your hands on. I do not recommend doing anything illegal, but if your competitor has user manuals online, you should download them and compare them with your own product.

Another great source of information on your competition is job postings. They will tell you what type of software language skills they use, what type of development methods they use. If you track job postings over a period of time you will be able to tell if your competitor’s are staffing up for a new project.

If it is a publicly traded company, you should review available financial information and strategic plans. Often, public companies outline their strategic IT plan in their annual reports.