Learn about your own product by steelmanning your competitors
Good advice for both life and business. Less strawmanning, more curiosity and steelmanning.
Consumers are choosing your competitor for a reason. Try to understand how your competitor's assumptions are correct. Do it earnestly, to the point that you can easily advocate for them.
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I think one good way to execute this strategy on competitors is to interview them.
We've all been in a new niche and wondered: "Why is nobody doing [something which seems like an obvious thing to do for a newcomer]?"
Most likely the answer is counter-intuitive and you can discover it (and save yourself hundreds of hours) by interviewing competitors. You can just blatantly ask: Why is X not doing Y?
Great article btw.
How would you approach your competitors asking for an interview?
Yeah, that's a good idea. I suppose how you approach it would depend on the company. Bigger companies, reach out to customer service. Smaller companies/indie hackers, just ask the founder. You don't need to say "Hi, I'm your competitor" (though I wouldn't hide it either). Just ask the question and see if you get a response.
Yeah, I've been guilty of trying a competitor's product, saying "Welp, this is all garbage, they don't know what they're doing", and moving on. Didn't help me improve the product much! 😅
Yes! I heard Daniel Schmachtenberger (look him up, he's great) talk about steelmanning (in the context of politics) a while back and it's really hit home. With the media making strawmanning all the time, it's important for individuals to dig deeper.