Before conceptualising the product, it can be helpful to understand how it fits within the digital landscape and whether there are existing products that already do what you are planning. This is important to understand as a lack of differentiation and high competition in the space can make funding calls and long-term commercial interest more difficult.
Understanding the general landscape
At this stage the process of market research is mainly to understand the general landscape, inform implementation and to begin thinking about commercial aspects. As a researcher, it is probably not necessary to conduct a full market analysis and write an in-depth business case at the beginning but it is important to think about the following:
- Gather relevant data - forums, Health Tech newsletters, academic papers, app stores are all good indicators of what is out there.
- Clearly define the target audience by asking who are the users (and not just the end users, e.g. who may need to register or refer people) and who are payers?
- Think about who your competitors are, both from your perspective and from the perspective of the payer.
- Think about SWOT - Strengths, Potential Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats - it’s good to get a sense of what can go well and what might go wrong, so you can mitigate against it.
Below is a table that can be used to identify and compare potential competitors.
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Category |
Competitor A | Competitor B | Comments |
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Product Name |
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Core offering |
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Target Audience |
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Key Features |
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User experience (UX/UI) |
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Personalisation |
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Engagement Metrics |
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Pricing Model |
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Integration |
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Unique Selling Points |
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Geographical Reach |
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Weaknesses |
Similar apps
If a similar app does exist, then this is the time to assess if the proposed app is sufficiently different to warrant development and consider what value it adds over existing solutions. If it is substantially different then the app can be refined using feedback for existing apps with similar purpose and/or target audience. For example which features are liked and disliked by users: are comparable apps available for free or is there a charge; what is the business model and how much are users willing to pay.
TIP: For real-world examples, search keywords in app stores for major operating systems such as App Store – Apple (UK) for iOS and Google Play for Android, which list 2 and 3 million apps respectively in 2024.
