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Building Competitive Advantage

Scrum Teams identify opportunity by looking for areas where customer needs or experiences are not fully met by current product offerings. They can dive further into understanding customer needs by reviewing Satisfaction gaps. Satisfaction gaps occur when there is a difference between what customers expect to experience and what they receive from a product. By improving their products with this information, a team fills these gaps leading to more  value for customers, which creates competitive advantage. This process is continuous until there are no more gaps to satisfy for the customer.  

Consider the coffee shop we described earlier in “Understanding Competition”. An opportunity  for them is that there is an increasing popularity of eco-friendly products among young customers. To pursue this opportunity they can look at the desired state of their current younger demographic. These customers are currently satisfied with the quality of their locally sourced coffee, but wish they could feel less wasteful of materials while drinking their daily cup of coffee on-the-go. The coffee shop can pursue this satisfaction gap through a variety of ideas, and brand and price accordingly.

Building competitive advantage
 
  • Don’t assume that you or your competitors know better than your customers. Experiment with your customers and users to validate ideas 
  • Interact with your customers to better understand their pain points and desired experience. This helps focus on customer needs and their experience
  • Conduct regular market research. Stay up-to-date with the latest market and customer trends
  • Systematically collect, analyze, and address customer feedback. If applicable, use analytics tools to monitor how users interact with your product
  • Ensure that your Scrum Team and stakeholders understand the importance of identifying and addressing opportunities and satisfaction gaps. Provide evidence
  • Collaborate with relevant departments about product benchmarking if needed. You may not be able to achieve this solely as a team 

     


Resources:

Module
Customer outcomes are the results that customers and users experience when they use a product. This piece describes the characteristics of customer outcomes as well as how to define them.
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Knowing your competition and the dynamics of your competitive landscape are essential to help your organization thrive. This content includes different models to understand the competitive landscape and tips on how to act on that information to build a competitive advantage. This information is vital for effective product management.