What You’re Looking For

The Innovation Pathway wants to see your “Initial Alternative Assessment.”

In simple terms: How do people currently try to solve this problem, and why are they still complaining?

This step helps you understand whether you’re entering a space where:

  • Nothing exists (rare, but exciting if you find it)
  • Bad solutions exist (great opportunity to do better)
  • Good solutions exist but have gaps (chance to serve different people or use cases)
  • Great solutions exist (time to find a different problem)

Your Landscape Mapping Toolkit

The Google Deep Dive

Start with the most obvious place: Google.

Search like your frustrated users would:

  • “How to [solve the problem]”
  • “[Problem] solution”
  • “Best way to [handle the situation]”
  • “[Problem] app”
  • “[Problem] hack”
  • “[Problem] DIY”

Example: If your problem is “college students struggle to find study groups,” you’d search:

  • “How to find study groups in college”
  • “Study group apps”
  • “Best way to meet study partners”
  • “Study buddy finder”

What to document:

  • Apps that show up in search results
  • Websites offering solutions
  • Reddit threads with workarounds
  • YouTube videos showing hacks
  • Blog posts with tips and tricks

The Reddit Reality Check

Reddit is where people complain honestly. Search relevant subreddits for your problem and look for:

  • Complaint threads: Posts where people vent about this exact issue
  • Solution threads: “LPT” or “How do you…” posts where people share their workarounds
  • Product discussions: Conversations about existing apps or services

Phrases to look for:

  • “The only way I’ve found…”
  • “Nothing really works but…”
  • “I’ve tried everything…”
  • “Does anyone know of a better…”

Explore App Stores

Search the iOS App Store and Google Play Store using keywords related to your problem. Even if apps exist, pay attention to:

The reviews section:

  • What do 1-star and 2-star reviews complain about?
  • What features do people say are missing?
  • What makes people delete the app?
  • How often do people say “close, but not quite what I need”?

Download numbers and update frequency:

  • Apps with low downloads might indicate weak solutions
  • Apps that haven’t been updated in years might have been abandoned
  • Lots of similar apps might mean no one has nailed it yet

Document Your Findings

Create a simple landscape map with three categories:

Direct Competitors

Apps, websites, or services trying to solve the exact same problem for the same people.

For each one, note:

  • What they do
  • How much they cost
  • What users complain about (from reviews)
  • Screenshot their main page

Indirect Competitors

Different approaches people use to cope with the problem. These might not be “products” at all.

Examples:

  • Problem: Finding parking on campus
  • Direct competitor: ParkWhiz app
  • Indirect competitors: Arriving 30 minutes early, walking from far away, asking friends for tips, using public transit instead

Workarounds & Hacks

The creative (often annoying) ways people currently deal with this problem.

Look for:

  • Manual processes that could be automated
  • Tools being used for purposes they weren’t designed for
  • Social solutions (asking friends, family, etc.)
  • “Just dealing with it” approaches

What Good Landscape Research Looks Like

You know you’re onto something when you find:

  • Multiple partial solutions that each only solve part of the problem
  • Lots of workarounds that require significant time or effort
  • Products with good concepts but poor execution (based on reviews)
  • Evidence that people are actively searching for better options

Warning signs that might give you pause:

  • One dominant solution that people genuinely love
  • Very few people seem to care enough to look for solutions
  • Multiple well-funded companies have tried and failed in this space recently

Common Questions

“What if I find something that already does exactly what I want to do?” That’s valuable information! Maybe the market is already served, or maybe you can find an underserved segment or improve on their approach. Competition can validate that there’s a real market.

“What if I don’t find any direct competitors?” Either you’ve found a completely new problem (rare but exciting), or people have found ways to live with it. Dig deeper into the workarounds and informal solutions.

“How do I know if a competitor is ‘good enough’?” Look at user reviews, growth patterns, and—most importantly—go back to the people you interviewed. Are they using these existing solutions? If so, what do they still complain about?

“Should I try all these competing products myself?” Absolutely. Download the apps, sign up for the services, and experience the customer journey firsthand. Take notes on what works, what doesn’t, and where you get frustrated.

Your Action Plan

  1. Spend 2-3 hours on Google searches using different keyword combinations
  2. Browse relevant Reddit communities for 1-2 hours, looking for complaint and solution threads
  3. Search app stores and read at least 50 reviews across the top competing apps
  4. Try the top 3-5 competing solutions yourself and document your experience
  5. Create a simple landscape map with your three categories
  6. Go back to 2-3 people you interviewed and ask them about the solutions you found

Learning Resources

Want to dive deeper into competitive analysis and market research? Check out these books from the Innovate@BU library:

  • “The Cold Start Problem” by Andrew Chen – Excellent for understanding how network effect businesses (like social apps) get started and compete
  • “Absolute Essentials of Marketing Research” by Kolb & Fuller-Love – Comprehensive guide to researching markets and understanding competition
  • “The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding” by Al Ries & Laura Ries – Helps you understand how successful products differentiate themselves in crowded markets

What Comes Next

Once you have a clear map of the competitive landscape, you’ll be ready to estimate the size of the opportunity and think about whether this problem affects enough people to build a meaningful venture around it.

Remember: The goal is to understand the current state of solutions well enough to either identify gaps you could fill or recognize that this problem might already be well-served.

Ready to see how big this opportunity really is? Read our guide to market sizing >

Want a guided walkthrough? Our free Innovation Pathway Application course covers this step in its “Alternatives” lesson.