Product Analysis and Evaluation | C3.1

Students must be able toDiscuss the purpose of a product analysis exercise and why it is important for product design development.

The main goal of product analysis and evaluation is to deeply understand how all the different parts and features of a product work together. We look at what makes a product functional (does it work well?), appealing (do people want to use or buy it?), and competitive (how does it compare to similar products?). Through this careful examination, we discover actionable insights we can use to make real improvements or develop new solutions. In simpler terms, product analysis helps you figure out: What makes this product work? Why do people use or buy it? And how does it stack up against the competition?

"Actionable insights" are specific, practical recommendations that can be implemented to improve the product. For example, a thorough analysis of an application might find that users rarely use a particular feature because they weren't aware of it, rather than avoiding it by choice. Simply looking at how many people use each feature can provide useful data, but to find actionable insights we'd have to look closer. (A specific example of this is MacOS quick actions. Do you use quick actions?)

Five analytical approaches used in product analysis:

• Understanding user needs: We need to gain insights into how consumers feel about product effectiveness and usability. We can design the most amazing kitchen gadget, but it will be a failure if people don't actually need it for anything. We can also design something that people absolutely need, but is far too difficult to use.



• Evaluating form and function: assessing materials, manufacturing techniques, and aesthetics. By now this stuff should be clear, but I'll use the glass bottle of kombucha on the table next to me as an example (Not the drink itself, though it is tasty). It's a glass bottle with a plastic lid. Why is it made from these materials? Could we use aluminium or plastic instead? Do we risk losing sales if we switch materials? Is glass perceived as a premium material which helps justify a higher cost? This bottle has a relatively 'sparse' design compared to competing products, but is sold at a lower cost. Does the design communicate that it is cheaper, or that is not as good? Is it better to explain 'probiotic cultures' or let the customer pretend they know what that means?
• Analysing competitive positioning: benchmarking against rival offerings. Super straightforward. Galen designs a new running shoe, and we purchase shoes which will be direct competition and identify how his shoes compare.
• Strategic analysis: examining pricing models and marketing approaches. Is it better to sell our game at a fixed price or make it free to play with a season pass and in game purchases? Can we add paid cosmetic content to our game without players revolting over our perceived greed? How can we convince people to try our game if it seems similar to games they might already think are better? What worked and didn't work for similar games?
• Sustainability audits: improving environmental responsibility across the life cycle. Will people reuse the packaging if it's a bit stronger? How can we encourage customers to recycle the product at the end of its life instead of disposing of it? Are there materials we can swap out that will reduce the impact of producing each item?

Product analysis enables designers to learn from successes and shortcomings, reexamine problems, explore new technologies, and iterate products into more appealing, user-aligned solutions.

Students must be able toIdentify the various stakeholders, such as users, manufacturers and engineers, that will help in any future development of a product.

Bringing a wide range of stakeholders into product analysis matters because something that feels obvious and easy to one group can be a genuine obstacle for someone else. Involving multiple perspectives ensures the final solution is technically refined, aesthetically pleasing, commercially viable, and broadly accessible.

A stakeholder is any person or group that has an interest in or is affected by the product. Involving them in the analysis process helps ensure that the final solution meets their needs and expectations. You are welcome to look up the specific history of the term 'stakeholder', but it isn't terribly interesting. I encourage my students to think of it as similar to 'shareholder' or 'partner', in that both of those terms refer to people who will benefit if a company or project succeeds.

Students must be able toAnalyse a product using a SWOT analysis based on function, performance, usability, features and materials.

A SWOT analysis is a structured framework with four quadrants. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal (within the product or organisation); Opportunities and Threats are external (from the market, technology, or regulatory environment).

Let's imagine that we've opened a new restaurant called 'Pizza Dog' (Named after one of my first kitchen inventions) and want to do a SWOT analysis. My concept is a vegetarian pizza and hot dog restaurant, with video games and other entertainment, making it a blend of restaurant and hang-out zone.

Porter's Five Forces (Michael Porter, 1979) complements SWOT by analysing competitive intensity at the industry level: (1) competitive rivalry, (2) supplier power, (3) buyer power, (4) threat of new entry, and (5) threat of substitution. While SWOT analyses a specific product, Five Forces analyses the whole industry.

Students must be able toUse data generated from relevant testing and/or reverse engineering to identify areas of the product that require improvement and to determine how well the product meets the needs of the user.

Systematic testing and reverse engineering generate objective data that replaces guesswork in product evaluation.

Testing methods:

Reverse engineering as analysis (disassembly / teardown): Physically deconstructing a product reveals component materials, manufacturing processes, assembly sequence, and structural decisions. Used by designers to understand how a competitor solved a design problem, or to identify failure modes in their own product. (For the full reverse engineering process, see B4.1 Production Systems, objective 4.1.5.)

Benchmarking compares a product's performance, features, and design against leading competitors or industry standards. It equips designers with awareness of prevailing standards, emerging aesthetic trends, and potential avenues for market differentiation.

Teardown: Game Boy vs. Game Gear

The handheld with the worse screen won the format war.

Read spotlight →

Students must be able toCompare competing and similar products to identify opportunities for further product improvements.

The relationship between weaknesses and opportunities is central to iterative design. A weakness in one product is an opportunity for the next version, or for a competitor. A frequent modern example is 'battery life'. So many iterative products are advertised as having better battery life than their predecessors, or 'our longest lasting battery yet', and so on. Battery life is a great feature to mention for sales because people who have older devices, especially phones, may have few other issues with their device, but almost certainly have less battery life than they did when their device was newer. This table shows the capacity of all iPhone batteries, and makes a compelling case that 'battery life' has always been identified as a weakness

Three possible decisions arising from product analysis:

Value proposition mapping helps designers articulate what makes a product worth buying, and where a competitor's value proposition exceeds their own. This identifies specific improvement targets rather than vague dissatisfaction.

Customer reviews are an important analysis input: they reveal at scale what real users experience, including failures that only emerge after extended use, which lab testing cannot replicate.

Students must be able toIdentify areas where a product is not meeting the needs of its users.

Constructive discontent is defined as "the ability to identify, articulate and address shortcomings in an existing product without simply criticising." It is a mindset that challenges the status quo while offering pathways to improvement: criticism with a purpose.

Example: Knife Block: A designer applying constructive discontent would observe: "The knife block accumulates crumbs and bacteria at the bottom of the knife slots because it cannot be disassembled for cleaning. This is a hygiene issue that could be solved by designing a dishwasher-safe block with removable slot inserts." This becomes an actionable design opportunity, not just a complaint.

Constructive discontent drives iterative design: the cycle of observe > articulate shortcoming > propose improvement > prototype > evaluate is the engine of product evolution.

Students must be able toDiscuss the purpose of a product analysis task and why it is important for product design development.

Product analysis is not an end in itself: it is the evidence base for design decisions. The full analytical cycle connects observation to action:

1. Observe: Test the product; gather stakeholder perspectives; disassemble and reverse engineer; collect customer reviews.
2. Analyse: Apply SWOT; benchmark against competitors; map value propositions; identify pain points through constructive discontent.
3. Decide: Invest in improvement, leave unchanged, or discontinue, based on evidence, not opinion.
4. Iterate: Implement changes; test again; repeat.

Why product analysis matters for design development:

• Prevents designing in isolation: grounds decisions in user reality rather than designer assumptions.
• Reveals non-obvious failure modes that only emerge in extended real-world use.
• Identifies opportunities that a competitor or market trend has created.
• Builds stakeholder buy-in: when people are involved in analysis, they feel heard and support resulting changes.
• Supports environmentally conscious design: analysis can identify over-engineering, excessive materials use, or poor repairability.

The goal is products that are not only technically and aesthetically refined, but also commercially viable and broadly accessible to their intended users.