A good starting point when starting a project is to take a snapshot of the existing competition, i.e. to understand the ecosystem of players in the market, including the 2 or 3 key players and the secondary players in that market.
You can start by collecting information from online reviews and surveys, and comparing prices and features of existing products.
You can also conduct field tests of solutions to evaluate the performance of existing products and review industry data or reports to better understand technology and business trends in the market.
Next, it’s critical to identify the market convention. That is, understand why certain players follow the same practices in that market to determine how your project might or might not differ from them.
For example, the vacuum cleaner market has long been a saturated market where all the brands and their models followed the same trends in color, shape, power or associated accessories.
Finally, from a competitive benchmark, you must understand which are the verticals of the potential markets, i.e. the essential data found in the existing specifications (such as the prices charged, the necessary investments, the technologies used, …) and what would be the impact of your project, if it were to change one of these verticals (such as changing the price for an existing target).