Test competitor claims to discover what they're faking—reveals genuine technical opportunities
When you discover a potential product opportunity, test existing competitors claiming to solve it. Many products fake hard-to-solve features with workarounds (template swapping, manual processes behind the scenes, simplified versions) because the real technical challenge is too difficult. By actually using competitor products and probing their limitations, you can discover which claims are fake and which problems are genuinely unsolved. This reveals market opportunities where demand exists but real solutions don't. The technical difficulty that prevents competitors from solving it properly becomes your moat if you can crack it.
When to use
When evaluating product ideas in technically complex spaces (AI, ML, complex algorithms, real-time processing). When competitors make bold claims about capabilities but you're skeptical. Before committing to building something, to validate that the problem is unsolved. When you have technical expertise that might let you solve something competitors can't. Particularly valuable in emerging technology categories where companies rush to market with incomplete solutions.
Don't do this
Assuming competitors have solved problems they claim to solve without testing. Taking marketing claims at face value. Avoiding markets with existing competitors without investigating solution quality. Building without understanding what competitors are actually delivering vs promising. Competing on features when the real opportunity is solving the core problem properly.
1 Founder Who Did This
During user interview, someone asked: 'Can I turn these canvas ideas into wireframes?' Adam searched for tools claiming AI wireframe generation, tested 3-4 competitor products. Discovered they were all faking it: 'They were not generating wireframes, they were just swapping existing content and would just maybe personalize the text or copy. Creating the whole layout was much more complex. So that was their trick to just move things around a little bit, swap the order of blocks and change the copy. It was obvious to me there is definitely something to be done there.'