how you figure out who your direct and indirect competition is
I talk to my customers. They're very good at telling me "I was using X until I discovered Tarsnap" and (far less often) "I'm not going to be using Tarsnap any more because I'm switching to X".
That's a great point and I think if you're making a new implementation of a product like I am and you have a general idea of who your customer could potentially be just asking them could be very helpful, though it may be difficult to get a response. It's funny how this is probably one of the simplest and most obvious ways, and yet it completely eluded me until I read your post. Thanks!
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how you figure out who your direct and indirect competition is
I talk to my customers. They're very good at telling me "I was using X until I discovered Tarsnap" and (far less often) "I'm not going to be using Tarsnap any more because I'm switching to X".
That's a great point and I think if you're making a new implementation of a product like I am and you have a general idea of who your customer could potentially be just asking them could be very helpful, though it may be difficult to get a response. It's funny how this is probably one of the simplest and most obvious ways, and yet it completely eluded me until I read your post. Thanks!