Segmentable Data-Driven Market Navigator review

Three things that I get excited by in work:

AI
Research/understanding customers and
The dark art of value proposition design

If you combine all three in one proposition, I’m very interested.

I was recently shown a new tool, Segmentable, that helps you understand your value proposition relative to your competition in minutes using AI. This pushed all my buttons, I was intrigued.

The true nature of such tools is revealed during a demonstration. I was given a tour around the product by one of the founders. We used Now Novel as a test case which helped me understand how Segmentable functions with real products and competitors I’m familiar with. Although I may come across as very positive in this review there are no affiliate links and my perspective is transparent:)

1. Introduction

Product Name: Segmentable
Primary Function: A data-driven market navigator that helps businesses prioritize their product functionality and marketing focus through the lens of the actual market situation, taking into consideration the needs of clients and competitors’ products.

2. Product Overview

Key Features: Segment analysis, solution understanding, competitor analysis, function backlog creation:

Segment analysis

This section gives you an overview of the relevant segments that your product will appeal to.

Despite being autogenerated this gives good insights:

A total addressable market for your product (i.e. what they’re potentially worth in $)
An in-depth profile of the customer; including demographics, goals, triggers and objections. It’s a comprehensive user profile.
Associated with your user profile are your demanded solutions. These become more important in other parts of the product, but here is an example of one for Now Novel: “Comprehensive writing course
A detailed course that covers all aspects of novel writing, including character development, plot structure, dialogue, and editing.”

Functions

Functions are segments of solutions. You’ll get a comprehensive list of functions that will support every solution a customer has, with the option to understand the cost and time to build the feature. When I say comprehensive list this means exhaustive, its really long and some won’t be as tied to your product as you think (but they’re part of the bucket of features desired by your target audience(s))

Competitors

These can be auto-generated, or you can add in your own competitors. Again this takes about a minute to upload a new competitor.

Table view

This is where you start to see the payoff. The AI has developed a list of potential client groups, a list of their required solutions and specific features and then audits your competitor’s sites (what they’re saying they do) against this.

This was the only part of the process where the AI wasn’t 100%, but its an easy validation to check the criteria against competitors. You can also look at the demanded solution through the lens of the Kano method (if you’re not aware of it think of it as a project prioritisation lens that you can prioritise certain features with). In speaking to Greg (one of the founders) he said they’ve been in contact with the Kano institute (or whoever manages the Kano method now) and they’ve given it their seal of approval (very cool!). In the tool the Kano section looks like this:

Which gives you an idea of the feature set that is most desired/required by an audience.

Heat map

Here you see the opportunities start to present themselves. You are rated vs your competitors on the specific features desired for a specific market segment.

(This is an uncorrected view btw, unfortunately Now Novel is not this omnipotent)

Target Audience: Product and marketing leaders in businesses looking to understand their audience segments, analyze competitors, and outline the necessary functionality to become a leader in certain segments.

Product’s Benefits: Segmentable offers detailed understanding of audience segments, comprehensive functional analysis of competitors, and the creation of a function backlog to streamline business processes. It aims to answer key business questions 10x faster, saving money and time (that’s the marketing blurb, but it seems like it’ll work)

3. First Impressions

First Impressions: Segmentable sells itself as an innovative, AI-powered solution for businesses. It has a clear roadmap for setup and integration, making it easy for users to understand the process and expectations. Inside of twenty minutes I could understand the product and get insights. Its accurate and super fast.
User Experience: With Segmentable’s step-by-step guide for setup and usage, it has an intuitive user experience. The product emphasizes a collaborative approach with the user, defining itself as a “copilot” rather than a standalone system. It’s a fairly new product so there aren’t fancy onboarding flows and videos, but its not a self service product and the team are very accommodating and helpful. If you’ve used any online SAAS tool you’ll understand what to do pretty quickly. There is a left column navigation that allows you to easily flip through any of the areas easily.

4. In-Depth Analysis

Feature Functionality: Each feature, from segment analysis to competitor function analysis, is designed to give businesses a competitive edge. The product creates a detailed document with a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) for every target segment and a visual heatmap of competition for each segment.
Standout Features: The ability to define customer segments based on unique problems and solutions and the formation of a comprehensive list of functions required by each target segment are standout features. The two major features for me are the customer profile it creates and the heatmap which ties everything together. There are two products within one: a customer profiling and requirements tool and a competitor/market analysis tool.

5. Usability

Ease of Use: By providing a comprehensive roadmap and defining each step in detail, Segmentable ensures a straightforward and easy user experience.
Improvement Elements: It’s a fairly new product so there is opportunity for some polish. You could also go even deeper on some of the areas in the results e.g. I’d love to know what is the best way to approach customer segments, potential cost of contact, recommendations on which avenues to pursue.

6. Performance

Performance vs Claims: Based on the provided information, Segmentable aligns with its claims of being a technologically advanced tool that provides detailed segment analysis and competitive market understanding.
Strengths and Weaknesses: The product’s strengths include detailed segment analysis, competitor analysis, and its role as a copilot. The special sauce is twofold: its blistering fast and surprisingly accurate for AI. It’ll save you a lot of time and energy to get some actionable ideas. There aren’t any glaring holes and weaknesses in the product.

7. Value for Money

Pricing Structure: I’m not sure what their costs are, I think +/- $2,000 for the kickoff package with a consulting workshop to set you up and help you understand the data.
Performance Justification: Given the comprehensive features and the market insights the product offers, (and did I mention the lightning speed and customer service?) I think this is a reasonable cost. If it gives you one insight that helps you to change your focus then it’s paid for itself. If it helps you win a new market and prioritise your roadmap better, there are even more opportunities.

8. Customer Support

Customer Support: Concierge onboarding and discussions. I got specific Loom videos and answers to any questions I had. Really knowledgeable, really helpful. I (stupidly) deleted some important areas, but they managed to fix them pretty quickly.

9. Conclusion

Overall Strengths and Weaknesses: Strengths include detailed market segment analysis, competitor function analysis, and strategic roadmap creation. Fast and accurate and gives you insights you didn’t have previously.
Beneficiaries: Product and marketing leaders, businesses looking to gain a deeper understanding of their market segments. I think particularly useful for startups who need information fast and always have limited information. Putting on my CRO hat it would. be great to evaluate your value proposition against your competitors to understand how you fare against your competitors.
Recommendation: if it isn’t already obvious I’ve got some good insights and I think it could help you.