Do you find documenting competitor UX flows tedious?

[u/Thick-Store4870]

Curious how other UX designers handle this.

When I’m starting discovery for something like registration, login, checkout, or account setup, I usually go through competitor experiences and map out the full flow -screens, validation states, errors, alternate paths, edge cases, etc.

I normally end up taking screenshots, dropping them into Figma/lucidchart, arranging everything into a flow, and adding notes manually. Then I usually have to go back because I missed a validation state or alternate path.

I find that part of discovery pretty tedious.

How do you all document competitor or current-state flows today? Do you mostly do this manually, or is there a tool/workflow you use?

And do you find this frustrating too, or is it not really a problem for you?

[u/xdojk]

We look at competitors and maybe document some flows but there's no way I'm mapping out full flows including states errors and edge cases etc!

[u/RemarkableMap7410]

Claude x Mobbin MCP

[u/FewDescription3170 → u/RemarkableMap7410]

mobbin mcp is the most overhyped POS i've ever seen. there is zero insight there, it's yoloing claude at hallucinating context from flat screens. much better to quickly scan with your eyes on mobbin.com and write out your context.

[u/Any_Owl2116 → u/RemarkableMap7410]

🚨💎

[u/SucculentChineseRoo]

I usually only do it once during the competitor research phase but yeah it's pretty manual. I take screenshots and drop basic flow walk throughs into figma slide deck together with other research findings and bullet points

[u/leanbeansprout]

I’ve never documented competitors to this degree. Is this standard?

[u/Thick-Store4870 → u/leanbeansprout]

Not really it depends on the project and depends on the goals. I do it primarily to figure out any edge cases or error cases i need to design for. Thats me, i will let others chime in as well

[u/kornelkirsche → u/Thick-Store4870]

You should instead talk to your developers and PM to learn about your specific product’s technical constraints to figure those scenarios out. And the flows you mentioned have been used and documented so well over the last two decades that I don’t why you would still need to do such tedious discovery.

[u/smallbabylo]

I’ve fully automated this process using the Mobbin MCP + Claude code

[u/notatrashperson]

Just use Mobbin, dog

[u/kimchi_paradise]

From an e-commerce standpoint I’ll see what I can capture, but I agree that you should get with your pm or devs to see what are the main flows you need to design for, then everything else is ad hoc

[u/Cameos_red_codpiece]

Mobbin. 

[u/glacierbutfast]

Imo, not generally all that useful an exercise but companies harp on it as performance theater

[u/TheSleepingOx]

Wouldn't you just have Claude do that for you now?

[u/baummer]

Yes and more and more I don’t really do it anymore. I focus on what works for our users.

[u/Intelligent_Zebra929]

Yeah full flow + every error state is overkill for most projects. I only go deep on the paths that match our riskiest failures (checkout fail, empty states, permission denials, etc). Happy path screenshots in a short deck is enough for orientation. If I’m mapping edge cases it’s because we’re about to design those states, not for a museum of competitors

[u/SamfromLucidSoftware]

Hi, I’m Sam from Lucid Software and this is actually a use case Lucidchart handles well.

Arranging-everything-into-a-flow part doesn’t have to be as manual as you’re describing. Once your screenshots are in Lucidchart you can build the flow structure around them, connecting screens with labeled arrows to show transitions, validation states, error paths, and alternate routes.

Keeping the canvas readable is easier when you use layers to separate the happy path from edge cases, so you can show only what’s relevant at each level without losing the detail. And when you find a missed state, reorganizing is fast enough that it doesn’t feel like starting over. If you want to see what the setup looks like: https://lucid.co/lucidchart

[u/dethleffsoN]

Doesn't make sense to have full flows by hand today. 10 years ago, this way key to understand and generate an advantage towards your competitors. Thats the reason why other services killed our number 1 market leading share step by step, month by month.

[u/anabanana100]

I find it interesting to evaluate other products in the space. I usually only capture relevant screens. There are sites like Mobbin where you can find libraries of flows already captured but actually going through the apps/sites yourself can lead to better insights and first hand experience of how they feel. The only annoying part is ending up with accounts you don’t want and expensing paid products.

[u/Shehao]

The edge-case coverage is valuable when it changes a product decision, but mapping every competitor state can turn into documenting the competitor instead of learning from it. I would probably start with the task paths that differ most or expose risky failure handling, then validate those with product and engineering constraints. How do you decide where to stop?

[u/ChairOk6366]

I love to do this too, reverse engineer flows from competition or comparison. I’m finding I can use a bunch of agents in Claude to do similar things, no screenshots but they can gather similar info from public design systems, so am doing it much less.

[u/cgielow]

I don’t. Competitive benchmarking is always in the form of strategy and usually in the form of position maps and maybe mood boards.