Execution & Market Strength Positioning (ESP) Matrix is a research product designed to help our customers quickly understand a given market landscape. The ESP Matrix provides a shortlist of companies in a given market category and ranks them based on their ability to execute and their market strength.

Problem

1. ESPs aren’t scalable and take away form other valuable research initiatives. Identifying potential vendors for an ESP takes up significant analyst time and remains a bottleneck for scaling. We spend about 20 hours of time producing a static version of the ESP.

2. While popular among customers, ESPs are relatively unknown and lack brand recognition.

3. Companies on the “sell-side” (ie vendors) lack a medium to engage with CB Insights' “buy-side” customers.

4. Companies on the “buy-side” (ie corporate CB Insights customers) lack the data and validation to make strategic business decisions.
   

Business Goals

We wanted to digitize the creation, management, and distribution of these ESPs. In order to do so, we need to solve the following problems:

1. Automate ESP creation so the product can be scaled without analyst input

2. Maximize reach and build a brand for ESPs to promote the development of a technology marketplace

   1. Buy-side: Need ESPs to make strategic business decisions

   2. Sell-side: Need to be featured in ESPs to improve brand awareness

Team

Trio
Nectar (Senior Product Designer)
Product Manager
Engineer Manager

Collaboration
Research, Products and Operations (RPO) Team
Intelligence Unit (IU) Team
Marketing Team
Engineer Team

Timeline

3 months

Lo-Fidelity Designs

Main goals for MVP were:

1. Ability to place companies based on 4 pilars:

2. See key insights about for each company and to be able to take users to company’s full profile

3. Download feature

4. Screenshot ability

5. Be able to discover ESPs through search

I adhered to the quadrant structure by incorporating the four pillars and positioning companies within the designated areas. Additionally, I integrated a popover feature that provides brief insights about a selected company, utilizing a visual language familiar to our users.

Similar quadrants

Given our interconnected system of related industries, why not showcase similar industry quadrants? This approach would enhance user discoverability of other quadrants, encouraging them to remain on our platform for an extended period.

ESP: 1st iteration

Is it possible to facilitate interactions within the quadrant to access information without relying on a popover? I experimented with the idea of selecting a company within the quadrant and displaying the information in an iframe adjacent to it.

I tested internally if it was intuitive that users would expect the iframe to interact with the quadrant itself. Is this easier than to just a click within the company name?

After considering resource constraints and user familiarity with quickly accessing company insights, we ultimately reverted to utilizing a popover.

Launch

For launch we chose to use company logos instead of text. However, a challenge emerged regarding company collision within the quadrant. When companies were closely positioned on the quadrant, collisions occurred, leading to confusion about their rankings. I presented several solutions to the engineering team:

1. Implement dynamic text placement adjustments upon collision, shifting the text to the left, right, or aligning it to avoid overlapping.

2. Eliminate text entirely and replace the text with company logos, accompanied by a "key" adjacent to the quadrant for reference.

Working enhancement for dec 2024

To improve the visuals of ESP, we aimed to upgrade our current 1x1 company logos by incorporating full logos within our key. Additionally, we are in the process of including company names. Despite encountering an issue with company collision, we are currently exploring a new solution, which involves adding a white stroke around the text or company logo.