Product sorting is useful early on in the solution validation stage as you seek to understand where your product lives in the mind of your consumer. Even if you haven’t finalized all of the features, design or branding it’s worth conducting a product sort to understand the mindset of your user - the insights you glean about your product and others in the space could help inform a crucial pivot before you spend too much time or money going down an untested path.

By giving your user the power to classify your solution without the influence of your marketing e you can gain insights about its natural use and potentially open the door to opportunities or understandings that would otherwise pass you by.

You can conduct a product sort in person or digitally. In both cases you need to have comparable versions of your solution & potential competitors to then sort into different categories. You can prescribe those categories, or you can let the user decide what they are for themselves. Tools for product sorting include; Optimal Workshop or you can always just use a google slide