  App store-inspired elicitation is the practice of exploring competitors'
apps, to get inspiration for requirements. This activity is common among
developers, but little insight is available on its practical use, advantages,
and possible issues. This paper aims to study strategies, benefits, and
challenges of app store-inspired elicitation, and to compare this technique
with the more traditional requirements elicitation interviews. We conduct an
experimental simulation with 58 analysts and collect qualitative data. Our
results show that: (1) specific guidelines and procedures are required to
better conduct app store-inspired elicitation; (2) current search features made
available by app stores are not suitable for this practice, and more tool
support is required to help analysts in the retrieval and evaluation of
competing products; (3) while interviews focus on the why dimension of
requirements engineering (i.e., goals), app store-inspired elicitation focuses
on how (i.e., solutions), offering indications for implementation and improved
usability. Our study provides a framework for researchers to address existing
challenges and suggests possible benefits to foster app store-inspired
elicitation among practitioners.
