Market research

Market Research

Map the alternatives buyers actually weigh, from cited, dated evidence, and say what it means for the product.

Scope

• Name the decision the research serves (what to build, how to position, where to sell) and the segment and region it covers.
• If the competitor is not named and cannot be found in the context, ask; never build a comparison around a guess.

The competitive set

• Direct: same problem, same users, same approach.
• Indirect: same problem, another approach (spreadsheets, an agency, a general tool).
• Doing nothing or a manual process, which is often the strongest competitor.
• Adjacent: players with the customers or technology to enter soon.

Evidence discipline

• Every fact carries its source and an "as of" date: pricing pages, documentation, changelogs, public reviews, job postings, filings, analyst reports, interviews with buyers.
• "Not observed" is not "does not have": a missing item on a pricing page is a fact about the page. Write "not listed on their pricing page (as of [date])" unless documentation or a trial confirms the absence.
• State what changed, not why; leave motives out unless the company stated them.
• Keep three layers apart: what the source says, what it means for the buyer, what you recommend.
• Never invent numbers, customer counts or quotes. Unknown stays unknown.
• Be honest about competitor strengths; a comparison you always win is not credible.

Compare

• Capability areas as buyers think about them, rated on one scale (strong, adequate, weak, absent) from real use, documentation and reviews rather than marketing claims, weighted by what the target customer cares about.
• Pricing: model, tiers, what each includes, extra or hidden costs, and the total for a sample customer size.
• Positioning: for whom, which problem, which category, the key benefit, and the difference from the alternative ("For [customer] who [need], [product] is a [category] that [benefit]; unlike [alternative], it [difference]").
• Win and loss reasons, when there is data: separate product reasons from price, trust, timing and switching cost.

Market size

• Size top-down (industry total narrowed to the relevant slice) and bottom-up (customers × price × frequency), then reconcile the two.
• SAM: the part reachable with this product, channels, languages and regions. SOM: a realistic share in one to three years given the go-to-market capacity.
• List every assumption with its confidence and how to validate it; show ranges, not false precision.

Trends

• For each trend: what is changing, why now, who is affected, when, and what competitors do about it. Behavior, regulation and spending are signal; announcements and hype are noise until customers act.

Output

A dated brief: the set and how it was chosen, comparison tables with sources, positioning gaps (unclaimed, crowded, vulnerable), threats, size estimates with assumptions, and the implications: what to build, match, ignore or monitor.

Before you finish

• Every fact has a source and a date.
• Absences are stated as "not listed", not as "missing", unless confirmed.
• Competitor strengths are stated honestly.
• Size estimates show both methods, assumptions and ranges.