Market research for startups
Startups MUST do both primary and secondary research about their market.
Secondary research can help your team to:
- identify, size and rank potential markets
- provides additional insight into markets validated by primary research
- identify, size and rank potential customers
- become knowledgeable about the market or industry in which you operate
- inform and enrich interactions with prospective customers, partners or investors
- identify competitors
Secondary research tends to (or tries to) answer the 'how' questions, e.g.:
- How “big” is the (market) opportunity?
- How many competitors are there in this market?
- How much do my customers currently spend on competitor products or services?
- How often do my customers acquire or use a product or service
- What are the trends in this market?
Primary research can help your team to:
- confirm or invalidate markets identified through secondary research
- identify new markets to research
- inform product development
- identify competitors
- prove product-market fit!
Primary research helps to answer the 'big' questions, e.g.
- Do people want our product? What problem or need does it address?
- What will people pay for our product? What do they pay for competitor products?
- What do my customers like or dislike about our product? our competitor products?
- How do people want to buy our product?
- Who is an influencer in the buying process? Who is the decision-maker?
- Is this venture worth pursuing? Do we need to pivot?
Originally developed by Carey Toane and Helen Kula in the INF2325 guide.
