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?