Market Research and

Product Validation

Reference: Prof. Naeem Zafar, Prof. Kenneth Sandy

Market Research
• Initial market research has to do with
understanding buyer’s pain (unmet
need) and very little to do with your
“solution” to that need

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 Questions
1. Is there a real unmet need in this area (where your products address the problem)?
2. How does he/she want to see this problem solved?
3. Why have they not solved this until now – what issues are preventing the problem from being
solved?
4. If a solution (or a product) existed, what would it look like?
5. Who will use this product (or service) – what are these users looking for? How badly do they
want it?
6. What is the buying process (in other words, who needs to approve this purchase)?
7. What are usually the selection criteria?
8. What price point will make this decision a no-brainer? At what price point are we likely to find
resistance?
9. What are the reasons somebody would decide not to buy?
10. Why hasn’t the customer bought this solution from someone else until now?
11. Who else may be interested in solving this problem?
12. Who in the organization is the most likely to champion solving this problem – can I get an
introduction to them?
Methods

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 World does not care if you have…
• The best technology

• The best plan

• The best team

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Your Customers Care if you:
• Provide value (value proposition)
• To me (target customer segment)
• From a source that I trust (customer relationships)
• At a price that makes sense (revenue)

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Conducting Market Research
• Surveys, talk to people, group sessions to discover:
– Who is interested in my product or service?
– How many such people are there
– Why do the need me
– Why will they buy from me
– How many can we reach easily
– Where are they looking

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Conducting Interviews

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 Rules of Interview
• Introduce yourself
• Do not sell (do not even describe your idea!)
• Tell interviewee how useful their input will be & how
important is it to you
• Remind them (& yourself) you are here to learn
• Ask open ended question … let them talk!

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 Interview Structure: The Steps
1. Prepare the test
• Set goals, hypothesis
• Define participant [target user] criteria
2. Develop materials
• Write questions and tasks into a script – follow the onion model
• Develop artifacts (prototypes)
3. Select participants
• Recruit users
• Screen users
4. Conduct the test (record) – follow the hour-glass model
5. Analyze the data
• Find answers to incoming questions
• Unexpected insights
6. Report findings & recommendations
Interview Structure: Hour-glass
Process
RITE Usability Methodology
Designing Interview Questions
Design your interview questions using the fishbone diagram
1. Brainstorm problems that could lead to an issue
2. Group problems into categories
3. Identify research questions and prioritize
Designing Interview Questions
Develop & prioritize questions
1. Based on each piece of the fishbone
2. Prioritize based on risk (# users, criticality)
3. Plan research to provide answers
 Tell them Value
Find Click on Create Prop & Link to
take survey
Association member email list
members company of
listing website executives

www.SurveyMonkey.com Survey
Online

Conducting
Collect
online research contact
www.constantContact.com
www.aweber.com

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8 Essential Techniques &
Resources
1. Online surveys
2. LinkedIn search
3. Twitter search
4. Trade organizations
5. Edgar & sec.gov
6. 10Kwizard.com
7. www.census.gov
8. Google AdWords
LinkedIn Search

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Results

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Write & Ask

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Google AdWords

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Quick Market research Tool

IEOR 191 All Rights Reserved (c) Naeem Zafar 22

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 Market Research Assignment
who will be delighted
1. What is your business? What is your product or service, with
the existence of it, and how will you make money?
2. What are the most important things you as a team need to believe in order to increase your
chances of success in your venture? Specifically, what things do you believe to
be true that you would like to have more clarity that they are in fact true? Also what are
some deep concerns you have as a team about your plan that you would like to confirm that
there are ways of overcoming?
3. Who are the most likely candidates your business has for customers, partners, and
competitors? What questions would you like answered about any of these players?
4. What information do you plan to get in your team's quest to answer the questions in #2 and
#3? With whom (companies and specific people) do you plan to talk? How do
you plan to access them? What surveys or other forms of customer data do you plan on
collecting?
5. With whom would you like to hold interviews? What questions or topics do you plan to
discuss with your target interviewees? How will you pursue these interviews?
Assignment
• Conduct a market survey – look for at least 5 target
users (use the MVP) – refer to survey guide
• Prepare a presentation for next meeting to include:
• Title
• Team
• Problem
• Solution
• Value Proposition
• How the product works?
• Prototype, mockup, wireframe
• Market size (TAM, SAM, SOM)