itsual Market Research
Overview
Market research characterizes customers, demand, and industry structure. It informs whether a market is worth entering and how it is organized.
When to Use
- Market sizing (TAM/SAM/SOM style estimates)
- Segment discovery and prioritization
- Pricing and willingness-to-pay exploration
- Category trends and growth drivers
Core Practices
- Define the market by customer job or need, not only product labels
- Combine top-down and bottom-up sizing when possible
- Triangulate demand signals (search, spend, usage, expert input)
- Distinguish existing demand from latent demand carefully
- Map buying process and decision-makers for B2B markets
- State assumptions in any size estimate
Principles
- Huge TAM with no path to SAM/SOM is storytelling
- Segments must be reachable and actionable to matter
- Historical growth does not guarantee future growth
- Primary validation beats pure desk-size fantasies for new categories
Verification
- Market definition is explicit
- Sizing assumptions are transparent
- Implications for targeting and GTM are stated