Market Research

Market Research Workflow

Goal

Gather structured market intelligence to ground product decisions in evidence. Produce a concise market brief covering user segments, competitors, and key differentiation opportunities.

Step 1: Define the Research Scope

Ask:

1. What product area or feature are we researching?
2. Who is the target user segment? (known, or to be discovered)
3. What decision will this research inform? (build / buy / prioritise / pivot)

Step 2: User Segment Analysis

For each target segment:

• Who are they? Job title, goals, frustrations
• What are they trying to achieve? The core job-to-be-done
• What do they use today? Current tools and workarounds
• What would make them switch? Pain threshold and switching triggers

Step 3: Competitive Landscape

Map up to 5 competitors:

Identify:

• Category leader and why they win
• Underserved segments no competitor addresses well
• Features table stakes vs. true differentiators

Step 4: Opportunity Identification

Synthesise findings into 3 prioritised opportunity statements:

"Users in [segment] struggle with [pain] but current solutions fail because [gap]. A solution that [capability] could win here."

Step 5: Output

Save research brief to {docsPath}/analysis/market-research-{slug}.md with:

• Executive summary (3–5 bullet points)
• User segments table
• Competitive landscape table
• Top 3 opportunities
• Recommended next step (e.g. user interviews, prototype, PRD spike)