Product Research

You can see the trajectory:

Organization reaches out for customer input > customers tell organization their wants and needs for a new product > organization takes action based on customer feedback > customers respond favorably and organization gains market share — all without the guesswork.

So how do you consider this powerful tool?

At the heart of product research is connecting with prospective customers that are targets for this new product. This form of research must be done via interviews or focus groups – surveys don’t work.

Types of product research

In the world of product research, there are generally two types of product research: ideation and validation research. 

Each is tied to the phase the company is in its new product development path.

Ideation research is all about discovery. Its focused on uncovering unmet needs, pain-points, plus ah ha’s that customers would only dream of in a new product.

Done well, ideation research should stimulate “blue sky” thinking leading to the formulation of a new product design brief.

Validation research is further downstream, focused on validating ideas and confirming to a greater level of detail what to build into a new product. 

It often involves introducing tradeoffs and testing the importance of various features and capabilities that could be built into a new product. 

Further, this form of research explores certain critical design attributes in more depth, capturing details needed to firm up a design.

Leveraging product research in your organization

Thoughtful product research takes the guesswork out of design. It also can discover key marketing considerations critical to a successful launch including guidance on pricing, promotion and positioning a new product to customers.

At the heart of product research is connecting with prospective customers that are targets for this new product. This form of research must be done via interviews or focus groups – surveys don’t work.

Further, product research is best done by a third party that will focus on gathering insights, staying objective to the mission of the research. 

Too often, in-house research falls into the “selling trap” where the questions are leading, more focused on selling an idea than capturing needed information on what to include or not in a new product.

Interested in learning more about what Product Research could look like for your organization? We’re here to help.