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Organize Your Research

Whether you decide to tackle the market assessment on your own or hire a specialist, you should first develop a work plan. This plan needs to take only a few minutes and can be quickly changed as new information becomes available. But going through the planning process will force you to think seriously about specific issues to be addressed by the research. This thinking, in turn, will help shape your next steps.

You can break your research up into five stages:

  1. Understand the product itself. First, develop a clear, non-proprietary description of the technology itself, its applications and benefits, and the businesses or consumers likely to value those benefits—i.e., the "target market."

  2. Use secondary research to better understand the overall market. Research overall trends in the industry relevant to the product. Develop as exhaustive as possible a list of contact information for potential customers. Create a list of all competing technologies and practices, paying special care to honestly describe their strengths and weaknesses.

  3. Use primary research to fill in the details. Once you have exhausted available secondary research, questions will remain, especially about how the market is likely to perceive the product's strengths and weaknesses. At this point, you can start your primary research through personal and telephone interviews with industry experts and representatives of prospective customers. Depending on the type of product or process in question, you may choose to contract with a firm to conduct focus groups or interviews.

  4. Prepare an analysis. After gathering enough information to flesh out your report, integrate the findings into an analysis of the barriers and opportunities the market presents your product.

  5. Translate the analysis into decisions. Use the assembled data and analysis to determine whether—and how—to proceed. Does your product idea present sufficient opportunity to warrant investing further time, effort, and money? If you conclude sufficient opportunity does exist, you'll find your research results—if done well—already contain information useful in developing a strong commercialization strategy.

More Tips For Getting Started

Use what you already know
Generally, start by developing an outline based on the five "elements of market assessment" above or using this sample market assessment outline. Begin filling out the outline by writing down what you already know about prospective customers, competitors, suppliers, and distribution channels, including their strengths, weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats they pose for your technology.

Using the Web
The Internet has matured into an incredible resource for market researchers, both novice and experienced. There are numerous sites where researchers can go to gather market data and review what others have gathered. Beyond these specialized sites are search engines, news media, and financial-reporting resources. Government Web sites can also be helpful, especially for economic data and for details on new technologies. Check out this market assessment primer web page published by the Edward Lowe Foundation. The site offers a comprehensive guide to preparing a market analysis.

Fee-for-data
Much of the Web can be accessed free of charge. No-cost information has its limits, however, and some of the most valuable data will be available only for a cost. There are a number of proven fee-for-service research tools—e.g., Dow Jones; Lexis-Nexis; Dialog—that can often deliver enough added market and company intelligence to warrant their cost. Some of these can be used effectively by someone experienced in Internet research, but they are even more effective when used by a practiced electronic researcher. You must always keep in mind, however, that even the best researchers sometimes fail to find the exact data you're seeking.

Interviews
Personal or telephone interviews can often provide data, insight, and perspective much more quickly than extended Internet searching. Technology entrepreneurs usually have difficulty seeking interviews through these "cold calls," however, especially with potential competitors who may perceive them as a threat. However, representatives of trade associations, distributors, customers, and non-competitive industry professionals are all useful alternatives to consider contacting. It's generally good to prepare a written discussion outline to guide your interviews and remind you of all the points you want to cover.