What is product research?

Product research is a process of gathering and analyzing information about a particular product or product idea.

The process involves analysis of various aspects of the product, including target market, competition, pricing, features, and customer needs.

The goal of product research is to gain insights to make decisions about development, design, marketing, sales, and overall strategy. In other words, product research reveals if it is sustainable for businesses to invest in product design and development.

Why product research is important?

Product research plays a crucial role in guiding product development and increasing the chances of developing a successful product. It can help you make the right business decisions early and minimize risks.

A properly executed product research can help you:

• Identify customer needs
• Reduce risks
• Enhance product design and features
• Identify market opportunities
• Optimize pricing and positioning
• Improve marketing

Identify customer needs

Product research can help you gain insight into the needs, preferences, and pain points of your target audience.

Understanding customer needs is essential to developing a product that meets their expectations and provides value. This will also determine if your product has a chance for success in the market.

Reduce risks

Product research helps to identify potential pitfalls and minimize risks associated with product development.

The information collected and analyzed during product research can help you make the right business decisions and avoid costly mistakes.

Enhance product design and features

Product research can help you uncover features of the product that would appeal to the target audience. It can help you avoid feature traps and focus your development efforts on important parts of your product.

It can also provide insights into preferred design solutions that will be accepted by your customers leading to better user experience and satisfaction.

Identify market opportunities

Product research helps to identify gaps and market opportunities. The analysis of the market and competitors can uncover areas where their products are not applicable or can not solve customer problems.

This information enables you to take advantage of opportunities and tailor your product to solve these specific issues.

Optimize pricing and positioning

Product research can help you determine the optimal pricing strategy and model for your products.

Conducting price sensitivity analysis and analyzing your competitors can result in pricing that maximizes your revenue while remaining competitive in the market. It can also help you to develop a transparent pricing model that is easy to understand.

Improve marketing

Product research provided valuable insights for marketing and promotional activities. It helps you to build sustainable marketing strategies and sales funnels.

Working with customer feedback can help you craft compelling marketing messages and positioning statements that speak the language of your target audience.

Product research process

Product research consists of several key activities:

• Market analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Customer research
• Concept testing
• Pricing research
• Feasibility analysis

Market analysis

Market analysis involves research of market trends and dynamics. It will also help you to understand potential demand for the product.

The market analysis includes analyzing your target audience, their needs, preferences, and behaviors.

One of the goals of market analysis is to identify gaps and opportunities in the market in order to come up with a product that addresses them.

Competitive analysis

The competitive analysis involves evaluating competitors, their products, and strategies. The goal of the competitive analysis is to discover ways for your product to be different and gain a competitive advantage.

The process involves the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, pricing, positioning, marketing, and other aspects of your competitors' businesses.

Customer research

The customer research process includes gathering information from potential customers in order to understand their needs, pain points, and expectations regarding the product or service you want to build.

The information obtained from customer research can help you identify your key features, design, and improvements that would resonate with the target audience.

Customer research includes the usage of surveys, customer interviews, focus groups, and other methods of gathering feedback.

Concept testing

Concept testing is a process of validating your prototype or idea against potential customers or stakeholders. Concept testing is an essential part of the product design process but can also be used in the early stages, like product research.

The process can take several iterations in order to identify needed modifications or improvements.

Pricing research

During the pricing research process, you will need to analyze the pricing strategies of similar products to determine the optimal pricing for your product.

While part of the research is covered in competitive analysis, pricing research takes a deeper dive into the pricing models not only from the competitor's perspective but also taking into account market dynamics and customer expectations.

Feasibility analysis

Feasibility analysis helps you to understand if it is reasonable to develop the product and move it to the market. You will need to evaluate the technical, financial, and operational feasibility of your product.

Feasibility analysis includes the calculation of costs related to product development, production, marketing, and maintenance.

Conclusions

Product research helps you avoid developing products that no one needs. It is an essential part of the product design process that can help you fail fast and move forward without spending tons of resources.

Carefully performed product research can uncover hidden gems that can help your business succeed. Product research can contribute to various aspects of your product development process, including roadmap, marketing strategy, and maintenance.