Market research
Research patterns for products, channels, competitors, and user demand.
Definition
Market research is the practice of reducing uncertainty about users, demand, channels, alternatives, and willingness to pay.
Overview
Good research does not try to look impressive. It tries to improve decisions. The useful output is a sharper view of who the user is, what they already do, what they compare against, and where distribution might actually work.
Principles
- Start with a decision the research should improve.
- Separate user language from founder language.
- Look for existing behavior before asking for stated preference.
- Compare alternatives, not just direct competitors.
- Turn findings into content, product, and distribution experiments.
Checklist
- Define the target user and the decision to make.
- Collect search queries, communities, reviews, competitor pages, and sales notes.
- Extract repeated pains, desired outcomes, objections, and buying triggers.
- Map alternatives users already choose.
- Convert the research into pages, experiments, and product changes.
Examples
- Using competitor pages to identify missing comparison content.
- Using community discussions to discover the language users use for a problem.
- Using sales objections to write FAQ sections that also help search visibility.
Next steps
Add research templates for competitor scans, user language maps, and SEO/GEO content briefs.
FAQ
When is market research useful?
When it changes a decision: what to build, who to serve, what to say, or where to distribute.
How does research become SEO content?
Repeated user questions become pages. Objections become FAQ. Comparisons become structured explainers.