Product research is a crucial step in creating successful products that meet customer needs and stand out in the market. It helps companies determine what their customers want and need as well as how to create unique items. By thoroughly understanding what customers want, analyzing market trends, and evaluating competitors, businesses can make informed decisions about product development and marketing strategies.

This study is helpful at every stage, from ideation to evaluating a product’s performance following launch. This article will discuss the value of product research, its several phases, and some best practices for conducting it.

Product Research: Definition, Importance, and Stages

What is Product Research?

Product research in product management is a type of marketing research that gathers data on the features and attributes that potential buyers are hoping to see in a product, primarily before the product’s release and availability. Product research enables businesses to learn what their customers want, enabling them to customize their offerings to meet their demands. Both fresh product concepts and already-available items can be improved with the use of this study.

Importance of Product Research

Product research is a crucial step in the creation of new products and can be done at various phases of the process. Product research assists a company in producing goods that consumers want. Gaining a competitive edge and a dominant position in the market is facilitated by this.

A thoroughly thought-out product will far more effectively satisfy the needs of the buyer. When releasing a product in a market with several competitors, product research becomes even more crucial. Gaining insight into the features and traits that customers value can be quite helpful in developing a solution that addresses problems with competing offerings.

How do different Product Teams do different types of Product Research?

Even the most creative idea runs the danger of failing if you don’t know what your customers want from your product. You may better connect your product concepts with customer needs by conducting product research.

• Recognise consumer demands and pain spots. Your product should address the most important problems that customers are facing, but how can it do so if you don’t know what those problems are? Product research aids in the collection of information and behavioural insights that you need to comprehend user problems and develop the necessary solutions.
• Align user demands with business objectives: Developing a product roadmap that benefits both users and your business requires an awareness of consumers’ needs and how they relate to your product and business objectives
• Greater room for accuracy and innovation: You can create products that your clients will enjoy and find creative solutions to their challenges when you know exactly what they need.
• Obtain a competitive advantage by studying your rivals. This will help you determine what features to develop and how to set your product apart from the competition.
• Prioritisation made simpler and more effective: With product research, your team as a whole knows exactly how to rank efforts in order to satisfy customers, which makes managing your product backlog easier.

Why does Product Research matter for Product Teams?

Even the most creative idea runs the danger of failing if you don’t know what your customers want from your product. You may better connect your product concepts with customer needs by conducting product research.

• Recognise consumer demands and pain spots. Your product should address the most important problems that customers are facing, but how can it do so if you don’t know what those problems are? Product research aids in the collection of information and behavioural insights that you need to comprehend user problems and develop the necessary solutions.
• Align user demands with business objectives: Developing a product roadmap that benefits both users and your business requires an awareness of consumers’ needs and how they relate to your product and business objectives.
• Greater room for accuracy and innovation: You can create products that your clients will enjoy and find creative solutions to their challenges when you know exactly what they need.
• Obtain a competitive advantage by studying your rivals. This will help you determine what features to develop and how to set your product apart from the competition.
• Prioritisation made simpler and more effective: With product research, your team as a whole knows exactly how to rank efforts in order to satisfy customers, which makes managing your product backlog easier.

When to perform Product Research?

According to our 2023 Continuous Product Discovery Report, most teams conduct research at problem discovery (59%) and problem validation (57%), with only 36% researching post-launch.

The consensus is that product teams don’t think that’s enough—78% think they could research more often: which means there’s a big opportunity for you to implement regular research at all stages of the product research process.

Here’s when to conduct a product research

• Formulating a hypothesis at the problem discovery stage, based on user insights
• In the process of validating your idea through problems
• In the process of developing concepts and coming up with solutions, assess your progress.
• While you’re sorting through many concepts to determine which ones your users appreciate most,
• Early wireframes should be tested during solution definition and after you have your first design.
• Following the creation of a prototype, evaluate its direction and usefulness.
• Examine modifications made to earlier prototypes during validation and testing.
• Following development and launch to gather input and organise your next moves
• Prior to releasing a new feature or optimising a product, find out what people think.

Product Research Stages

The process of conducting product research involves several stages:

Product Research Stages:

1. Prior to Research Launch

Product research can be used in the early phases to find and evaluate fresh concepts. By eliminating product development expenses in the ideas that are dismissed, this testing will contribute to cost reduction.

Product research can assist businesses in later phases of product development by determining which features should be kept and which ones can be dropped.

2. Evaluation and Input

Customers are also tested on a recently developed product to find out what has to be changed, such as the packaging. Research requires a great deal of testing. Even with thorough research, a poorly tested product may still not work out. Testing can be conducted internally or with real clients through trials, offers, small groups, etc.

3. Soft Launch Research

Before being introduced to the target audiences, the majority of the items undergo a soft launch. The purpose of the soft launch is to get input from prospective consumers and make beneficial adjustments to the product. Small groups or regions are the target of test marketing, and the results are verified. A product may need to be reevaluated and put through another round of study if the soft launch is unsuccessful.

4. Research After Launch

The product is released onto the market after everything is finished. Even though test marketing is carried out, outcomes may alter when it is introduced to a wider audience. Therefore, it is crucial to observe and comprehend how customers behave and react to the recently released product or its variety. Following the product’s debut, customer satisfaction is evaluated. The most often utilised methods in product research are surveys, interviews, and focus groups. The product’s next steps can be planned based on this feedback.

Choosing a product research methodology:

Product development and research involve some work. You can conduct two different kinds of study, and each has advantages.

• Primary research
• Secondary research

Primary research

Primary research is the initial kind of product research; it involves your organization gathering information directly from potential consumers. Research falls into two categories: qualitative and quantitative research.

• Qualitative research: Investigating the features of the product is made easier with the use of qualitative research. Asking questions about a customer’s motives and behaviors can help you understand why they utilize a product. You can use some kind of focus group or perform an open-ended product research poll to do this.
• quantitative research: Statistics from online surveys, polls, and other data are used in quantitative research since they help determine how well consumers would like a product. Statistics and numerical results will show how much or how little they like the product.

Secondary Research

It is secondary research that yields information on buyer groups. Public resources, such as the Bureau of Labour Statistics or private research papers, can aid in your understanding of your industry. Additionally, your business might have useful internal data from marketing, finance, or accounting that can be used to better understand your target market’s preferences for certain items. When you polish your product ideas into something that consumers will actually want to buy, primary and secondary research will provide you with insights that will save you time and money.

Elements of Successful Product Research

Product research is essential to prevent poor decisions being made throughout the development process, to spot possible problems with your product, and to gain a comprehensive understanding of your target market. You may develop a well-thought-out plan for developing a product that customers will adore with the aid of this research.

However, in order for your research to be successful, you must take the following proactive measures:

1. Employ impartial and precise data collection techniques

The main goal of Product research is to find out exactly how your target market uses your product, including their likes, dislikes, needs, wants, and any problems they face. To make sure your research is useful and actionable, you need to use reliable data collection methods. Customer interviews, surveys, and tools like Hotjar that provide real-time insights are great ways to gather unbiased and accurate information. With dependable data, you can make customer-focused decisions and create the best product possible.

2. Perform in-depth comparative and competitive analysis

Product research is crucial not only for understanding your customers but also for knowing your competitors and your market position. Analyze your competitors’ products, target market, and operations to see what works for your audience, identify gaps in your offering, and find ways to improve your product. Comparative analysis helps you see what features your competitors have that you don’t. This highlights your weaknesses and helps you create a strategy to improve performance and customer satisfaction.

3. Utilise already published study findings

Trade and market studies from industry organizations provide valuable insights into how companies have improved their products and how consumer patterns have changed. These reports offer a historical perspective that complements your own research, helping you find new product opportunities by learning from past successes and failures. For example, you might discover new ways to get customer feedback or efficiently test product features. Historical data can inspire these new approaches.

4. Divide results according to corporate objectives

If you can’t use the results of your product research to improve your product and make better judgements, it’s useless. Now for segmentation: grouping your study results according to company objectives helps to ensure that data is not mistranslated or lost. In order to help the members of the product team make informed decisions, you can also record your findings. Moreover, segmentation can assist you in coordinating your immediate and long-term objectives to increase the research’s future value.

How to measure the success of your Product Research?

It might be difficult to determine the efficacy of your research approach at the outset, as concrete product results are only apparent after you have received feedback on the final product.

Adding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to your product at the outset will help you understand how research is being used to benefit your consumers and business.

Conclusion

Product research is essential for creating solutions that meet customer needs effectively. It involves understanding market trends, industry norms, and competition at various stages of growth. By collecting reliable data, conducting thorough competitive analysis, and leveraging past research, businesses can gain a competitive edge, ensure sustainable profitability, and align their products with customer demands. Continuous research throughout the development process helps organizations remain adaptable to market changes and develop products that resonate with their target audience

Product Research- FAQs

What is a product research?

Product research is a type of marketing research that gathers data on the features and attributes that potential buyers are hoping to see in a product, primarily before the product’s release and availability.

What stages does product research go through?

In product research, theories are developed during problem discovery, concepts are validated through issues, concept development progress is monitored, early wireframes are tested, prototypes are assessed, and post-launch assessments are carried out.

What is a tool for product research?

In order to support well-informed decision-making in product creation, a product research tool is a tool or piece of software that helps collect and analyse data about consumer preferences, market trends, and competitive environments.

Which four categories of new product research exist?

The pre-launch research, customer evaluation and input, soft launch research prior to wide distribution, and post-launch research to collect customer feedback are the four categories of new product research.

What benefits can product research offer?

Product research has several benefits, such as averting bad choices during development, seeing possible problems, getting a thorough grasp of the target market, coordinating user needs with corporate goals, and eventually producing goods that satisfy consumers and differentiate themselves in the market.