Market Research v/s User Research

A comprehensive overview of multitudes in research

Published in

Bootcamp

3 min readFeb 20, 2022

Product development research involves mainly two aspects, I’m going to quickly touch upon the essence of both market research and user research below so you can identify which type of researcher are you, or what kind of research your product / idea needs.

Market Research
This one is more quantitative (numeric), attitude-based analysis of end-user, and it also controls marketing decisions for the product or the way your business model should operate.

User Research
Inclined more on qualitative analysis, behavioral data and observations of the end-user, estimate the product usage behavior, and plays a key factor to control the design and experience that the product delivers to the end user

Now research is conducted essentially in five stages, Discovery, Definition, Designing, Development, and Deployment. There are certain goals / targets that you need to cover and methods are devised accordingly. This article would be focused towards the market research side of the world — because that is where it all begins.

1. Discover

Goals / Targets

Evaluate the needs
Market Size
Market trends
Competitors / Competitor Analysis

Methods

Interviews
Surveys
Focus Groups
Data collection / user observation through group interaction
1. Single Focus Group [1]
2. Mini Focus Group [2]
3. Two-Way Focus Group [3]
4. Dual Moderator Focus Group [4]
5. Dueling Moderator Focus Group [5]
6. Respondent Moderator Focus Group [6]
7. Remote Focus Group [7]
Secondary Analysis
Analysis of existing data collected by others
Competitor Analysis

2. Define

Mainly User Research, market research is not particularly considered for this phase.

3. Design

Goals / Targets

Price / cost definition
Test / try multiple concepts or ideas into life

Methods

Pricing studies — Collaborate with marketing team for pricing structure
Conjoint analysis

4. Develop

Mainly around the development team - Mainly engineers, programmers, designers,..

5. Deploy

Goals / Targets

Product Satisfaction
Product Loyalty
New Needs

Methods

Net Promoter Score
Customer Feedback
Market Segmentation

Types of Market Research

Now we do have multiple types of market research that is required at different stages. I’m just gonna list them out below for ease, feel free to explore and touch upon it.

Primary research
Secondary research
Qualitative research
Quantitative research
Branding research
Customer research
Competitor research
Product research

That should be all from me for today, all the best and happy exploring!

Additional Data

[1] Single moderator asking questions and organically discussing a topic with a small group of respondents.

[2] Only four or five respondents, more intimate environment for discussion, better for sensitive issues.

[3] Two focus groups (each with its own moderator) are formed with one group observing the other

[4] One moderator is in charge of asking the questions and the other makes sure the questions are answered.

[5] Pits one moderator against another to explore opposing sides of an issue.

[6] Respondents temporarily assume the role of moderator

[7] Multi locations (remote) groups, provides anonymity, makes it a good option for companies wanting to explore more personal topics or that have limited time and money.