How much market research do you do before shipping products / features?

Daniel Zaitzow
6 replies
Curious to see what the median amount of time looks like / how people do their market research if its a new venture.

Replies

Guntis Coders
Depends how fast you can define whom to talk to and how fast can you get interviews with them. Interviews is the #1 'MVP' before you actually build something.
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Daniel Zaitzow
@mr_coders how do you typically construct yours - a neat book "the mom test" I found to be pretty insightful on this front.
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Guntis Coders
@dzaitzow Yes, that is the foundational logic I use from Rob Fitzpatrick. I have my own ideal customer discovery framework developed which I have beem practicing for 7+ years mentoring other startups :) On top of that one I use prompts to come up with hypothesis, and interview questions. Then I use meeting transcriptions, and then I use prompt that analysis the meeting vs my assumption (assumption knowledge base).
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Sergey Koshevoy
Often, launching a minimum viable product (MVP) or feature and gathering real-world data is faster and more insightful than overanalyzing pre-launch.
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Daniel Zaitzow
@koshevoysergey totally agree - I think a lot of founders get fearful about launching an MVP when they're trying to compete in a more mature market - trying to have something as flushed out as the competition.
Emily Grace Bennett
Depends on the product, but talking to potential users is key before building anything. Even just a few customer interviews can save you months of potentially wasted dev time. Create a super basic prototype or mockup first and get real feedback ASAP to validate the idea. Market research doesn't have to be some long formal process - it's really about having conversations with your target audience early and often.