Market Research Survey

Shaping The Early Community & Understanding Their Needs

Originally Published — https://www.setdesign.io/

Undoubtedly, one of the hardest lessons any product veteran learns from launching countless projects is that the fastest way to guarantee failure is by building something that no one cares about. This is why the very second deliverable holds a special place in in this design process: it’s the first user-facing item; aka, the first time we’re actively shaping the early community & leveraging it for actionable feedback.

While the previous Competitor & Inspiration Analysis exercise aligned all internal stakeholder goals & assumptions, the Market Research Survey tests that these same principles hold true for potential, external, early-adopters. It’s vastly understated, but a tested & true (albeit tedious) short-cut for designing something care about is simple: validate the idea with one-hundred people before launching.

Don’t rush to put down the deposit or open the IDE — your chances of building something that people care about is directly proportional to the number of people you engage with before launching. Discussed the idea & shared the mockups with a single person before putting down that deposit? Best of luck. Communicated design & prototype iterations with a group of ten? You might have solved a need for one of those early adopters — but realistically these…