As a product designer and researcher, I often hear the question: “So what is the difference between market research and the kind of research you do? Are market research and user research really so different?”
They certainly are! And yet they are interconnected and both critically important to success.
Market research looks at the situation “out there”.
User research looks at the situation “in here”.
Let’s take a look at how that difference plays out in how you conduct the research and what you do with the information. We’ll also take a look at where market research and user research overlap and how they complement each other.
Big fat difference #1: Where you get the information
The bulk of market research is done by looking at information about the state of an industry. News reports, academic reports, press releases, financial statements: all these published sources are great for market research. Often there is a quantitative data aspect - as with market segmentation and market size research.
User research is performed by going directly to the users. Surveys, interviews, focus groups, first-click testing, task analysis: it’s all about individuals and their experiences. External published sources might be used before you begin the user research to craft a hypothesis that you want to investigate, but not in the research itself.
User research is all about first hand information, whereas market research can still rely on secondhand information and be valuable for its purposes.
The difference between market research and user research is the difference between reading about other people’s experiments versus going into the lab and running your own.
(What’s that you say? Lots of great market research teams do original research? Yes, they do. But bear with me here for the metaphor: Market research is NOT effective as a proxy for coming up with your own IP or feedback loop towards building a product or service. I would also argue that some of the best market research studies actually incorporate user research in them. For more on that - read on.)
User research begets more unpredictability, but also more originality, and hopefully more IP developed for your own company as a result. What you discover in your user research will be proprietary to you, as none of the information you will find is easily available to anyone else. (Unless of course they decide to run studies themselves, in which case they are formidable competition - and you’d better watch out!)
Big fat difference #2: What you do with the information
Market research is meant for background, to provide you with critical information before you launch a new venture, product line, or expansion of a business. It will get you to a point where you can understand the relevant tech, pop culture, or regulatory trends in your sector, as well as how successful your competitors are, what the market size is considered to be, and what is the landscape of alternatives that consumers have. It can also help educate your team about the conditions of the market you are about to enter.
Market research gets you ready to make a move, but there it leaves you.
Where market research ends is where user research picks up. This is usually the point at which you’re looking to flesh out your own offering and develop your own competitive advantage. It is now time to validate on a more granular level whatever market research findings sparked interest for you and your team.
In user research, you put these findings to the test and see if you can really make it as a competitor in that landscape you researched.
If market research is like reading up on how many people became sick with flu this winter, user research is putting a stethoscope to a patient’s chest, asking her how she is feeling and how well her medication is working for her.
When we engage in user research, we want to hear straight from the horse’s mouth what is bothering him, without any mediators. We want to gain the ability to interpret problems up close and identify new opportunities that the market has not. Often, we might question whether the available solutions we found in market research are adequately meeting consumer needs. Sometimes we might want to find out why something is a success or a flop with a certain audience.
Our user research actively directs and guides our subsequent moves.
Where they overlap and where they diverge
Sometimes the methods of market research or user research overlap, but each is used to accomplish a different goal.
Focus groups are one classic example.
On the one hand, focus groups have long been a staple of some market research and advertising agencies. Apple, for example, has been known to conduct market research with focus groups (sometimes via their external agencies), because they are looking to understand the culture of their target audience.
On the other hand, focus groups can be a valuable user research tool. Dropbox for years has been doing “Real World Wednesdays”, a user research initiative where every Wednesday the teams meet with real users about the products, either doing small focus groups, usability studies or short feedback conversations.
Surveys can also be used in both market and user research, depending on what you are trying to accomplish. In market research, the aim is to look at trends, competition and solutions available, while in user research, the aim is to gain a deeper understanding of the problem so that you can develop your own unique solution to it.
How would this difference play out?
If a company is looking to compete in the home improvement space, for example, the question “How much money have you spent on home improvement this year?” might appear in their market research survey, while the question “How easy was it for you to find a contractor you trusted?” might appear in their user research survey.
A symbiotic relationship
In a healthy business development ecosystem, market research and user research live in symbiosis.
Market research helps you craft hypotheses you want to validate. User research helps you get early validation for them. You put out a new release of the product using these insights, and then gather data - through more user research in increasingly larger sample sizes - on how well it succeeded.
Rinse and repeat.
Make market research and user research into the tools that you reach for again and again. Both are critical as you iterate to success.
This post has been published on www.productschool.com communities.