Informing product development

Market research informs product development by giving an entrepreneur evidence about what customers want before a good is designed, made or launched. Product development means creating a new product or adapting and improving an existing one. Research can show which features to change, add or remove before the product is sold.

For example, imagine you plan to sell a recycled-plastic desk tidy to students. Before paying for a mould, you ask students who might buy it what they need. They say it is too tall for school lockers, it tips over when a phone is put in it and they would like somewhere to stand a phone. You use this to make it shorter, give it a wider base and add a phone holder. The research has shaped the product before production, when changes are cheaper and easier.

Flowchart for the desk tidy: idea, market research with students, findings (too tall, tips over, nowhere to stand a phone), changes (shorter, wider base, phone holder), revised product, then production, with a loop back to the idea if students would not buy it.

Entrepreneurs commonly need market research before developing a product because it helps them assess its likely success. If customers say they would not buy the product, or would only buy it if it were easier to use, the entrepreneur can change the idea before committing time and money. Research cannot guarantee success, but it gives a better basis for deciding whether to go ahead.

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