market-research

name	market-research
description	Research market context, competitive landscape, and user needs to inform product decisions. Use when the user says 'research the market', 'analyse competitors', or 'understand user needs'.

Market Research Workflow

Goal

Gather structured market intelligence to ground product decisions in evidence. Produce a concise market brief covering user segments, competitors, and key differentiation opportunities.

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Step 1: Define the Research Scope

Ask:

1. What product area or feature are we researching?
2. Who is the target user segment? (known, or to be discovered)
3. What decision will this research inform? (build / buy / prioritise / pivot)

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Step 2: User Segment Analysis

For each target segment:

• Who are they? Job title, goals, frustrations
• What are they trying to achieve? The core job-to-be-done
• What do they use today? Current tools and workarounds
• What would make them switch? Pain threshold and switching triggers

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Step 3: Competitive Landscape

Map up to 5 competitors:

Competitor	Core Value Prop	Strengths	Weaknesses	Pricing Model
...	...	...	...	...

Identify:

• Category leader and why they win
• Underserved segments no competitor addresses well
• Features table stakes vs. true differentiators

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Step 4: Opportunity Identification

Synthesise findings into 3 prioritised opportunity statements:

"Users in [segment] struggle with [pain] but current solutions fail because [gap]. A solution that [capability] could win here."

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Step 5: Output

Save research brief to {docsPath}/analysis/market-research-{slug}.md with:

• Executive summary (3–5 bullet points)
• User segments table
• Competitive landscape table
• Top 3 opportunities
• Recommended next step (e.g. user interviews, prototype, PRD spike)