How can market research validate your product vision?

Ideally product vision should be the output of previously collected feedback from current and prospect consumers. This way all needs can be prioritized and integrated into the product vision. Once the vision is set, continuing the iterative process is key, to make sure product is always aligned with needs of your target consumers.

Particularly, I want to emphasize the irreplaceable value of customer interviews. They are a cornerstone in this process for two key reasons: Problem-Solution Alignment: Customer interviews are essential to validate whether our product ideas are truly addressing the most significant and impactful problems for our target audience. Persona Refinement: These interviews are also instrumental in refining user personas. By engaging directly with potential users, we gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of who they are, what they value, and their unique pain points, which can't be captured as effectively through other research methods.

In B2B context, Voice of customer interviews work very well. Listening to customers, you will dig deep into their unmet needs which makes up the most important part of your product vision. In B2C context, prompted social listening is great so you can reach mass audience and gather qualitative feedback in an authentic manner. Influencers are there not only for marketing, but also gathering quality insights from their followers who match your target audience.

PRETOTYPE AND TEST LIKE TESLA As innovation facilitator of 100+ projects, I like to share how Tesla interested buyers for their first car. In 2003, the founders of Tesla had an ambitious idea (an all-electric 2-door sports car). In order to convince potential buyers to order its car, Tesla created a pretotype of what the car would look like. Lotus supplied Tesla with a ‘glider’ Elise - which was filled with models of key components. This was not a prototype, because the vehicle didn’t function. Tesla was able to show buyers a close proxy for the final design. Tesla asked “Will you put down a $5,000 deposit to have it built to order? From this test Tesla secured several hundred deposits, a non-trivial result to reassure their Investors

There are variety of tools as mentioned above, but digital is obviously is becoming more important. This is relevant in market research as well. Focus groups are outdated, they are expensive, takes a long time and coverage is still quite low. And there is usually bias involved. I have used influencer led consumer insights and been very happy with it. You get authentic, reliable feedback in 2-3 weeks max. Besides you get to be a part of the conversation as a brand owner, which I find fascinating!

For qualitative research, I like using word clouds... If you are a marketing person, you will enjoy this too! It gives you a visual representation of the most critical topics. Obviously you can dig further into the data using excel, pivot tables etc. but in one glance you can see what's top of mind for consumers, and I like this very much as a summary.

Product vision is a iterative process, so you can use different market research techniques to refine your vision. Concept testing is a great way to test the waters with consumers, and adjust as needed. I would go down to specifics here, the more articulated the concept is, the better.