The Critical Role of Market Research in the Impact Process

For edtech companies striving to create meaningful impact, the journey begins well before building or launching your product. It starts with asking the right questions and conducting robust market research. Why is this first step so vital? Because without deeply understanding your target users' actual pain points and context - including current solutions - it's nearly impossible to develop an edtech solution that makes a real impact.

At the core, effective market research helps uncover three key insights:

1. What are the "hair-on-fire" pain points? These are the urgent problem areas where your potential users are practically begging for a solution. They don't care about costs or timelines - they just need these burning issues addressed immediately. Identifying these make-or-break challenges is step one.
2. Who specifically is pained, and in what context? It's not enough to find a widespread problem - you need to zero in on the specific user segments and environments where this pain exists. A pain point for parents during COVID likely differs from district administrators' realities. Knowing the "who" and "where" shapes your approach.
3. How many people are truly impacted by this problem? While a pressing issue for a subset of users matters, scaling impact requires a more widespread need. Rigorously size the total addressable market facing this specific pain point. A challenge impacting thousands has greater potential for scale than one affecting hundreds.

Proper market research is the foundation for achieving impact because it equips you with user-driven insights rather than flawed assumptions. With a solid handle on the hair-on-fire needs, who is affected, and the scale of the problem, you can then mold your edtech solution and strategy to make a change.?