Conducting market research is an important part of creating new products and finding value for customers. In my previous articles, I've covered the importance of being skilled at interviewing customers and how research relates to the term “value engineering”.

I decided to talk to Vadim Glazkov, a Lisbon (Portugal) based researcher, Founder of a Product Research Agency, to learn more about the practical foundation of this approach. Vadim and I worked together at The Internet Initiatives Development Fund Accelerator, where Vadim gained a strong expertise in research and later continued with his private practice.

Value engineering - is the sphere of my scientific interests as an economist and also a topic for research in the upcoming years.

Q&A

Victor Markov: “Vadim, I know you as a talented specialist in the field of product research. Many startups have worked with you, and startup founders often say that all customer needs have already been met and problems have been solved. But is that really the case? Could you share some advice on how founders could identify unmet people needs and find new product ideas?“

Vadim Glazkov: “Whether the needs are unmet or not, we have new products on the market every day. Subscribe to the Product Hunt newsletter, and you will see how many startups are launched every week. Of course, not all of them survive or solve actual problems, but some of their products do change our lives. A good example is ChatGPT, which is slowly becoming an important part of both work processes and everyday life. And two years ago, generative AI products were not used on a wide audience.

The important thing to remember is that even if a certain customer need is already met, not necessarily it’s done in the most efficient way. It is always possible to offer a solution that is faster, cheaper or of better quality.

New ideas can always be found through research — doing interviews, talking to people, finding out what problems they face and how they solve them. There are always more ideas than opportunities to realize. The main thing is to ask the right questions and formulate hypotheses that are grounded in real customer needs and could be the basis for creating a successful product.”

Victor Markov: “I have a feeling that everyone talks about the importance of research, but in practice almost no one conducts it before creating a product. As a result, new products are developed based on the vision of their founders. Why does this happen?”

Vadim Glazkov: “First of all, conducting research is a difficult thing to do, especially for new products. This process requires a significant amount of time, in particular for recruiting participants for interviews. That is why many people prefer to launch a product first, and then look for ways to promote it.

Also, there is a psychological aspect: when you share a product idea with people, it is very unpleasant to find out that your idea is not needed. Sometimes this leads to self-sabotage and unwillingness to learn other people's opinions.”

Victor Markov: “Could you please tell us what difficulties startup founders face when conducting research? Why do they get to you rather than doing it themselves?”

Vadim Glazkov: “One of the key difficulties I have already mentioned is finding respondents. While a company with a working product can easily reach out to its audience, for a new product, finding the right people to interview turns into a real challenge. Then, there is the difficulty of conducting the interviews: even if you find an audience, you can ruin everything by asking the wrong questions or misinterpreting them. That’s why it’s better to outsource this task to experienced specialists, whether it is an individual researcher or an agency. They have already implemented many projects and know what works and what doesn't, including how to find respondents in a particular area and how to formulate questions.

In addition, there are many routine and assistant tasks involved in organizing research, which should not be handled by funders, as their focus should be on creativity and strategic decision-making.”

Victor Markov: “What value do startup founders get by ordering a research from you?”

Vadim Glazkov: “Research may be compared to queries in Google, which help to find answers to a wide variety of questions: the value received depends on the original task. For example, when launching a product, startup founders will find out if there is a real demand for the value they offer. If it's about improving an existing offering in the market, research will illuminate why customers are leaving. Additionally, research can solve specific problems, such as showing how to move users from an offline format of receiving services to online. Ultimately, good research allows you to make informed decisions, reducing risks and increasing the chances of success in a competitive environment.

One of my cases is a collaboration with Dashly, a company that was developing an AI bot to communicate with website visitors and increase conversions to sales. Since the product was new to the market, the company did not have a warm base for conducting research. Our main challenge was to find the right respondents. We also identified the target audience: who needs this product and what tasks it solves. As a result, we managed to establish a constant flow of 20 potential customers per month, which allowed not only to collect data and test hypotheses, but also to make the first sales. Moreover, we gathered insights that significantly influenced the product's go-to-market strategy, including recommendations on how to optimize the price of the product.

There was a similar case with Web3—when they had a technology, but didn’t know for which clients it was relevant. Such scenarios are also called Solution in Search Problem—when founders believe so much that their product is innovative and valuable that they do not initially determine what user problem it is intended to solve. Quite often in such cases, surveys show that the product is not in demand on the market, and this is great new knowledge and a self-sufficient result of a well-conducted survey, but for the company it will be perceived as something negative. In this situation, everything turned out well for us, but this is the exception rather than the rule. So my advice is firstly to study the needs of users and the market situation, and only then to develop a product.”

Victor Markov: “In your opinion, what are the best practices or frameworks for conducting research?”

Vadim Glazkov: “Firstly, you need to follow the principles of a high-quality in-depth interview. For example, it is important not to tell your respondents about the product or ideas you are testing. Otherwise, they may unconsciously adjust their answers to what they think you want to hear. Depending on the cultural context, this bias may manifest itself in different ways: some respondents will be inclined to praise, while others will be more likely to criticize.

It's also important not to count on the client's opinion as an expert one—they don't know how to create the best product on the market. The most valuable thing they can share is their experience: how they make decisions and why. The researcher's job is to discover the facts, not a point of view about different aspects of the product. For the same reason, you need to ask questions about real situations from previous experiences, not hypothetical scenarios such as “how would you choose”. Otherwise, you will be told not how things really are, but how they should be in an ideal world.

Also, conducting surveys via Google Forms and short 15-minute interviews is not a good idea because they don't provide meaningful value. Ten one-hour interviews of high quality will provide you with more insights than hundreds of questionnaires.”

Victor Markov: “It is clear about startups, but how can user interviews be applied to an existing business that is in crisis or that is looking for new points of growth?”

Vadim Glazkov: “It is true that researches are sometimes used in an attempt to get a business out of a crisis, with the belief that research will help identify paying audience segments and increase sales. However, in most cases this is not the most reasonable solution.

Surveys may show that a product is not in demand in the market: this is valuable knowledge if the company is doing well, but if it is in crisis, time and money would be better spent on crisis management.

Therefore, user interview will only help if you already have paying clients with whom you have established a warm relationship. Then you can address them and clarify important issues about the product.”

Victor Markov: “What are the limits of user interviews applicability? When should one stop doing research and get down to business? And is it possible not to conduct research at all?”

Vadim Glazkov: “Conducting research is one of the ways of gaining knowledge. While general information is available in open sources, knowledge about how a certain segment of customers thinks can only be obtained through interviews. Of course, some ideas are not to be tested. For example, if you are working on a cure for cancer, there is no doubt that it will be in demand. So there may be concerns about the development process, because it is long-term and labor-intensive, but not about the product itself.

I like to say that the biggest mistake in doing research is not doing it. And if you study the opinions of authoritative experts in the startup industry—such as Steve Blank, Eric Ries, and Alexander Osterwalder—you will find the same view. User interviews help test hypotheses and understand the real needs of customers, significantly reducing risks and increasing the chances of success.”

Outro

Analyzing customer needs and conducting research are key elements that determine the effectiveness of a startup. In this interview, Vadim Glazkov shares the important aspects of the research approach, talks about the challenges and gives successful use cases for bringing new products to market.

Research helps startups make reasonable decisions based on real data, not the intuition or vision of the founders. Despite the difficulties associated with finding respondents and interpreting data, properly conducted research can be the key to a successful launch and further development of a product, especially in a competitive and rapidly changing market.