how to do research on a product

The Ultimate Guide to Product Research: Everything You Need to Know

If you're looking to start a business, you must do your research first. Product research is key to determining whether a product will succeed.

In this guide, we'll teach you everything you need to know about product research, including the different methods you can use and the factors you need to consider. We'll also provide some tips on how to get started. So whether you're just getting started or looking for ways to improve your process, this guide is for you!

What Is Product Research?

Product research is gathering data about a potential product or service. This data can include information about the target market, the competition, and the product itself. It's crucial to do product research before launching a new product or service, as it can help you determine whether or not there is a demand for your offering.

Why Is Product Research Important?

Product research is essential because it can help you make informed decisions about your product or service. If you don't research, you could launch a product that no one wants or isn't profitable.

Product research can also help you understand your target market and what they're looking for in a product. How to do product research?

There are a few different ways to do product research. You can use online tools like Google Trends and Amazon Best Sellers to get an idea of what people are searching for and what products are selling well.

You can also reach out to your target market and ask them about their needs and wants. Additionally, you can look at your competition to see what they're doing well and where they could improve.

What Are The Different Types of Product Research?

There are a few different types of product research, including primary research, secondary research, and desk research.

Primary research is data that you collect through surveys or interviews, for example. Secondary research is data that someone else has already collected, like data from a market research report. Desk research is data you can find online, through Google or social media.

Factors To Consider When Doing Product Research

There are a few different factors to consider when doing product research, including your target market, the competition, and the product itself.

You'll want to ensure you understand your target market and what they're looking for. Additionally, it's important to understand your competition and what they're doing well.

Finally, you'll want to make sure you have a clear understanding of the product itself.

Product research is an integral part of developing any new product or service. By understanding your target market, the competition, and the Product, you can make informed decisions about your product design and user experience.

How To Conduct Product Research

1. Evaluate Market Size

You'll want to start by evaluating the market size when conducting product research. This will give you an idea of the potential demand for your product or service. Additionally, it will help you understand the competition. To do this, you can use desk research to find the market size and competition data.

Google search: "market size [your industry]"

"Global [your industry] market size"

"Competition in [your industry]"

Secondary market research:

• For products: Look at Amazon Best Sellers Rank or Google Shopping results.
• For services: Use Google Keyword Planner to look at average monthly searches.

If you're unsure where to start, try looking at secondary market research. This can include Amazon Best Sellers Rank or Google Shopping results for products or using the Google Keyword Planner to look at average monthly searches for services.

Once you understand the market size and competition, you can start to conduct your primary research.

2. Analyze The Competitive Landscape

After you've evaluated the market size, you'll want to analyze the competitive landscape. This will help you understand your competitors and what they're doing well. To do this, you can use desk research to find data about the competition.

Google search: "[your industry] competitors"

"[Your product or service] reviews"

"SWOT analysis [your industry]"

• Look at competitor websites.
• Read competitor reviews.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis.

A SWOT analysis is a great way to evaluate your competition and understand its strengths and weaknesses. To do a SWOT analysis, you'll want to look at your competitor's website, read their reviews, and understand their strengths and weaknesses. This will help you identify areas where you can improve upon.

Once you understand the competition well, you can develop your unique selling proposition. This will help you differentiate yourself from the competition and make your product or service more appealing to potential customers.

3. Determine Product Category Outlook

After you've evaluated the market size and analyzed the competitive landscape, you'll want to determine the product category outlook. This will help you understand the future potential of your product or service. To do this, you can use desk research to find data about the future of your industry.

Google search: "[Your industry] forecast"

"Future of [your industry]"

• Look at industry reports.
• Read articles from thought leaders in your industry.

Industry reports are a great way to get an understanding of the future potential of your product or service. You can also read articles from thought leaders in your industry to get their insights on the future.

Once you have a good understanding of the future potential, you can start to develop your product or service roadmap. This will help you map out the steps you need to take to achieve your desired future state.

4. Is Your Product Available Locally?

If you're looking to launch a new product or service, it's essential to understand the availability of your product. IYou'llwant to research the local market. If your product is available locally, you can use desk research to find data about the local market.

Google search: "[Your product] [your city]"

"[Your product] [your state]"

• Look at local demographic data
• Read local news articles
• Conduct market analysis

Local demographic data can give you insights into the potential market for your product or service. You can also read local news articles to understand the local market better.

Additionally, you can conduct a market analysis to understand the potential demand for your product or service.

Once you have a good understanding of the local market, you can start to develop your marketing strategy. This will help you reach your target market and generate sales.

5. Determine Your Target Customer

Before starting marketing your product or service, you need to determine your target customer.

To do this, you'll want to think about the needs of your target market and the demographics of your potential customers.

This information will help you develop a buyer persona, a fictional representation of your ideal customer.

Once you have a buyer persona, you can develop your marketing strategy. This will help you reach your target market and generate sales.

Additionally, you can use your buyer persona to develop your product or service offering. Understanding your target customer's needs ensures that your product or service meets their needs.

6. Determine Markup

After you've chosen your target customer and developed your marketing strategy, you'll need to determine your markup. Markup is the difference between the cost of your product or service and the selling price. To determine markup, you'll want to consider the following:

• The cost of goods sold (COGS): This includes the cost of materials, labor, and overhead.
• The selling price: This is the price you'll charge your customers.
• The desired profit margin: This is the percentage of profit you want to make on each sale.

Once you've considered these factors, you can calculate your markup. To do this, you'll need to divide your desired profit margin by your COGS. Once you have your markup, you can start to develop your pricing strategy.

7. Figure Out The Selling Price

By understanding markup's components, you can ensure that your product or service is priced correctly. Additionally, you can use markup to help you reach your desired profit margin.

After you've determined your markup, you can start to develop your pricing strategy. To do this, you'll need to multiply your markup by your COGS.

8. Determine Product Weight And Size

After you've decided on your selling price, you'll need to determine your product’s weight and size. To do this, you'll need to consider the following:

• The weight of the product: This will affect shipping costs.
• The dimensions of the product: This will affect packaging costs.

Once you've considered these factors, you can start to develop your packaging strategy. 

This will help you keep costs down and ensure your product arrives safely to your customers.

By understanding your product's weight and size, you can ensure that your packaging is sized correctly.

9. Is Your Product Durable?

After you've determined the weight and size of your product, you'll need to consider its durability. To do this, you'll need to think about how your product will be used and how it will stand up to wear and tear. Additionally, you will want to consider the following:

• The materials used in the product: This will affect the durability of the product.
• The product's expected lifespan: This will affect how often your customers need to replace your product.

By understanding your product's durability, you can ensure that it meets your customers' needs. Additionally, you can use this information to help you determine your warranty or return policy.

10. Is Your Product Seasonal?

After considering your product's durability, you'll need to consider its seasonal nature. To do this, you'll need to consider when your customers will use your product and how that will affect demand. 

By understanding the seasonal nature of your product, you can ensure that it meets your customers' needs.

11. Does Your Product Serve A Passion, Relieve Pain, Or Solve A Problem?

After considering the seasonal nature of your product, you'll need to consider its purpose. You'll need to consider what your product does and how it can help your customers. Additionally, you'll want to think about the following:

• The product's benefits: This will help you determine what your product does for your customers.
• The product features: This will help you determine how your product can help your customers.

By understanding your product's purpose, you can ensure that it meets your customers' needs.

12. What Will Your Product Turnover Be?

After you've considered the purpose of your product, you'll need to consider its turnover. To do this, you'll need to consider how often your customers will use your product and how that will affect demand. 

13. Is Your Product Consumable Or Disposable?

After considering your product's turnover, you'll need to consider its consumable or disposable nature. To do this, you'll need to consider how often your customers will use your product and how that will affect demand.

14. Is Perishability A Factor?

After considering your product's consumable or disposable nature, you'll need to consider its perishability. To do this, you'll need to consider how long your product will last and how that will affect demand.

15. Are There Any Restrictions Or Regulations?

After you've considered the perishability of your product, you'll need to consider any restrictions or regulations. To do this, you'll need to consider what your product is made of and how that will affect its ability to be sold. Additionally, you'll want to think about the following:

• The country of origin: This will affect where you can sell your product
• The product type: This will affect what your product can be used for.

Understanding your product's restrictions or regulations can ensure that it meets your customers' needs. Additionally, you can use this information to help you determine your marketing strategy.

16. Is Your Product Scalable?

After considering your product's restrictions or regulations, you'll need to consider its scalability. To do this, you'll need to consider how easy it is to produce more of your product and how that will affect demand. Additionally, you'll want to think about the following:

• The cost of production: This will affect how much you can charge for your product.
• The time it takes to produce more of your product: This will affect how quickly you can meet customer demand.

By understanding your product's scalability, you can ensure that it meets your customers' needs. 

Areas Of Product Research

As you can see, there are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to product research. To make things easier, we've broken down the most critical areas of research into 8 main categories:

• Conduct market research
• Conduct customer research
• Conduct segmentation research
• Conduct concept testing
• Conduct usability testing
• Conduct naming research
• Conduct feature research
• Conduct pricing research

Market Research

Market research is a vital part of product research. By understanding your target market, you can ensure that your product meets their needs.

There are a few different methods that you can use to conduct market research. Some common ways include surveys, focus groups, and interviews.

If you're unsure where to start, we recommend checking out our guide on conducting market research.

Customer Research

Customer research is another vital part of product research. By understanding your customers, you can ensure they're happy with your product.

Additionally, you can use this information to help you improve your product.

There are a few different methods that you can use to conduct customer research, with the most common methods include surveys, focus groups, and interviews.

Segmentation Research

Segmentation research is the process of dividing your market into different groups. You can do this based on age, gender, location, and interests.

By understanding your target market's segmentation, you can ensure that your product is targeted to the right people.

Concept Testing

Concept testing is the process of testing your product idea with potential customers. You can do this to ensure that your product is viable and that people are interested in it. Additionally, you can use this information to help you improve your product.

Usability Testing

Usability testing is testing your product to ensure it's easy to use and can use your product without issues. Additionally, you can use this information to help you improve your product.

Naming Research

Naming research is the process of finding the perfect name for your product. You can do this to ensure your product stands out from the competition. 

Additionally, you can use this information to help you create a branding strategy for your product.

There are a few different methods that you can use to conduct naming research. The most common methods include surveys, focus groups, and interviews.

Feature Research

Feature research is the process of understanding which features your customers want. You can do this to ensure that your product has the needed features. Additionally, you can use this information to help you improve your product.

Pricing Research

Pricing research is understanding how much your customers are willing to pay for your product. You can do this to ensure you can make a profit. Additionally, you can use this information to help you improve your product.

12 Tips For Effective Product Research

Conducting effective product research can be a challenge. However, there are a few tips that you can follow to make it easier. Some of the most important tips include:

Follow Consumer Trend Publications

One of the best ways to stay up-to-date on consumer trends is to follow consumer trend publications. 

This can help you understand what consumers look for and how they change over time. Additionally, it can give you ideas for new products that you can create.

Monitor Social Media Platforms

Another great way to stay up-to-date on consumer trends is to monitor social media platforms. 

This can help you see what people are talking about and what they're interested in.

Find Bestsellers on Amazon

Looking at bestsellers on Amazon can help you understand what products are popular and in demand. 

This can give you ideas for new products that you can create. Furthermore, doing this can also help you improve your existing products.

Conduct Surveys And Interviews

One of the best ways to get consumer feedback is to conduct surveys and interviews. 

This can help you understand their thoughts about your product and how you can improve it. What's more, the results of the surveys and interviews can help you gather ideas for new products.

Browse Social Curation Sites

Social curation sites like Pinterest and Tumblr can be a great way to find new product ideas. 

This is because you can see what people are pinning and saving. And better yet, it can also help you understand what trends are popular.

Evaluate B2B Wholesale Marketplaces

Browsing B2B wholesale marketplaces can help you understand what products are in demand. 

This can give you ideas for new products that you can create and even help you improve your existing products.

Observe Niche Forums

Another great way to find product ideas is to observe niche forums. This is because you can see what people are talking about and what they're interested in. 

Research Existing Products On The Market

As you can see, a lot goes into product research. However, by following these tips, you can be sure that you're conducting effective research. This will help you create products that your customers will love.

Look At Online Reviews

One of the best ways to research a product is to look at online reviews. This can help you understand what people think about the product and whether or not it's worth your time. 

Identify Gaps In The Market

Looking at existing products on the market can help you identify gaps in the market. This can give you ideas for new products that you can create and improve your existing products.

Qualitative Product Research

Qualitative research is another critical aspect of product research. This involves talking to people and getting their feedback. Additionally, it can help you understand what trends are popular.

Quantitative Product Research

In addition to qualitative research, you also need to do quantitative analysis. This involves looking at data to understand what people want and how they use products.

FAQs: Product research

What are the two types of product research.

There are two types of product research: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative research involves talking to people and getting their feedback. 

Meanwhile, quantitative research involves looking at data to understand what people want and how they use the products.

How often should you do product research?

Product research is an ongoing process. You need to be monitoring the market and your competition constantly. 

Additionally, you need to be gathering feedback from your customers. By doing this, you can ensure that you're always creating products that your customers will love.

What is the role of product research?

Product research plays a vital role in product development . It can help you understand what people want and how they use products. 

Additionally, it can help you identify gaps in the market. By doing this, you can be sure that you're always creating products that your customers will love.

What are some of the best ways to do product research?

Some of the best ways to do product research include looking at online reviews, observing niche forums, and asking your customers. 

By doing this, you can be sure that you're always getting the most accurate information.

What’s the difference between product research and market research?

Product research is specific to a product. It involves understanding what people want and how they're using products. In comparison, market research is broader and looks at the entire market. It can help you understand trends and segment your customer base.

How do I know if my product research is effective?

There are a few ways to know if your product research is effective. 

• First, you should see an increase in sales. 
• Additionally, you should see more people using and talking about your products.
• Finally, you should see an increase in customer satisfaction. 

If you do not see these things, then it's likely that your product research is ineffective.

What are some common mistakes people make with product research?

One of the most common mistakes people make with product research is not doing enough of it. People can also mistake relying too heavily on one type of research. 

For example, they may only look at online reviews and not talk to actual customers. Finally, people can also make the mistake of not constantly updating their research.

How do you start product research?

Product research can be started by looking at online reviews, observing niche forums, and asking your customers. You can also look at competitor products and understand what they're doing right and wrong. By doing this, you can be sure that you're always getting the most accurate information.

What is an example of product research?

An example of product research would be if you were to look at online reviews, observe niche forums, and talk to your customers to understand what people want and how they're using products.

Conclusion: Product research

Product research is an essential part of starting a business. By understanding the needs of your target market and developing a marketing strategy, you can reach your target customers and generate sales. 

Additionally, by determining your markup and pricing your product correctly, you can ensure that your business is profitable. By taking the time to do proper product research, you can set your business up for success.

Product trends can change quickly, so staying on top is crucial. We hope this article was helpful for you. Whatever you decide to do for your business from here, we wish you the best of luck!

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Product Management

How to do Product Research [Step-by-Step Guide]

Associate Product Marketer at Zeda.io.

Mahima Arora

Created on:

May 15, 2024

Updated on:

14 mins read

Transform Insights into Impact

Build Products That Drive Revenue and Delight Customers!

An effective and robust product research process increases the chances of product success. 

Seth W. Godin, an American author, once said – ‘Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.’

The quote subtly hints at the necessity of product research. By performing product research beforehand, product managers can create the ideal product for customers. 

Did you know that 90% of new product research focuses on ‘modifications’ and ‘additions’ rather than new concepts? 

But even improving or adding new features to an existing product requires a proper product research process.   

Product research enables managers to understand the current and future needs of the users. Thus, based on users’ pain points and what they are looking for, product managers can innovate products of a higher value. 

Furthermore, organizations with a strong product research process understand the market better. They stay one step ahead of the competition and survive better in the long run. 

Now that you know how important product research is, you must dive into how to do product research right away!

So, let’s begin!

10 Steps to Product Research

There’s no single product research process that fits all the product development teams. But there are certain key steps in the process that product managers must know about. 

Here are the 10 essential steps to perform a successful product research process. Follow these steps to derive valuable product insights that will guide your product development decisions.  

1. Define your research goals

Why are you performing the research?

Once product managers find an answer to the why, they can set the goals of the research. 

Set the high-level goals first. You can set these goals considering the product strategy and vision, ensuring their alignment with business objectives. 

Next, create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable, and Time-bound) goals for the product development team to focus on during each research stage. This may include;

• Performing market research for product adoption before its release
• Finding out the key areas or features of the product to be improved after the launch
• Assessing the product performance through the product’s lifecycle.

Setting clear, measurable, and time-bound goals for the product research process guides the product team’s actions. It helps them to understand what they need to do. Also, the goals help product managers to measure outcomes and make improvements where necessary.  

2. Understand your customer's needs and pain points

An effective product research process is always customer-centric. So, start engaging in user discovery. 

Understand user pain points. Start your user research even before planning the product features. Interact with your existing and potential users to identify their needs and wants. 

Performing open-ended user research will help product managers to; 

• Measure the market demand, 
• Get inspiration for the new product
• Determine the product-market fit
• Product positioning against competitors, and 
• Increase customer satisfaction. 

Since user research is a vital part of the product research process, you can check out the best product discovery questions list . 

After the user research, when product teams develop prototypes, they can start trials and ask for user feedback. Next, the insights from feedback can be used to improve the product. 

3. Perform competitor and comparative analysis

The next step in the product research process is to know the competition. 

• Start with competitive analysis . It involves reviewing the products that are directly similar to yours. For example, if a company sells smartphones, it is directly competing with other companies selling smartphones (like Samsung and Xiaomi). 
• Next, perform a comparative analysis . It involves evaluating the alternative options for a product. For instance, an automobile manufacturer can compare the safety features of multiple car models to measure the sales of each and identify the features that require improvement. 

Performing the analyses will provide insights that product teams can use to make the product better. 

4. Study the market

Besides performing competitive and comparative analyses, product managers must run thorough market research to map the available opportunities.

Here are a few ways to study the market thoroughly;

• Use the historical market records, and research reports by academic institutions, government agencies, and trade associations. 
• Observe and analyze the competitors’ strategies like advertising, pricing, and distribution of products. 
• Read up on blogs, magazines, social media posts, and other specific content related to your space.
• Run keyword research to understand what your users are looking for. This can help you generate product ideas too. 

Once product managers validate a viable market for the product and determine the market saturation, the development teams can focus on the product's USP (Unique Selling Points). 

5. Conduct research using qualitative and quantitative methods

Further, product managers can use both qualitative and quantitative methods of market research. 

Qualitative methods – The qualitative methods of market research aren’t statistically significant. These methods help product teams to understand the potential customers at a deeper level. Individual interviews, focus groups, observations or follow-me-homes, and interviews with professionals or field experts are a few qualitative methods you can utilize for market research.

Quantitative methods – Quantitative methods include conducting surveys, polls, or sending out questionnaires. Through quantitative methods, product managers study a large enough pool of respondents in their target market to have reasonable confidence in the collected data. For organizations with a limited budget, you can rely on the survey reports of other organizations in the relevant field.

6. Know the industry trends

Stay on top of the industry trends by updating your knowledge regularly. Observe the tech trends that may impact users’ expectations of your product or its viability in the long run. 

Engage with the tech cultures – read blogs, news, and magazines, listen to tech podcasts, follow the latest tech updates on social media platforms, forums, etc. Product managers can also use tools like Google Trends, Trend Hunter, etc. 

The IT teams in organizations also serve as a key source of tech information. Product managers can interact and take regular updates from them. 

The industry trend updates can also help product managers to research future projections, disruptive technologies, and the chances of product category obsolescence. Thus, with these insights, the product teams can create products that are likely to be in demand in the future. 

7. Validate product ideas

After thorough research, product teams can test ideas and solutions.

Based on the extensive research data, you can identify the possible products, their key features, or improvisations that can meet the user's needs. Further, you can perform concept testing to examine user experiences with concrete product ideas.

To start testing, identify the key users to test. Get participants for interviews, focus groups, or implement surveys, feedback tools, etc., to test the ideas with the existing users. 

Product managers can also ask questions and assess user responses. Or, they may simply explain to the users the product concept using wireframes and mock-ups.

8. Build your product and test the MVP

A crucial step in the product research process and the most conclusive market research that product managers can perform to ensure product success. It is only after a lot of effort that product teams get to the point of testing MVP (Minimal Viable Product).

Testing MVP is all about creating the MVP and trying to sell the product or the product idea to the target audience. Several types of product testing, like card sorting, tree testing, etc., tell whether or not users can navigate your product easily, to find the different functionalities they are looking for. 

Further, product managers can run a regression analysis, quality assurance, and performance testing to check the MVP functionalities. Running these tests helps the team to identify the areas where changes are needed.  

Multivariate tests and A/B tests are helpful when the user base is split into different groups and each group has different products or product features. These tests help product managers to choose the perfect iteration.

9. Derive findings and insights from the market research data 

The market research data is of no use unless you convert them into findings and insights. 

Products managers and the product team must analyze the data to find out conclusive outcomes that can support their product decisions. 

The team can then start building the final product or improvise the MVP based on the research insights. 

10. Use the analysis to guide your product strategy

The final step in the product research process is to convert the research insights into action. Cut through the noise and gather valuable customer-centric insights .

Then, you can use the research to create a strong product roadmap and strategy to guide the entire product development process. When you perform new research, ensure to compare the strategy and roadmap to keep them updated. 

Further, the research should also be used to make regular decisions, drive product backlog management , and create the basis for your product storytelling. 

7 Tips to Conduct an Effective Product Research

A strategic approach to performing the product research process is essential. But alongside the planned strategy, product managers must consider a few tips or best practices to conduct the product research successfully. 

1. Research highly-demanded products

At the initial stage, when you do not have a product concept, get inspired by the products high in demand. 

Check out trending hashtags, reviews, comments on review sites, and bestsellers list to find out the most popular products in your space. 

Here, the goal is not to imitate the product in demand. It is to keep an open mind, ascertain the demand level, and evaluate if the product idea is awesome or not. The product manager’s goal is to perform an honest evaluation and get back to brainstorming with the collected inspirations.

2. Read about similar products

When performing a competitive analysis, read reviews and case studies on the products. 

Product reviews are gold mines. You can find out what users like about the product and what they do not. Reading the reviews carefully can give you a list of the customer pain points. 

Similarly, product managers must download or buy case studies from companies that sell similar products. The case studies generally include the product-related challenges and how the company solved them. 

Evaluating reviews and case studies allows product managers to think through the potential issues and keep the solutions handy. Also, they can identify the product features that can be made better than that of the competitors. 

3. Host a focus group

Evaluate your product by bringing in people who fit your target market. Give them a product profile – what the product will look like, its features, and benefits. Then, ask relevant questions concerning what they like and dislike about the product.

Though focus groups aren’t effective all the time, they can help product managers to get an idea of what people would say about the product. 

Providing the focus group with an MVP or prototype works better. The feedback received is more valid and meaningful. 

4. Get expert product engineers

Product managers can hire product engineers to get unbiased opinions on the product prototypes. 

The experts work on a contractual basis. They evaluate the product design, and features, test prototypes, and ensure quality and usability. 

If required, product engineers can also assess the market research, build design ideas, and supervise production. 

5. Consider product marketing

Building the product is not the end of the product research process. Not overlooking product marketing is one of the best practices to follow. 

Product managers must give equal importance to product positioning and marketing strategy. They can check out the competitors to understand;

• How they promote their products
• Whether or not their marketing strategy is successful
• How to make improvements in the strategy

Further, considering the target market is a must. Try answering questions like;

• Where do they mostly shop?
• What are their interests?
• What are the social media platforms and communication channels mostly used by the target market?
• Where do they discover the products from?

Considering these aspects, the marketing strategies, campaigns, and distribution channels must be planned. 

6. Go for a soft launch

A trial or soft launch allows product managers to estimate sales. If the trial results aren’t satisfactory, they can modify the product before spending more on its marketing.

Soft launches need not be expensive. You can create a simple landing page for the product and then run a PPC or Pay per Click campaign to assess the demand. 

You can also provide a form that interested users could fill up. Explain the product to those who inquire, maintain communication, and notify them when the product is available. 

7. Continue product research

Continue your research even after the product launch . Ask for customer feedback, measure the outcomes of your marketing campaign, and track metrics like repeat purchases, new customers, etc. 

Further, track competitors too. Observe their strategies and emerging trends. Also, test new strategies like referral programs or loyalty programs. 

Product Research Tools

Building a user-centric product isn’t easy. Product managers must be equipped with the most effective tools. They must take every bit of help available to them. 

A product research tool is something that can help the product teams a great deal. It helps in making product management a more organized and structured process. Further, using these tools, product managers can get data-backed user insights and accurate research findings.

Check out the best 5 product research tools you can invest in.

Zeda.io is one of the best product management tools that you must invest in. It is a platform where you can; 

• Collect feedback, ideas, and feature requests from customers, 
• Analyze the data from a single dashboard, convert them to actionable insights, identify trends
• Plan product roadmaps , create live roadmaps, and share them with teams and customers
• Prioritize product tasks with prioritization frameworks like RICE
• Execute the product development process in collaboration with teams

In a nutshell, Zeda.io is the all-in-one product management software that allows you to build a product seamlessly and in an organized way. 

Also Read: Top AI Tools for Product Managers and Product Teams

Zendesk is a tool that helps you maintain interactions with your customers. It is a platform that allows collecting, understanding, and responding to user feedback .

Using Zendesk, product teams can listen to customer issues, develop a response plan, and deliver solutions to address their concerns.

Simply said, Zendesk ensures carrying out regular customer conversations as they are an integral part of the product research process. These customer conversations provide direct insights into customers' thoughts opinions, suggestions, and challenges. 

Thus, you can learn from customer feedback and incorporate changes, and better features in the product to ensure an incredible user experience. 

3. ProductPlan

In the product research process, the product research eventually converts to a product roadmap. It is the product roadmap that highlights the present and future priorities, workflows, product vision, and product progress. 

Once you have come across the research stage, the focus is on building the product roadmap. ProductPlan is the platform you can use to build visual roadmaps. The tool helps in maintaining flexibility, team collaboration, and efficient addressing of issues.

Here’s why you should get ProductPlan in your product research tool stack.

• It is easy to use
• It allows customizing roadmaps with lists, layouts, and timelines
• The drag-and-drop interface helps in tailoring the roadmaps according to one’s needs
• You can collaborate with teams, tag the members, and also comment within the roadmap

Another must-have product management tool, Jira ensures a hassle-free product journey from prototyping to product launch.

Jira is a project management tool that primarily helps with;

• Organizing project tasks
• Managing scrum and agile teams
• Capturing and recording software bugs 

With Jira, agile product teams can manage their workflow seamlessly. The tool offers 300+ integrations, is highly customizable, great for managing product issues, and overall effective product management. 

5. Proto.io

After you have built a product, you cannot release it directly to the market. User feedback and validation are required. So, instead of building a full-fledged product, you create an MVP or prototype with the basic features for testing the waters first. 

This is where Proto.io comes in. Proto.io is one of the leading prototyping tools that help you build a prototype quickly and easily. 

• Proto.io has a great interactive drag-and-drop interface that lets you create the prototype to test each product feature or idea based on your research. 
• It is user-friendly with integrated icons and easy image management

Thus, Proto.io increases your research efficiency. It helps you to offer customers an amazing product experience resulting in better customer satisfaction. 

Also Read: Choosing the Best Product Discovery Tool: Top 5 Picks

Final Thoughts

How to do product research is a common but complex question. Not all organizations use the same way to perform product research. But the product research process does have a few key steps that are crucial for its success. 

Throughout the process, just remember that product research is all about user research. The main goal is to understand the users, their needs, and their pain points. 

Once product managers implement the user-centric approach, they can build better products – the products that would meet the ever-changing demands of the market. Further, it will increase customer satisfaction and inspire loyalty.

With platforms like Zeda.io , your product research process can get easier. You can seamlessly perform user research using Zeda.io ’s product features like the central dashboard, prioritization framework, building live product roadmap, easy tracking, sharing roadmaps with teams and customers, etc.  

Suggested Read: The Product Management Process: 6 Essential Steps

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Product research: the key to building a product people will love

You want to build a long-term vision for your product, and work on something that your users will buy and love—but can you really do that if you don’t understand your customers?

Probably not.

Enter product research, the key to leading your business to success through data-backed insights and smart, customer-centric product decisions.

But how can you make sure your product research is effective, and that it will benefit your customers and business? Keep reading to find out!

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Need to understand your users?

Hotjar gives you the tools you need to lead user-driven product research and development processes.

Product research: what it is and why it matters

Product research is a vital first step before introducing new features, a new product, or entering a different stage of the product lifecycle. It enhances your understanding of what the customer wants so you can make user-led product decisions and address customer needs.

What is product research? 

Product research is the process of gathering information about your product's purpose, development direction, and which solutions you should offer to create customer delight. Product research is conducted through surveying and studying users to identify their needs and understand what they demand from your product, and usually happens at these stages in the product lifecycle:

Before launch : to understand which initiatives you should include and prioritize based on customer needs, and to develop a product-market fit.

Testing and feedback: to understand how the customer perceives new iterations, learn what they like or don’t like, and how you can improve the product to delight them.

Soft launch: to analyze how effective and useful your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is among a segment of customers, and identify changes to make before releasing the full product to market.

Post-launch: to study customers' reactions and behavior after launch for continuous discovery , analyze customer satisfaction, and identify potential bugs or improvement areas.

Why product research matters for product teams

If you don't know what your customers want from your product, even your most brilliant idea risks failure. Here's how product research helps you align your product ideas with customer needs:

Understand user needs and pain points: your product needs to solve the customer's most pressing issues, but how can it do that if you don't know what issues they’re having? Product research helps you gather data and behavioral insights to understand your users’ problems and build the solutions they need.

Align user needs with business goals: understanding customers' needs and how they align with your product and business goals helps you plan a product roadmap that'll serve both the users and your company.

Higher scope for innovation and accuracy: when you have clarity about what your customers need, you can find innovative ways to solve their problems and build a product they'll love.

Gain a competitive edge: researching your competitors will help you understand how to differentiate your product and uncover gaps in the market, which can help you decide what features to build.

Simpler and more impactful prioritization: with product research, your entire team is clear on how to prioritize initiatives to achieve customer delight , making it easier for you to manage your product backlog .

Why and how product research can vary across product teams 

Product research validates your ideas and gives you a better understanding of your user throughout the product development process. But the responsibility to conduct product research doesn’t fall solely on the product manager— people across departments should also be conducting product research.  

Since product research isn't a single, standard process, the purpose and level of contribution can vary at different stages of the product lifecycle and across roles and departments:

1. Product managers

A product manager's primary goals are to understand user needs, learn business goals, and determine market requirements to create a product vision and roadmap. 

They also use product analytics to validate ideas around iterations and product features—all of which require extensive product research. 

A product manager’s main research aims are to ensure that product development decisions are data-informed and customer-centric, and address users' needs to build a great product. 

Common research methods include interviews, surveys, competitor studies, and analyzing user behavior and product experience insights.

2. Product designers

Product designers need to empathize with users to create an intuitive product experience that users will enjoy. 

During product research, designers might observe customers in real-time to note their reactions, responses, and behaviors around different elements of the product's design. For example, they might observe how users interact with the UI to identify product elements or features that seem to slow down or confuse individual users.  

Product designers use these insights to improve the user experience ( UX ) and create a seamless product experience ( PX ) for easy navigation and usage. 

Their research methods include customer feedback forms and behavior tools (like heatmaps and session recordings) to understand where users are facing issues and how design changes can fix them.

3. Researchers

Researchers study user behavior, needs, and motivations to translate insights into new and better product opportunities and better-informed product decisions. 

Researchers constantly conduct product research to monitor trends over time and see how user behavior patterns are changing in response to product iterations—and how to improve them.

But, here’s the catch: this data is not readily available. So, researchers use a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods like surveys, feedback forms, and customer interviews to get recurring data.

4. Product research by lifecycle stage

Product research processes, methods, and findings will change as your product reaches new stages of development:

If you're developing new features for an existing product , you want to understand the customer's current needs, how they've changed over time, and their reaction to recent iterations. This helps you understand which initiatives and ideas you should prioritize and introduce next.

When you're developing a completely new product, product research will be different. Here you don't have historical information about user response and behavior patterns from your previous developments, so you need to perform in-depth product research to understand your target customer's needs and pain points.

4 elements of successful product research

Product research is necessary to avoid misguided product development decisions, identify potential issues with your product, and get an in-depth insight into your customer's mind. This research helps you create a well-thought-out strategy for building a product customers love.

But you need to take some proactive steps to make your research successful:

1. Use accurate and unbiased data collection methods

The primary goal of your research is to collect accurate data that tells you about how your customers experience your product—what they like or don't like, what they want or need, and what issues they encounter.

But your research won't be useful or actionable if you use unreliable data collection methods .

The best way to ensure the data you collect is accurate and unbiased is to use reliable methods like surveys, customer interviews , and tools that provide consistent real-time product experience insights (like Hotjar!). 

Only with accurate data can you be confident in making truly customer-centric decisions to build the best product.

Pro tip: use Hotjar Heatmaps and Session Recordings to study customers' behavior patterns on your site. These tools give you an unbiased look at how your customers scroll, click, move, and navigate your website, which can help you identify potential issues and improvement areas.

For example, if you use heatmaps and notice that users aren’t scrolling down your home screen to where you’ve included testimonials and product use-cases, you can use this information in your research to place them further up the page.

2. Conduct thorough competitive and comparative analysis

Product research isn't just relevant for studying customers and their needs—it's also key to understanding your competitors and where you stand in the market. 

Conduct a thorough analysis of your competitors' products, audience, and processes. This will help you analyze what's working for your audience, what gaps you can fill, and how to create a better, more efficient product for your customers.

You can complement your research efforts by carrying comparative analysis of what you're missing out on. Study your competitors and identify which features they’re providing that you’re not and what makes them unique. This will tell you where you’re lacking and help you create an optimization plan for better results and customer satisfaction.

For example, if you understand how your competitors are launching features—and how their customers are responding to them—you can use those insights to develop and introduce your next feature, and build a better product that delights your customers and stands apart from the crowd.

3. Leverage existing research material

Marketplace and trade reports—analysis reports by institutions and organizations in your industry—give you valuable insight into product processes used by companies over the years and indicate how consumer trends have changed.

This goes beyond your first-hand information and adds a historical touch to your research, so you can discover new product opportunities by taking inspiration from what’s worked before (or learn from what hasn't).

For example, you may come across an innovative way to collect customer feedback or an efficient way to test product features that might not have crossed your mind. You can explore this idea with the help of historical data.

4. Segment results based on business goals

Your product research is irrelevant if you can’t use it to make more effective decisions and product improvements. 

Enter segmentation, which is when you categorize your research findings based on business goals, so information doesn't get mixed up or lost in translation. You can also document your findings so product team members can refer to them from time to time for guided decisions.

Segmentation can also help you align your short-term and long-term goals to make the research more valuable for use in the future.

For example, you may want to study your customers' major pain points around a specific feature, at first—but later, when you're introducing a suite of new products, you might want to look at the issues your previous product didn’t solve, potential initiatives that can complement your new products, or gaps in your past marketing strategy. This will help you better address these areas for your new product.

How to measure the success of your product research

Measuring the success of your product research isn't exactly straightforward: tangible product results come much later when you receive feedback for the product, so it’s challenging to gauge the effectiveness of your research process in the beginning.

You can get some clarity around how research is translating into benefits for your users and business by attaching Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to your product during the initial stages.

It's important to know what success means to you before starting product research. Be clear on the question you are trying to answer first.

Much like a scientific experiment, you should identify the aims and objectives and develop a hypothesis to test. Design your research methodology around the hypothesis.

You might choose a survey, a literature review, or something else. The results, once analyzed, should illustrate a statistical significance in your findings to prove or disprove your hypothesis—a true measure of research success.

Here's a list of questions you should answer to determine the success of your product research:

Do you understand the major triggers and pain points of your customer?

Have you analyzed your products in comparison to competitors and identified gaps?

Have you converted your research into data points and findings?

Have you used the research report to introduce modifications in your product roadmap or created a new one from scratch?

Did this research give you a good idea of what the customer wants from your product?

Do you understand which initiatives you need to prioritize?

How you answer these questions will tell you whether you have sufficient information or need to change your product research strategy and collect additional data.

Ultimately though, the best measure of product research success is the knowledge you gain about your customers—and how you use that knowledge to build a product they'll love.

3 ways Hotjar can assist your product research for better results and efficiency

1. use recordings and heatmaps after releasing features to get user behavior insights.

One of the most direct ways to get feedback and insights about your customers' needs, pain points, and responses to product features is to understand their behavior in context as they experience your product.

Heatmaps give you insight into the elements of your page that drive the most clicks and conversions while highlighting things you can optimize for better results. These findings can be used in your research to identify potential areas for improvement.

Session Recordings give you a play-by-play of individual user activity in your product to show you their navigation path, mouse scrolls, and clicks. Real-time behavior patterns tell you what the customer is struggling with presently , so you can improve product design, navigation, and experience.

2. Leverage surveys to get validation and feedback

If you want to know exactly what your customers are thinking and let voice of the customer (VoC) data guide your product strategy, use qualitative tools like Hotjar's Incoming Feedback widget and Surveys.

Try placing surveys and feedback widgets on high-traffic visitor points of your product to get direct, unbiased, and genuine feedback from the customer at the best time: when they’re experiencing your site. This helps you understand user needs more intuitively so you can validate ideas and features.

3. Use Hotjar integrations to prioritize features and get buy-in for ideas

Product research is a comprehensive process, and it’s challenging to do it regularly. However, the process becomes more efficient when stakeholders and team members have access to customer feedback as soon as it’s available.

Hotjar integrates with tools like Slack and Zapier to help you seamlessly communicate with stakeholders and get buy-in for your ideas then and there, so you can move forward with your product improvements.

Final thoughts

Product research lies at the very core of product management. If research isn't conducted throughout the entire development process, you risk misalignment and a resulting product that doesn't meet users' needs.

You need to understand what users need right now to build a truly user-centric product—and product research can help you achieve just that.

Use Hotjar's qualitative and quantitative product insights tools to organize your product research efforts and really understand how your customers experience your product.

FAQs about product research

What’s the difference between product research and market research.

The primary difference is that product research involves studying the product (customer needs, feedback, pain points, issues) while market research involves analyzing the market (competitors, consumers, demand).

How do you conduct product research?

Define your product and its vision

Identify your target customer

Understand your customer's needs and pain points

Conduct research using qualitative and quantitative methods

Convert the research into data findings and insights

Use the analysis to guide your product strategy

How can using product research tools help?

Product research tools help you identify consumer trends, study user patterns, and analyze user behavior for data collection. Some useful product research tools are Hotjar, Zendesk, Product Plan, Jira, and ProductBoard.

Product Research Guide: How to Find Profitable Products on Amazon in 2024

Brian Connolly

May 9, 2024

Table of Contents

What is product research, how to do product research, 6 ways to discover good product ideas, evaluating your product ideas.

With more consumers shopping online than ever before, now is the perfect time to get into ecommerce. Between Amazon , eBay , Shopify , Walmart , and Etsy , there isn’t a shortage of platforms to sell on, and product opportunities abound. But what are you supposed to sell?

To set yourself up for success, you must invest time in the product research process, so you know what customers are looking for and buying at this time. 

Product research is the first step all sellers should take because if you jump right in without any knowledge of the market or demand, you may be destined to fail. Luckily, you are here so you won’t be one of those people!

If you want to learn how to research and validate product ideas to sell online, then keep on reading, and learn, step-by-step, how to find profitable products for your business.

Pproduct research is the process of researching different products or niches and using various data points to determine if the product will be successful or not. If you choose a product just because it’s something you enjoy, you’ll miss the benefits of a good strategy, and that uninformed decision might cost you and your business.

When it comes to ecommerce and selling products online, you need more than just a “gut feeling” that something will sell well. Your unique candle idea may seem like a no-brainer, but is that what customers actually want? Even if they do, if there is low demand or the market is already saturated, your product may not perform well, and you could lose your investment. 

To prevent your product from taking a nosedive, you need to determine demand, analyze the competition, create a unique, high-quality product, and most importantly, produce the product at a profitable price.

Now that you know what product research is and why it is important, let’s go over how to find profitable products to sell online. Before you start researching products, dedicate some time to determine what product criteria to use for your business. Following certain criteria will help you make sound decisions and narrow down your product search. 

Here are some great criteria for product research :

1. selling price.

How much do you want to sell your product for? Too low of a selling price and you may not have enough margin for profit after your costs. Too high of a selling price means potentially higher manufacturing costs, which require bigger budgets to support your product.

Typically, Jungle Scout recommends a price point of around $20-$50. This leaves room for profitability after selling and advertising fees, keeps manufacturing costs low, and places you in the “impulse purchase” range. This puts your product in an optimal position when starting out — customers are not always willing to purchase higher-priced products from unknown brands.

Do keep in mind that the market in this price range may be more saturated because products are inexpensive to source, and competition is high.

2. Product size and weight

If you’re a new or inexperienced seller, we advise you to start out selling products that are small and lightweight. This will help keep shipping costs down and make inventory storage simpler to manage. 

For example, it would be much easier (and cheaper) to source a small product such as a necklace, versus a couch. Couches may be in high demand, but can you handle the logistics of selling large-scale furniture? 

I know this is an extreme example but think about the differences in storage space and shipping costs between these two items. If you have the knowledge and capabilities to sell bigger and heavier products, however, then go for it!

3. Product simplicity

Does the item you want to sell have many moving parts or components that could potentially break? If you choose to sell in the electronics category, for example, be sure that your supplier can produce high-quality products with minimal issues. 

If you sell customers a faulty product, you’ll experience several challenges, such as poor reviews, high return rates, and declining sales.

Newer ecommerce sellers should try to stick to simple, low-maintenance products that are less likely to have potential downsides.

Let’s take another example:  Bluetooth headphones. They’re a popular product, but there could be many problems that come with them, especially if they’re produced at a cheaper price. Check out these reviews to see what I mean:

To find common negative themes about another brand’s product, check out Jungle Scout’s new Review Analysis tool with AI Assist . 

Review Analysis will provide you with a comprehensive analysis of product reviews and ratings for any ASIN that includes common positive and negative comments, suggestions for improving the product, and a competitive comparison with tips for competing against the product.

If you decide to sell a similar product, figure out what customers dislike about your competitors products so you can be sure your product doesn’t face the same issues.

4. Perishable or consumable products

Are you considering a product that falls in the grocery or health categories? These can be profitable because you can grow a repeat customer base as buyers are likely to reorder household staples, but there are some things to be aware of. 

These types of products typically have expiration dates, so keep that in mind when deciding how much inventory you should order. If you overestimate the demand, you may be stuck with expired inventory. 

When it comes to food or supplements, be sure to follow relevant local and federal regulations regarding the product you choose to sell. Research and understand this information before you decide you’re going to sell in one of these categories. 

On top of that, online marketplaces such as Amazon or Walmart may have their own rules and regulations on perishable and consumable products. 

Using the criteria above will help you narrow down your product search versus searching through a broad range of products. Of course, there may be some other criteria that you’d like to consider as your research leads you to specific items, but this is a good place to start if you don’t have a niche or market in mind.

Grow your Amazon business with Jungle Scout.

Jungle Scout’s Amazon intelligence tools help sellers find profitable products to sell.

After you figure out some general criteria to evaluate potential products, how do you come up with solid ideas? Let’s go over some steps you can take to find a good product to sell online. 

1. Start with your hobbies or interests

This is a good place to start because it would be much more enjoyable to sell a product that you’re interested in. Now, as we said earlier, just because you like a particular product doesn’t mean others will. You will still need to evaluate your ideas, but do list down some products that would be of interest to you to start. If there’s potential to sell something you can easily get behind, then why not?

For example, if you like to play pickleball, you could consider selling a pickleball set that includes a paddle, balls, and a net. 

When jotting down ideas, think about how you’d like your product to be better than what’s currently available in the market. You love to play pickleball, but have yet to find the “perfect paddle.” How can you outdo paddles in the market so that they can solve customer problems and needs?

2. Figure out what is currently trending

Capitalizing on growing trends is a smart way to make money selling products online — especially if you catch one at its onset. But how do you even find out what is trending? 

If you’re active on social media, especially on apps like TikTok , you can get a good idea of what products people are talking about. What categories do people love? What new items are consumers raving about? This is a helpful way to harvest ideas but be wary of “fads” instead of trends. We’ll go over this more later when we discuss evaluating product ideas.

Another way to view current trends is to visit “ Google Trends .” The free tool will show you the popularity of any topic over some time so you can find out if something is currently trending or declining in popularity. 

After searching for “halloween costumes” for example, here are the results.

The term “halloween costumes,” was peaking in September 2023 as Halloween approached. 

You can also use Google Trends to find out what people are searching for the most in a particular country. This could give you more viable ideas for products.

3. Search on Amazon

An excellent way to generate good product ideas is to go right to the source: where people are buying them! Amazon features a few different “best sellers” lists you can dig through to find ideas. Here’s how to conduct that search:

First, go to Amazon’s Best Seller page. You can find that in the main menu on the Amazon homepage. 

On this page, you will find the best-selling products for each main category on Amazon. While these products listed are selling very well, it is unlikely that new sellers will be able to compete with them as they have thousands of reviews and an established market share. 

Instead, you’ll want to look at Amazon’s other lists such as New Releases, Movers & Shakers, Most Wished For, and Gift Ideas. The products listed here will be popular and sales but will be easier to compete with over the top 100 best sellers.

Now, dig through each of these lists to discover new products you may have never thought of selling! 

These lists feature products that are rising in popularity and what customers are buying right now. This valuable information is updated every hour. Again, what you will first see are “main categories.” To find low-competition products, we recommend going deeper into subcategories. 

Let’s go over an example. In the “New Releases” list, I’ll click on “Sports & Outdoors” and see what subcategories I can search through. 

The main category “Sports & Outdoors” is way too broad and it’ll be difficult for me to find a product I can profitably compete with. I’ll keep clicking through each subcategory until I find something interesting. 

In this example, I started with Sports & Outdoors > Sports & Fitness > Boating & Sailing > Boating. 

Under the “Boating” subcategory, there are tons of product types I can look through. 

The more “niche” you get with your product research, the better. This way, you can find products that not everyone may have thought of but will still have lots of potential customers. 

4. Attend wholesale trade shows

Trade shows are a fantastic way to meet suppliers and manufacturers in person. They’re also where you can actually touch and experience different types of products first hand, and discover new innovations in the market.

Meeting suppliers in-person versus contacting them online through sites such as Alibaba gives you a huge advantage over the competition. You can build real-life relationships and usually get the best pricing when negotiating in person. 

Trade shows are also great for retailers versus someone trying to create a private label product. Retailers buy other brands at wholesale prices and then resell them for a profit either in a brick & mortar store, ecommerce website, or online marketplace such as Amazon. 

In the Amazon selling world, we call that the wholesale business model . Trade shows are helpful for sellers who don’t want to start their own brand but want to resell other successful products and brands in their store. 

There are trade shows for all types of products and industries. A popular one in NYC is the Toy Fair show. You can discover thousands of popular toy brands as well as private label opportunities. 

A very popular wholesale trade show for brand owners or private label sellers is the ASD Market Week show, held twice a year in Las Vegas. 

5. Search on Alibaba

Many brands and sellers use Alibaba , a B2B marketplace, to find unique products they can private label and sell under their own brand. Alibaba works in a similar fashion to Amazon. Search for any type of product you’re interested in, and you will see many results pop up. 

You can find practically any product you can think of on Alibaba. They also feature top-ranking products and new arrivals to give you some unique ideas. 

Take your time and explore the categories and subcategories just like you would when doing product research on Amazon.

You can also search through Aliexpress , which is related to Alibaba but meant more for consumers versus bulk business buyers. You can purchase as little as one unit of a product or multiple units if you want to test out some samples. 

6. Use product research software

If you want to make the product research process seamless, you can use an advanced product research tool to help you find products matching your exact criteria. 

Jungle Scout offers a few different product research tools in our all-in-one platform to find high-demand, low-competition products. 

• Product Database. We have a searchable catalog called Product Database that allows you to choose categories and set specific filters so you can find products that are selling well. Product Database will only pull up products that meet the criteria you set so you can quickly filter through the results. 
• Product Tracker. From there, you can track the performance of each product you like using our Product Tracker tool. 
• Opportunity Finder. We also have a tool called Opportunity Finder , which you can use to discover new, unique niches and jump in on new emerging trends.

After you have discovered some products you would be interested in selling, how do you know if they’re good markets to sell in? In this section, we’re going to show you how you can evaluate your product ideas and analyze your potential competitors. 

Here are some key factors you should consider when choosing a product to sell online:

• Product demand
• Competition 
• Seasonality 
• Profitability 
• Marketability

1. Product Demand

Are customers searching for and purchasing the product you want to sell? You need to make sure that there is enough demand for you to enter the market. 

Check Amazon Best Seller Rank

Even if you’re not going to be selling your product on Amazon, you can still use Amazon’s data to figure out the demand for your product. If a product is selling well on Amazon, it is usually selling well in other marketplaces.

Jungle Scout’s recommendation: 

At Jungle Scout, we say you should aim for at least 10 sales per day or 300 sales per month. If you take a look at the top 10 or so products on an Amazon search results page, you want the total monthly sales of all those top-selling products to be around 3,000. 

This shows us that there is decent demand in the market to make some sales and compete with other brands.

How do you find the Best Sellers Rank and what do the numbers tell you? Great question. Go to a random Amazon product page and scroll down until you find the “product details” section. 

For this particular example, the BSR (Best Seller Rank) is 106,132 in Sports & Outdoors. If you’re not familiar with selling on Amazon, this number may have little significance, but some key information can be gleaned from it. The higher the BSR, the worse the sales are for that product. This high of a BSR means low sales. 

Amazon sales estimator

You can use Jungle Scout’s Free Sales Estimator to get an estimate of how many units this particular brand is selling per month based on that BSR number. 

As you can see, this product only sells an estimated 60 units per month, which is not ideal for a seller who wants a profitable product.

For this particular product, the total sales of the top 10 products were only around 600 per month total. This tells me that the demand for it is too low or it may be a seasonal product. 

Of course, you can still sell in this market. Just know that your monthly sales volume will be low, and you must order inventory accordingly.

Check Google Trends

Using Google Trends again, you can get an idea of the popularity of a particular product over time by searching for its keywords. For this example, I searched for “boat compass.”

The interest over the past 12 months has been up and down, which tells me it is not a consistently searched-for type of product.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable in this market as the product I was curious about has not been consistently searched for over the past year.

Check product reviews

Viewing product reviews — more specifically, the dates and the quality of the reviews — can give you a good idea of how often people are purchasing that type of product, and what people like and dislike about the product. By analyzing your competitors’ reviews, you can figure out what you can potentially improve with your product. 

Let’s look at the dates first. Since only a small percentage of buyers actually leave reviews, reviews that are dated close to each other indicate that there is decent demand for it. 

If you are on Amazon, you can choose to view the most recent reviews.

Now, let’s figure out how to analyze competitors’ reviews. Analyzing your competitors’ reviews allows you to find common positive and negative themes, so you can figure out what customers love about that specific product and what they dislike about the product. 

The problem is, analyzing reviews manually takes a ton of time and effort. Again, with Jungle Scout Review Analysis with AI Assist tool , you get a comprehensive analysis of product reviews and ratings for any ASIN that includes common positive and negative comments, suggestions for improvement, a competitive comparison with tips for competing against the product.

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Google Keyword Planner

Another free Google tool you can use to see how many people are searching for keywords related to your product is Google Keyword Planner . Simply enter a few keywords related to your product idea and see what the tool comes up with. 

Keyword Planner will show you estimated monthly search volume, competition, and more. 

For the term “ear wax candle” there are roughly 10K – 100K searchers per month. This is a wide range, but it tells me that many people are searching for this term.

2. Competition  

There may be demand for your product but you also need to consider how competitive the market is. If you have lots of competitors, it will be difficult to make your product or ecommerce store stand out. 

Use this tool to see how competitive a particular keyword is for Google Ads. Google Keyword Planner will indicate the level of competition you’re up against, along with the estimated keyword bid. 

This information is useful if you plan on building your own ecommerce site with a platform such as Shopify . 

Search on Amazon and Walmart.com

Take a look at the competition on Amazon or Walmart. How many reviews do they have? Are there many brands with the same product? How can you differentiate yourself from them? What are customers saying about the products? Is there room for improvement? Do you spot opportunities worth taking?

Those are a few questions you should ask yourself when doing a competitive analysis . 

If you see products that have thousands of reviews each, theirs may not be the best market to try and compete in, unless you have extensive ecommerce experience. 

Products with a modest review count — 500 or less — will be an easier market to compete in. If there are one or two products that seem to have way more reviews than the others, this could mean that they have most of the market share in that particular marketplace.

3. Seasonality

Selling a product that is evergreen is ideal — because it is in demand all year round. And yes, selling a seasonal product can also be quite profitable. You just need to be wary of how much inventory you should order for the season, and when to do it on time. 

Google Trends

To determine seasonality, you can use Google Trends again to see what times of the year people are searching for a particular product or keyword. 

If the data shows that consumers are searching for this product steadily throughout the year, it should consistently sell through all four seasons. If you see a big spike during a particular time period and a flat line for the rest of the year, this shows seasonality or indicates that it was a fad that came and went. 

Here’s an easy example: if you search for “Halloween costumes,” you can see that it spikes in September/October and quickly declines afterward. 

Opportunity Finder

If you subscribe to Jungle Scout , you have access to our Opportunity Finder tool, which will show historical search volume as well as a graph displaying the seasonality of a particular product. 

The data you see in Jungle Scout is from Amazon sales, but it typically represents the seasonality and demand across all ecommerce marketplaces or platforms. 

Find profitable products to sell on Amazon.

Leverage Opportunity Finder to evaluate the demand and seasonality of a potential product.

4. Profitability

After evaluating a product’s demand, competition, and seasonality, you need to be sure that the product you want to sell will be profitable. This involves sourcing your product at a reasonable cost and pricing the product properly. 

If you find a product that sells well at $25, but you can only source it for $19, then it won’t be a good opportunity for you — after shipping and potential selling fees, you will lose money on each sale. 

Depending on the platform or marketplace you will be selling on, you need to factor in various fees such as subscription fees, selling fees, advertising fees, storage fees, and shipping fees. 

• First, figure out the average price your competitors are charging for their products. Then, figure out which platform(s) you want to sell your products on, as each one has different fees for their respective sellers. If you’re going to sell on Amazon, make sure you read about and understand all of Amazon’s fees . 
• Next, go to a site such as Alibaba, search for your product, and start contacting suppliers for pricing. After getting a price and shipping quote, calculate what your profit will be after all costs involved. 

There is no particular profit margin you should aim for as it is different for every business, but we recommend around at least a 30-40% gross margin. This will leave you with some room for a marketing budget since you will likely need to advertise your products to stand out and attract sales. 

READ MORE | How Much do Amazon Sellers Make?

5. Marketability  

This is just as important as all of the other factors we mentioned. How are you going to market your product compared to your competition? How can you make improvements to the product itself, to your product images, and to your listing copy? 

You should also consider a social media strategy for your product and determine if it can help grow your business. Search various social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok to see what other brands in your niche are doing to market their products. 

You can have the best product in your category, but if you do not market it well , then how will customers know about your product?

Find your winning product idea

We hope this guide helps you understand the importance of proper product research for your online business. Use the tips and strategies laid out above to be on your way to launching a successful product.

After you find a great product to sell, which platforms do you plan to sell it on? See the links below for in-depth how-to-sell guides for Amazon, Shopify, eBay, Walmart, and even Facebook. We show you how to successfully sell on each one of those marketplaces, step by step.

• How to Sell on Amazon FBA for Beginners
• How to Sell Products on Shopify: a Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Sell on Walmart Marketplace
• How to Sell on eBay — Step-by-Step Beginner’s Guide
• How to Sell on Facebook Marketplace

Did this guide help you find your winning product idea? Do you have another method in mind that we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments!

Take your Amazon business to the next level.

Jungle Scout’s industry-leading Amazon intelligence helps brands and sellers grow on Amazon.

Ecommerce Expert & Writer at Jungle Scout

Brian Connolly is an Amazon seller, ecommerce expert, and writer for Jungle Scout. He lives in the New Jersey Shore area with his wife and cat. When he isn’t writing advice online for aspiring and experienced Amazon sellers for Jungle Scout, he spends his free time boating, fishing, and selling boating-themed items on his Amazon business.

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Product Research: The Building Blocks of a User-Centered Solution

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Product research is a foundational step in building user-centric products. It allows you to understand customer needs, preferences, and market trends, informing the development of successful solutions to user problems. Read on for the ultimate guide to product research, including methods, processes, and best practices—plus our favorite tips from the industry’s leading experts.

Product research 101: Definition, methods, and best practices

You may only build new products once, but you iterate on them continuously. The ongoing evolution of a product’s user experience (UX), informed by user insights, is pivotal to staying ahead of competitors and giving your users exactly what they need. In chapter one of this guide, we’ll explore what product research is, give an overview of key methods (and when to use them), plus best practices to follow.

What is product research?

Product research is any research you conduct to better inform your product and understand your user and market. Unlike user research , product research goes beyond evaluating the user experience and includes market analysis, pricing, feature prioritization, and assessing business viability.

Product research is a broader term than UX research—you can conduct research on the user, the interaction, the market, or your business strategy.

Matthieu Dixte , Product Researcher at Maze

It helps you understand the world you are bringing your product into, and what your users expect to do with a product like yours—so you can use their insights to influence development and design decisions.

Product research can be conducted in multiple ways, such as talking directly to users in focus groups or user interviews , or through product experimentation, usability tests and competitive analysis.

Other research terms you might come across

Ultimately, all research falls under the 'product research' banner if it influences the final product. For some product teams, ‘user research’ and ‘product research’ may be interchangeable. But there are some subtle differences between various research terms that it can be helpful to know. Here are the distinctions between key terms you might hear, explained by Maze's Product Researcher, Matthieu Dixte:

• Market research: Discover who is leading the market, who your direct and indirect competitors are, and what similar products are available to your users at what price
• User research: Understand the user, including their needs, pain points, likes and dislikes, and characteristics—both as a consumer and user of your product
• User experience (UX) research : Learn how your user perceives and interacts with your product—where they click, which paths they follow, and where they search for information on-page
• Product discovery : Uncover what your users’ needs and problems are, validate ideas for potential solutions before development, and apply user insights to your product strategy
• Continuous product discovery : Adapt the mindset of an ever-evolving product and user; conduct research continuously throughout the product lifecycle and ensure all decisions are informed by user insights

For example, let’s say you’re thinking of developing and launching a note-taking app for teenagers. You’d need to conduct market research to see if there are any similar products in high demand to gauge if your tool is something customers want. In parallel, you should run user research to discover who your user persona would be and what their pain points are.

You also have to do product discovery to identify the best way to build and design your potential product to make it appealing for teens. And, if you want to know how your users will feel about your product compared to other options, you need product research .

Lastly, run UX research tests on your mobile and web app to gather feedback, and improve the experience. You should continue to talk with users regularly after launch by adopting a continuous product discovery mindset (and ensure you’re always updating and offering the right product).

Talk to more users without needing to grow your product team

Recruit and test users from Maze’s high-quality panel to get more eyes on your product, without increasing payroll.

Why is product research important?

Are we making the right assumptions? Is this product what users really need? Can they use it effectively?

Research answers all those questions. But product research goes a step further by placing those answers in the context of your niche and the market. It empowers your team—not only to create unbiased, user-centric products—but also to create best-selling products that are based on a robust business strategy and deep understanding of the market.

Product research will also help you:

Head in the right direction

Conducting types of product research like competitive analysis gives you inside information on what your users value in a similar product—and what they’re missing. It ensures you’re heading in the right direction by only working on aspects of your product you know will succeed. This helps you speed time-to-market, reduce the cost of fixing future mistakes, and achieve higher goals.

Product research allows you to “define the total addressable market and north star metric, based on the customer segments that found your idea and product valuable. We would fail at achieving product-market fit without doing customer research,” explains Prerna Kaul , Product Lead for Alexa AI at Amazon.

Make the right decisions at the right time

User data can inform your decisions and help you prioritize them according to the goals of the business. “Make choices regarding the evolution of your product and find the right balance between what you want to deliver to improve the user experience, and the benefits it’ll bring to your company,” advises Matthieu. Without product research, you’re building products in the dark with no idea whether your target audience will like or buy them—which could mean wasted resources and sinking revenue.

Get stakeholder buy-in

You’ve probably found yourself explaining multiple times to stakeholders why you need to prioritize one feature over another. Conducting product research enables you to “clearly articulate the customer value proposition to leadership, tech, and science counterparts,” says Prerna. Having quantitative and qualitative user insights provides reassurance to stakeholders and speeds up sign-off—while ensuring the wider organization is aligned on your product ideas.

In short, product research provides you evidence you need to start evangelizing research among your organization, and get the whole team on board.

Understand the position your users hold in the market

User research is about getting to know your target audience and building ideal customer profiles, but product research is about discovering where your potential customers are located in the market and which trending products to take note of. If your audience is already using a similar product, this means finding out: Which one? Why? Are they willing to switch to a different product? What would it take for you to get them to switch?

“Analyzing the market lets you determine which areas could be ripe for disruption or creation. By analyzing existing products and doing conceptual thinking you can build a picture of how you can get your product to gain traction in the market and offer something new, nuanced, or better than the current options,” says Nick Simpson , Head of UX at Airteam.

Challenge your assumptions and anticipate problems

When Prerna worked at Walmart Labs, her team introduced a feature for users to scan products in the Scan and Go app. “We initially believed that all of our inventory was available in a common database and accessible through the app. However, during research and user testing, we identified that some rare products were not in the online database,” she explains.

This caused test users to drop off the app, so her team had to take a step back and prioritize fixing inventory issues before launching the product. Without conducting product research, you can be left guessing at the cause of user problems, or wondering why they prefer a particular product. Research offers your team a chance to challenge what you think you know, and pre-empt what you don’t.

Product tip 💡

You can use Maze to conduct multiple tests on your product through development, such as Five-Second Tests or Content and Copy Testing , or get insights on your live product through Live Website Testing .

Product research methods

There are many different product research and UX research methods , all of which offer different kinds of data and insight, depending on your objectives. If you’re looking to conduct product research to better understand your users, market, or competitors, here are eight product research methods you should consider to help you build winning products.

1. Customer interviews

Interviews can take place at any take of the product development process and consist of direct conversations with current or potential customers. You may choose to conduct interviews with a market panel during concept testing and idea screening to validate your ideas, or you may want to speak to current users after the product goes live to gather post-launch feedback. Interviews are a varied and flexible product research method.

During customer interviews, you should ask open and unbiased research questions to gather insights about customer needs, preferences, and experiences regarding their pain points, your product, and competitors.

2. Voice of customer (VoC) analysis

Gauge what current and potential customers are saying about your products or competitor products online. You can do this using VoC tools , by reviewing what people post on social media, looking at Google Trends, or reading reviews on websites like G2.

You should conduct customer voice analysis continuously throughout the lifecycle as it can help you gain a competitive advantage. “Review what’s publicly published, check feature requests, and ask sales, customer success, or support teams for feedback coming from the user,” adds Matthieu.

For example, if a competitor gets acquired by a bigger firm and users start to complain about them removing a feature, you can use the opportunity to develop a similar functionality or improve the one you have. You can also make it more visible on-page and get the sales and marketing teams to use the information to advertise your product.

3. Diary studies

Diary studies involve users self-reporting behaviors, habits, and experiences over a period of time. This is often used during the discovery phase with a competitor product, or later down the line with a prototype. By observing how users feel prior to, during, and after using your (or a competitor) product—and their experience throughout—you can gather valuable, in-the-moment insights within a real life context.

You can conduct diary studies on paper, video, or online on a mobile app or a dedicated platform.

Data from diary research can turn into new product ideas, new features, or inform your current project. For instance, if you have a social media scheduling tool and you identify that users open a time zone calculator when they’re scheduling posts, you instantly have a new feature idea, to add a widget with different time zones.

Learn more about the types of diary study and how to conduct diary research here.

4. Competitive analysis

Analyze competitors' products and strategies to identify what works for them and identify any gaps in the market. The idea behind competitive product analysis is to explore your competitor’s products in-depth, sign up for an account, use them for a while, and take notes of top features, UX, and price points. You can run competitive analysis during the discovery, concept validation , or prototyping stages with direct and indirect competitors, or aspirational businesses.

Matthieu Dixte, Product Researcher at Maze, notes the value of competitive analysis is in understanding your users perspective: “We conduct a lot of competitive analysis at Maze because it's really important for us to understand if the market is mature regarding a particular topic—and to identify the current ground covered. This helps us understand the pros and cons our customers perceive when they choose between our product or another tool.”

Surveys can be a great way to get feedback or gather user sentiment relating to existing products or future concepts. You can also use them to dig deeper into the data gathered during other tests, and understand user issues and preferences in context.

For example, if you ran an A/B test and discovered that certain copy was causing potential users to churn, you could follow-up with a survey with targeted questions around their demographics, preferences, and personal views. This would help add qualitative insights to your quantitative data, and help understand what your users are looking for from your product.

Remember, you can create surveys at any stage of the product development to collect data from users in small or large volumes. You can use different types of surveys and survey principles to validate or debunk hypotheses, prioritize features, and identify your target market. For example, you could ask questions about your product, competitors, and prices or even your customer’s preferences and market trends.

Surveys can have a high drop-out rate, harming the validity of your data. Check out our survey design guide to discover the industry’s top secrets to an engaging survey which keeps users hooked.

6. Usability testing

Since conducting product research is also about understanding how well your customers navigate through your product and if they find it usable, you can run usability or prototype tests . Usability testing evaluates the usability of your product by asking test participants to complete tasks on your tool and seeing how they interact with it.

While typically conducted as a pre-launch check, usability testing is now widely understood as a building block of continuous research. Conducting regular usability tests is crucial to staying familiar with users, taking the pulse of your product, and ensuring every new product decision is informed with real data.

Conduct usability tests on a product research tool like Maze and record your participant’s audio, video, and screen with Clips . This offers you a mix of quantitative and qualitative data to learn why participants take certain actions to complete test tasks.

7. Fake door testing

The fake door testing method, also called the ‘painted door method’, is a way to validate whether your customers would be interested in a particular feature. “It works by faking a feature that is not actually available and implementing a tracker to know how many people click on it,” explains Matthieu.

When people click on the feature, they see a message explaining it’s not available at the moment. If the click-rate is high, you can assume there’s interest in the feature and conduct further research to identify how to design and develop it.

While it’s a quick way to gauge interest, fake door testing runs the risk of frustrating users, so if you’re using this method on a live product, you should be cautious and set a short testing period to avoid creating false expectations in your users.

8. Focus groups

Focus groups are when you gather a group of users to try your product and discuss their thoughts on the design, UX, usability, or price. You’ll offer them prompts or ask a series of user research questions to spark conversation, then observe and take notes.

This can be an expensive or admin-heavy method, as you need to rent a space, find participants who are willing to attend, and compensate them for their time. However, you can also conduct focus groups remotely through video conferencing tools. These groups are a good way of generating new product ideas or gaining deep insight in a short space of time, as you can hear directly from your users and adjust your questioning to follow up on important topics or opinions which participants mention.

When to perform product research

Source: 2023 Continuous Product Discovery Report

According to our 2023 Continuous Product Discovery Report , most teams conduct research at problem discovery (59%) and problem validation (57%), with only 36% researching post-launch.

The consensus is that product teams don’t think that’s enough—78% think they could research more often: which means there’s a big opportunity for you to implement regular research at all stages of the product research process .

Here’s when to conduct research on your product:

• At problem discovery stage to outline a hypothesis based on user insights
• During problem validation to prove your hypothesis
• During solution generation and concept development to see if you’re moving in the right direction
• As you’re screening different ideas for prioritization to identify the ones your users value most
• At solution definition and once you have your initial design to test early wireframes
• After developing a prototype to see assess usability and direction
• During validation and testing to review changes made to previous prototypes
• After development, and post-launch to get feedback and plan your future steps
• Before launching a new feature or doing product optimization to gauge users’ perceptions

Best practices for effective product research

If you only have time to consider one best practice for product research, we’ll keep it short. Just start.

Any research is better than none, and there’s a wealth of knowledge out there waiting to be discovered. If you don’t use it, your competitors will.

Now, here are six other best practices to help you improve your results and get the best insights possible:

1. Conduct research continuously

Your product is never done, at least not while the market, your customers, and technology are evolving. So, for your users to keep choosing you, you need to grow with them, adapt to trends, and keep iterating on your product. The right way to make product iterations is by conducting continuous product research, having frequent communication with your users, and actively listening to the market.

Did you know that user-centric organizations achieve 2.3x better business outcomes? 📊

By putting customers' needs front and center, research-mature organizations are driving better customer satisfaction (1.9x), customer retention (2.4), and increased revenue (4.2x). Learn more in our Research Maturity Report .

2. Focus on the business problem when presenting to stakeholders

It’s easy to get so involved in the product that you forget to mention how it helps the business when presenting research findings. To get stakeholders on board and to build great products that are profitable, always keep the business needs in mind. There’s no product without business success, so always align with your stakeholders and bring it back to team KPIs and business metrics. To convey your story, it’s a good rule of thumb to start each cross-team meeting by presenting the business problem, then sharing how adding a certain feature decision will help you solve it, before getting into the data that backs this up.

3. Embrace your curiosity

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in product research is letting cognitive biases take over the process. Work in teams and ask questions out of curiosity—consider research a way to disprove your hypothesis or challenge your assumptions, rather than a way to prove them right. As Prerna Kaul, Product Lead for Alexa AI at Amazon explains, you often gain more insight from an answer you don’t want to hear. “A huge trust-buster is when researchers sell an idea to customers and reinforce their pre-existing beliefs.” Doing so makes the user tell you what you want to hear but not what you need to know. It’s better to know that you have the wrong assumptions early on and build products that solve the right problem.

It’s non-negotiable to ensure that you are solving the right problem for the customer. Your solution is a painkiller, not a vitamin.

Prerna Kaul , Product Lead for Alexa AI at Amazon

4. Focus on the end goal rather than specific features

When you work closely with a product you’re passionate about, it’s only natural to think of all the possibilities, and minute details and features of the product. However, it’s crucial to understand that, while you might be the one making the internal decisions, the user will have the final call. Getting hung up on specific features will get you frustrated if users disagree, or lead you to make biased choices. To overcome this, you can write a research statement explaining the big problem you’re trying to achieve with the product. Come back to this before and after each decision, to keep your choices grounded in what’s best for the user.

“We always ask: Are we solving the right problem by creating this product? Is it going to have a measurable benefit to people?” says Nick Simpson, Head of UX at Airteam. “Then, we try to answer those questions through research methods to determine whether this investment will be worth it, to both business and users.” By thinking of the overall end goal at all stages, you get to build profitable products and features that really respond to that intention.

5. Take notes of everything

This one might go without saying, but it’s crucial to keep track of everything. Not just to inform future research and remind yourself where decisions came from, but to democratize research and bring the entire organization into your research process .

Set up a centralized research repository that anyone can access, and share it with your wider organization. Within the product team, keep a record of all user insights, even if they sound impossible to achieve at first. “These ‘futuristic’ thoughts or ideas are the ones that can either inform future iterations of the product or that you can creatively turn into something more feasible to design and build,” explains Nick. Keeping an organized information bank enables everyone on the team to get to know the user, the market, and why you’ve made certain decisions in the past.

6. Combine user feedback with data

While your users should be at the center of your business, don’t rely solely on their comments without checking other data. In reality, not everything people say is exactly what they do . Research participants can be influenced by any number of factors, mostly unconscious, so it’s important to use qualitative and quantitative data to reinforce each other.

For example, the users you interviewed might tell you they love a certain feature, but when you contrast those comments with heatmap data and time on page, you see that only a small percentage of your customers actually use it. Consider what research can be conducted to ascertain why this is, how you can improve those metrics, or whether it’s more helpful to refocus efforts on a different feature with a higher profit margin.

Keep learning about product research

In this chapter, we’ve covered a lot about product research:

• What product research is (and what it’s not)
• How researching your product is beneficial to your business
• The different methods you can use to conduct product research
• When to conduct product research
• Best practices for your research

Now, it’s time to kickstart your product research process in the next chapter. We’ll also talk about how to conduct product experiments and competitive analysis, so stay tuned.

Product research process