Write your Market Research Questions
The quality of your research will be partially determined by the quality of the questions you ask.
As a general strategy, you will want to glean all you can from secondary market research sources and then narrow your focus to primary. For now don’t worry whether your questions can be answered through primary or secondary research. It’s more important to clarify your questions then to determine the best method to obtain the answers. If you’re confused about this, re-read Step 10.
View the Example: List of Market Research Questions
Action
This step is to gather information for research purposes. If you set up folders in Step 4, we suggest creating a subfolder in the “Business Plan” folder, called “Worksheets” and saving the following worksheet with the file name market_research_questions_year_month_date
Download the List of Market Research Questions Worksheet
Write your market research questions.
- Reread the List of Assumptions you created in Step 14 and the List of Market Research Goals you created in Step 15.
- Write a list of market research questions that you wish to have answers for. Try to have at least one question for each assumption and each objective.
- Don’t worry about missing questions at this point. If you are truly curious, many more questions will surface as you research. Later, as you think of other questions, add them to your list.
- Go back and review Sources of Assistance and Information Checklist in Step 15. Consider where you can find answers to your questions. Make your list.
- Use the Market Research Questions Worksheet to list your questions, what you will seek in the way of supporting information, and where to find the answers you need.