Ask HN: How do you do market research for a software business?
What tools, sites, companies, etc. does the HN crowd use to do market research when starting a new software business or looking to launch a new software product? Is it typical to pay for research or do you only use resources that are freely available? Any books or other resources you'd recommend on learning more about how to conduct proper market research?
4 comments
It really depends on the niche and the type of the business you're planning (e.g. B2C vs. B2B, mostly service-based vs. product-based).
Some of the things that have worked for me:
- Using the Google Ads Keyword Research Tool to get an estimate of search interest for your product/keyword.
- Trying to find people in your network who work in the niche and may have experienced the problem you're aiming to tackle. Search on LinkedIn and sort the results by "in my network". Ask your connection for an intro if you're not directly connected to the target.
- Cold-emailing potential customers and asking for feedback. The response rate for such "what do you think about..." emails is really low, so be prepared to send at least 100 emails to get some meaningful conversations out of it. Spend some time to personalize each email to increase your chances of getting a reply and keep the message short.
- Create a survey where you try to gauge the relevance of the problem you're addressing and whether your solution would actually be helpful. Don't send it out to your family and friends - you need the opinion of your target audience.
I run IdeaCheck.io, where we basically automate the third option - we design a survey based on your idea and send it out to respondents, so you get an impression of whether you're "on to something". We also benchmark your results with all ideas that have gone through our service so far and the respondents provide comments/feedback on your idea.
Some of the things that have worked for me:
- Using the Google Ads Keyword Research Tool to get an estimate of search interest for your product/keyword.
- Trying to find people in your network who work in the niche and may have experienced the problem you're aiming to tackle. Search on LinkedIn and sort the results by "in my network". Ask your connection for an intro if you're not directly connected to the target.
- Cold-emailing potential customers and asking for feedback. The response rate for such "what do you think about..." emails is really low, so be prepared to send at least 100 emails to get some meaningful conversations out of it. Spend some time to personalize each email to increase your chances of getting a reply and keep the message short.
- Create a survey where you try to gauge the relevance of the problem you're addressing and whether your solution would actually be helpful. Don't send it out to your family and friends - you need the opinion of your target audience.
I run IdeaCheck.io, where we basically automate the third option - we design a survey based on your idea and send it out to respondents, so you get an impression of whether you're "on to something". We also benchmark your results with all ideas that have gone through our service so far and the respondents provide comments/feedback on your idea.
Software business of what? There are multiple ways to do research and analysis and it varies for every section in software business.
Can you be specific?
Like whether you want to run some sort of SAAS business or web / mobile development company etc., or anything other?
Can you be specific?
Like whether you want to run some sort of SAAS business or web / mobile development company etc., or anything other?
Sure, SaaS business. I'm interested to know why it varies so much as well.
In addition to all the suggestions, review websites provide a really good source for pros/cons of competition which can help you with go-to-market and marketing strategy.