My employer, a small startup, has never conducted official market research. They provide services to the academic community, but they are limited in their knowledge. To determine what our “target market segment” should be, I’d like to help in conducting more in-depth market research (e.g., “universities with at least 5000 students or 500 faculty members”, etc.)
Do you have any experience doing this at work? What is the first step? Is it safer to employ an outside firm that specializes in market research or is it preferable to handle this internally? Any guidance or resources would be greatly appreciated.
– Christie Dook
Discussion
A] To figure out your target market segment, you can follow these steps:
Identify the characteristics of your ideal customer: This includes demographics, behaviors, needs, and pain points.
Conduct market research: Use surveys, focus groups, and secondary research to gather data on your target market.
Analyze your competition: See who they target and how they position themselves.
Evaluate your product or service: Determine how it solves a problem or meets a need for your target market.
Segment your market: Group similar customers together based on their characteristics and needs.
Select your target market segment: Choose the segment that best matches your product or service, and has the most potential for growth and profitability.
Define your target customer: Create a buyer persona that represents your target market segment, including their demographics, behaviors, needs, and pain points.
Test and refine: Continuously monitor and adjust your target market strategy based on feedback and market changes.
– Anushka Garg
B] Your first statement about conducting market research for your startup, if you haven’t done it yet, you can follow these steps:
Start with secondary research: Use online sources such as government reports, trade publications, and academic journals to gather information on your target market.
Identify key players: Make a list of universities and academic institutions that are your potential customers and their characteristics, such as size, location, and focus areas.
Conduct surveys: Reach out to your current customers and potential customers to gather data on their needs and preferences.
Hold focus groups: Gather a small group of customers and conduct in-depth discussions on their experiences, challenges, and pain points.
Analyze the data: Evaluate the data from your surveys and focus groups to identify common themes and patterns.
Define your target market segment: Use the data to determine your target market segment, for example, “universities with at least 5000 students or 500 faculty members.”
Create a buyer persona: Develop a detailed profile of your target customer, including their demographics, behaviors, needs, and pain points.
Test and refine: Continuously monitor and adjust your target market strategy based on feedback and market changes.
It’s important to note that market research is an ongoing process, and it’s important to regularly collect and analyze data to ensure that your target market segment remains relevant.
– Michael Yoffe
C] Market research and segmentation wonderfully explained by @MichaelYoffe. Really appreciate. As for whether to conduct the market research in-house or hire an external company, it depends on your resources and expertise. If you have the skills and expertise to conduct the research in-house, it can be cost-effective. However, if you don’t have the resources or expertise, hiring an external company that specializes in market research can provide more reliable and comprehensive results.
There are several resources available to help you with your market research, including online market research tools such as Google Trends, and books on market research and customer segmentation, such as “Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation” by Naresh K. Malhotra. Additionally, organizations such as the Market Research Association and the American Marketing Association offer resources, events, and training on market research and customer segmentation.
What does a PM – Growth’s typical day look like? What are the obstacles? What is the role’s logical progression? It seems like a smooth method to get to the director’s position. Would like a more detailed description than what is normally given in job requirements.
– Ana Rodrigues
Discussion
A] I had to wrap my brain around this as I transitioned from core to growth. This is my personal experience with SW, and I’m sure that varies by company. Making changes to your thoughts and strategy to a hyper-focused area makes a significant difference. Growth often concentrates on activation/monetization journeys with tests along the route to explore how you can make a difference there. For instance, does a particular group of your users like a different setup method, which results in a rise in signups? you can upgrade your plan using self-serve features. After that, basically you’re tweaking things to improve monetization and activation.
With core work, there is typically a greater probability of success because you are solving the issue for the broadest user group (or having the greatest impact). To ensure that it is accessible to a wide range of users, the function could be “generalized.” You then go on to the following issue. You hardly ever get to iterate on the minor things until you’re rebuilding because the issue space is typically larger and there are much too many areas to concentrate on.
– Dianne Stinger
B] It’s not uncommon for the role of a Product Manager (Growth) to overlap with that of a Technical Product Manager. In many cases, a Growth PM is expected to work closely with the engineering and technical teams to develop and launch new features and products that drive user acquisition and retention.
As a Growth PM in a technical-heavy role, your main responsibilities may include:
Identifying and analyzing user behavior, engagement, and conversion data to identify growth opportunities.
Developing and implementing strategies to increase user acquisition and retention, with a focus on technical solutions.
Collaborating with cross-functional teams, such as design and engineering, to develop and launch new features and products.
Managing the product development process, including prioritizing features, tracking progress, and communicating with stakeholders.
Communicating effectively with cross-functional teams, such as engineers and technical teams, to guide them in the development and launch of new features and products.
Staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends and technologies and being able to communicate it to the technical team.
The challenges that you may face in this role include:
Balancing competing priorities, such as user acquisition, retention, and technical feasibility.
Understanding and communicating technical requirements and constraints to non-technical stakeholders.
Managing the trade-offs between short-term growth and long-term sustainability, while ensuring that the product is technically sound.
Staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends and technologies.
Communicating effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
If you find yourself in this role, it’s important to have a solid understanding of the technical aspects of the product, as well as the ability to communicate effectively with engineers and other technical team members. Additionally, it’s important to have a growth mindset, being able to think creatively and come up with new ideas for driving user acquisition and retention, while also ensuring that the product is technically sound.
– Pankaj Jain
C] Like most PM responsibilities, this one is timing-dependent. A product that hasn’t taken off yet, is just getting started, is seeing significant adoption growth every quarter, appears to have plateaued, has plateaued and is declining, or has actually dropped below its highs of 2020–2021 and needs to get back on track, might be the company you’re joining. All of those circumstances—which affect user acquisition, engagement, and retention—could prompt a business to hire a PM to concentrate on growth, but they would provide drastically different expectations, issues, and demands.
We were having trouble communicating with our customers (messaging) about our product. Concisely describing yourself, your offering, its advantages, and the issue it solves is crucial. At the same time, it’s quite challenging to condense everything you have to offer. So, you need to put yourself in the feeds of your users and understand what benefits and solution they take out of your product and compress those into couple of words. It has been difficult for us to do so.
How do you conduct your Product positioning?
– Marco Silva
Discussion
A] Effective product messaging is crucial to capturing the attention of potential customers and conveying the value of your product. To do this, focus on the key benefits and problem-solving capabilities of your product, and present them in a clear, concise, and compelling way. Use language that resonates with your target audience and speaks to their pain points and avoid using industry jargon or technical terms that they may not understand. Ultimately, the goal is to communicate the unique value proposition of your product in a way that is easy for your customers to understand and remember.
– Elvin Henriques
B] Explaining the Product Positioning and Marketing in short might make it easier for you to take this further. So firstly, here are the definitions of both the terms:
Product positioning refers to the process of creating an image or perception in the mind of the customer about the product’s attributes, benefits, and the target market it is meant for. It helps in differentiating the product from its competitors and creates a unique identity in the market.
Product Marketing is the process of promoting and selling a product. It involves researching, promoting, and distributing a product to the target audience. Effective marketing helps in creating awareness and demand for a product, and can also be used to influence customer perceptions and reinforce product positioning.
In summary, product positioning sets the foundation for the marketing message and helps guide the marketing efforts to ensure they align with the overall positioning and strategy of the product.
Since you haven’t given much details about your product it might be difficult to give you any advice. But, based on these definitions you can decide your strategy for positioning and marketing of your product.
– Dhiraj Mehta
C] Thank you for your response @DhirajMehta. One of our issues is that we now have a solution that solves two problems, but the feedback is so muddled that we’re not sure which one to promote.
Since we are at a very early stage, we want to excel at just one thing, but we are unsure of what that should be. I could be mistaken, but I had no other thought except to try each one.
You only have a finite resource and when you work on a certain problem, it means you’re not working on other problems. That’s your opportunity cost:the potential loss from a missed opportunity. Think about the next thing(s) you’re going to work on if you’re not working on this problem, and make sure that you can afford that cost.
So this article isn’t about how to get promoted to senior PM, but about how to advance your thinking and become a better PM. Anyone can think like a senior PM regardless of their title — and just because one has the senior PM title, doesn’t mean they truly deserve it.
There’s enough to think about and own in the strategy space without building unnecessary ownership of delivery. Be prepared to either add significant time onto the “when” or defer to Engineering and focus on what’s directly in your control. The “What” and the “why”.
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