If you’re a product manager, you know how high the stakes are when you’re setting the product roadmap. The team has so many ideas of what to build, and each idea has its own development and manufacturing requirements. And let’s not forget about the delta between what the team wants to build and what customers actually want or need. For example, you may have 20-40 different features on the product roadmap. And you, as the product manager, are tasked with prioritizing what to w

A SaaS platform reached out about running research to optimize their pricing and packaging— textbook conjoint territory. But when we asked about their current pricing strategy, they said, "Well, our current pricing strategy is per-user-based pricing, but we're considering usage-based pricing and potentially a platform fee." They weren't   refining their pricing . They were completely rethinking their pricing model.  So we hit pause. Had we not asked about the business decisio

You're in a conference room with your leadership team. The PM is excited about the new features. The CEO is certain you’ve got the competitive edge. Marketing has crafted the perfect campaign around "increasing productivity." Everyone is in agreement. You're so confident, you skip message testing entirely. Then you launch the campaign, and it falls flat. This exact scenario played out with one of our SaaS clients recently. Their entire team, from product to leadership, was co

Brand positioning is often treated as an art form, guided by creative intuition, internal assumptions, and a few qualitative interviews or focus groups. Marketing teams then launch campaigns, measure results, and tweak messaging in a cycle where  data rarely drives the first move. But here’s the truth: when paired with qualitative research, advanced analytics can elevate positioning  from guesswork into a precision tool. Why analytics belong at the start In 2025 alone, we’ve

For startups, the idea of adding market research to the equation can feel overwhelming. When should you start market research? How much should you invest? How much is enough (or too little)? These questions challenge founders as they navigate the delicate balance between spending precious resources and gathering critical market insights. The truth is, market research isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. It's a dynamic strategy that evolves alongside startups, providing crucial

A sustainability tech company had an extremely successful product launch — but growth had stalled. Satisfaction scores were high, and loyal users sang its praises. Yet new customers weren’t showing up. The disconnect revealed a critical blind spot. This scenario illustrates why we need to do market research—beneath the surface of seemingly positive feedback lurked a strategic blind spot that threatened the company's potential. This is the silent challenge of customer research

A B2B SaaS company nearly invested millions in workflow automation features , convinced it was their customers' top priority. After all, it was the industry’s buzzword of the year. Their competitive analysis showed every major player offered it, and it often came up in conversations at the C-suite level. But, just before committing resources to development, the company paused to run deeper customer research and uncovered a major disconnect. Their SMB and mid-market customers

With Americans spending a staggering $3.5 billion on Halloween candy each year , which treats actually make trick-or-treaters happy?  Our sixth annual candy research survey shows exactly what people want in their Halloween haul, using  MaxDiff analysis  to measure preferences across different groups. Exploring Halloween candy trends According to CandyStore.com , M&Ms scored the number one slot in 2024 , taking the crown from Reese's Cups based on total consumer spend. But sal

What is the best album of all time? Is it Michael Jackson's "Thriller"? Perhaps it's The Beatles' "Abbey Road"? Or maybe it's Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"? When Apple released its list of the 100 Best Albums , music enthusiasts and research experts worldwide found themselves  locked in a heated debate . The company had brought together a team of industry professionals to create what they intended to be a definitive ranking of albums that shaped music histor

Americans disagree about almost everything in politics - except how much they dislike the other party. Pew Research recently found that 62% of Republicans strongly dislike Democrats, while 54% of Democrats feel the same about Republicans .  As election season approaches, this divide creates a major challenge: How can campaigns figure out which issues truly matter to voters? The problem lies in how we ask voters about policy priorities. I see polling companies repeatedly make

Companies work hard to give customers what they want. While this seems straightforward, it's more complex than it appears. Thankfully, you can use many different research methods to understand customers.  Why research customer preferences? There's often a gap between what people say they prefer and how they actually behave when making choices. That’s because customers don't always know what they want. Even when they do, they might have trouble putting it into words. This make

For many businesses, uncovering genuine customer preferences feels like trying to read minds. Traditional surveys frequently fail to reveal true preferences because they don't force people to make tough choices similar to those they make in real life. Enter Best/Worst Scaling, which makes it easier to prioritize product features based on data. Best/Worst Scaling, also known as MaxDiff , is an analytics tool that helps businesses understand what their customers truly value. It

It’s not uncommon to hear pushback from some business leaders about investing in market research studies. Comments like "It will take too...

I often advise clients to incorporate segmentation strategies to identify their target customers. An essential technique we employ is market segmentation, which typically leverages survey data to group customers based on their needs, attitudes, and behaviors. Businesses see greater returns on their marketing investments by tailoring products and messaging to segments rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. In this article, I will provide an overview of market segmentation,

As CEO of a market research firm that partners closely with product teams, people often ask me about best practices for building an effective product development roadmap. A roadmap is a blueprint for bringing ideas to market and transforming strategy into reality. When done right, roadmapping aligns organizations, secures stakeholder buy-in, and sets the stage for impactful innovation. As a product leader, one of your most critical responsibilities is charting the path to ev

It is common for product managers, developers, engineers, marketers, owners, you name it - to want to know how their...

MaxDiff VS Conjoint Analysis MaxDiff vs Conjoint? What is the difference? Let's dive in! MaxDiff Analysis, also known as best-worst scaling, is an approach for obtaining preference/importance scores for multiple items. Respondents are typically shown 2-6 items at a time (ex. ice cream flavors - chocolate, strawberry, blue moon, superman, cookie dough) and asked to indicate which is best and which is worst. The task is repeated many times, showing a different set of items in e

Last week, a good friend shared a stat she heard at a conference. It was incredibly surprising, and we both knew that discrete choice could help. Across all industries, 71% of all app users churn within 90 days. This is according to research from @Localytics in their article – Mobile Apps: What’s A Good Retention Rate by Justina Perro What does this mean? Well, by definition, churn means leave. Adios. No longer an active user. Etc. What does mean for the apps of the world? T

Last night, the Kansas Jayhawks made March Madness history with an epic comeback over the North Carolina Tarheels to win the NCAA championship game. Nate Silver’s team at @FiveThirtyEight not only makes predictions at the beginning of the tournament, but also shares live probabilities of who might win depending on the score. Really fun to see if you’re a stats AND basketball nerd like myself. But perhaps you don’t have all the predictive tools that the FiveThirtyEight team

Research shows that on Christmas day, holiday-themed programming spikes as households curl up in front of the television for a dose of holiday cheer. Timeless classics like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” come to my mind. And thanks to @RottenTomatoes, we have access to a list of the  50 Best Christmas Movies of All Time . Now the last thing you want to do on the holidays is argue with family. So how will maintain peace on earth and goodwill towar