Market Research for Product Management: From Data to Roadmap

Learn practical market research to validate ideas, size markets, analyze competitors, and turn insights into roadmaps

What you’ll learn
Define and apply primary/secondary and qual/quant research methods in product work
Segment a market, choose target segments, and build research-backed personas
Estimate opportunities using market sizing and TAM/SAM/SOM models
Run competitor analysis (SWOT, positioning maps, and battlecards) to sharpen differentiation
Collect reliable data with surveys, interviews, observation, social listening, and analytics
Analyze and synthesize findings into clear, actionable product decisions and roadmap inputs

Requirements
There are no prerequisites for this course

Description
Have you ever been on a product team where the idea felt solid, the build went smoothly… and the launch still flopped?

It’s more common than most teams admit. In fact, CB Insights reports that 42% of startups fail because there was “no market need.” That means nearly half of product efforts can fail for one core reason: they built something impressive—but not something wanted.

That’s why market research is a foundational skill for product managers. It’s how you stop guessing, reduce risk, and make confident decisions across the entire product lifecycle—from ideation to launch, growth, and iteration.

In this course, you’ll learn a clear, practical system for understanding customers, competitors, and market dynamics—then translating what you learn into better product strategy and roadmap decisions.

You’ll learn how to

• Understand market research fundamentals (primary vs. secondary, qualitative vs. quantitative)

• Define your target market, segment users, and create research-backed personas

• Assess market landscape using PESTLE and Porter’s Five Forces

• Size opportunities with market sizing and TAM/SAM/SOM models

• Run competitor analysis (intel gathering, SWOT, positioning maps, and battlecards)

• Collect high-signal data using surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, social listening, and product analytics

• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data, synthesize themes, and triangulate insights

• Communicate research findings clearly and turn them into decisions your team will act on

• Integrate research into product strategy across ideation, development, launch, and maturity

• Stay current with emerging research trends, including AI-assisted analysis and DIY research tools

You’ll also get a real-world case study on Dell’s IdeaStorm—what happens when you truly invite customers into product decision-making, and what it takes internally to make that feedback actionable.

This course is designed for busy product managers who want a usable playbook—not academic theory. By the end, you’ll be able to build products that align with real market demand, defend your decisions with evidence, and create a repeatable research loop that keeps your strategy grounded in reality.

Who this course is for
Aspiring product managers learning core PM research skills
Early-career product managers who want a repeatable research process
Product owners and business analysts involved in discovery and prioritization
Startup founders validating ideas, markets, pricing, and positioning
Growth and marketing professionals who collaborate with product on segmentation and messaging
UX/UI designers and researchers who want tighter linkage from insights to product strategy
Engineers and tech leads who want to understand the “why” behind product decisions