What does market research mean when you are talking about an experiential product?

14 September 2013

I've written before about the use of market research in online learning, the main gist being that before you invest a ton of time on a course product with some new spin, you should first test the market. In other words, the principle should be pull rather than push.

But then if your new learning product involves a new type of experience, then it could be hard or next to impossible to convey what that new experience would be in a market research survey. For example, if your course is about to create a new level of personalization and interaction, that experience won't get through in a short description or even in a well-crafted video. People have to try it so that they might get a better idea on whether they would like to pay for the product and exactly how much they would be willing to pay.

This is why I am now thinking that market research might be simply the first iterative cycle in an Agile chain. The process then should start with a market research, followed by an immediate release of a minimum viable product (MVP). Only then increments to that product are made through a series of small randomized experiments.

In this context, market research is not a definitive step, do or die. Instead, market research is just the start of an extensive experiment where the path can be re-oriented dynamically oriented as you go. So, if a given niche wants personalization, then given then the type of personalization they want. If their main need is deep content, then deep content it is, and so on.

by Ricardo Pietrobon

About Me

My name is Ricardo Pietrobon and I am interested in big data and situated cognition applied to immersive distance education.