Technical research is what you might think of when you hear the word "research". When it comes to product development, technical research asks: Is it possible to build this product? Can we even afford it?

But there are two other kinds of research that are important for creating digital products:

• Market research asks the question: Will people buy this product? Is it even worth building?
• UX research asks the question: How would users actually use the product? How would they want to use it?
  

Often confused, these questions can overlap. After all, user interface concerns make a big difference as to whether or not someone will want to buy a software product. And the types of people who would buy a product will affect the kind of behavioural patterns used with the product.

Ultimately, however, market research and UX research are two separate kinds of activities that can be combined to help make a great product.

Read on to find out how to do both kinds of research for your next project. We'll cover the goals and methods of each, how to do research ethically, as well as the role of both market and UX research throughout the product lifecycle.

Goals: Attitudes vs Behaviours

Market research and UX research look for different types of information.

Market research looks for attitudinal information: how people feel about things. Primarily, this is their problems, and how they want to solve them. The goal is to find out how the market at large would feel about and respond to the product.

UX research looks for behavioural information: how people actually act when using a digital product. The goal is a detailed understanding of real user behaviour patterns.

These goals are not identical. Most people don't know why they do what they do, and much human-computer interaction operates unconsciously. Market research doesn't necessarily tell you anything about user behaviour, and UX research doesn't necessarily tell you anything about the market.

On the other hand, behavioural and attitudinal information are not mutually exclusive. They support and reinforce each other. Your goal should be to create something that people want, and also something that they are comfortable using.

Market Research Goals

Market research pursues broad insights focused on the attitudes of potential buyers:

• Customer needs. What specific problems do potential buyers have?
• Market size. How many people have these problems? Is there enough to turn a profit?
• Market trends. Is the market for this product growing or shrinking?
• Competition. Who else is trying to help people solve this problem?
• Pricing. How much could you charge for this product?
• Segmentation. What different groups of people might want this product?
  

Ultimately, the goal here is to find out how the market would feel about your product.

UX Research Goals

UX research pursues detailed insights about actual user behaviour:

• Defining personas. What kinds of users will use this product? What about their lives impacts the way they will use it?
• Creating user journeys. What does the story look like when someone goes from never using your product to becoming an expert user?
• Analysing usage. What specific patterns of behaviour will users carry out most often on the app?
  

Ultimately, the goal here is to understand how users will engage with your product, so you can make it as easy and intuitive to use as possible.

Research Methods: Overlapping but Different

Because UX research and market research have different goals, it's not surprising that they involve slightly different techniques. Some practices, however, can be used for both.

UX Research Methods

UX researchers have a wide variety of tools at their disposal:

• Interviews and surveys. Sometimes the best way to get information is just to ask people directly. This has limitations, however, as people are often unconscious of their real motivations and behaviors.
• Observations and field studies. Looking at user behaviour directly is a more objective approach. Usually this is done by recording data about in-app behavior. In this case, it's important to be transparent about what information you collect, and why.
• Usability testing. In this technique, real users are asked to complete a set of usability tasks, such as navigating a website. Their success or failure is recorded. Ideally, users should have no struggles in performing basic tasks on your application.
• A/B testing. You might have two ideas about how to approach a problem. To decide between them, show users both, and observe how they actually react.
• Card sorting. This analog technique aim to understand users' innate mental models before any digital prototype has been created. Study participants are asked to organize a set of cards representing links, images, buttons, and other elements based on their a priori intuitions about where they should go. This is useful very early in the design process for brainstorming ideas for future development.
  

Market Research Methods

Market researchers also have many tools to work with:

• Interviews and surveys. Like with UX research, asking people direct questions can be useful. The relevant questions here are different, however, and aimed at the goals of market research.
• Focus groups. Focus groups put small groups of potential future users together to elicit feedback about your ideas. If you have a working prototype, you can show them, and if not, you can simply present your product idea and see how they react.
• Competitor analysis. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Know where your competitors are doing things right, and especially where they are doing things wrong. That way you can assess where you might find a niche in the market.
• Price studies. Half the challenge in bringing a product to market is selecting the right price. A good starting point is with your competitor analysis, understanding how other companies are pricing similar products. But it's also important to go beyond that and do research on buyers directly to find out if they would prefer to be paying less, or if they might be willing to pay more for a better product.
• Conjoint analysis. Conjoint analysis uses statistical techniques to figure out how people value different attributes of your product, such as price, appearance, or individual functions.
  

UX and Market Research throughout the Product Lifecycle

At first glance, it might look like UX and market research are at opposite ends of the product development journey. Market research helps you decide whether to make the product in the first place, while UX research is geared towards making the finished product as usable as possible.

The truth is, both types of research are useful throughout the entire product lifecycle. While their emphases change over time, doing both types of research is crucial at every step of the journey.

Let's take a look at the whole process.

Initial Stage: Discovery

Before you build anything concrete, you need to understand market needs and trends. This is where market research comes into play. You want to find out what the market might look like for your idea.

But even though you don't have an actual product yet, UX research is still important, for a couple reasons:

1. What are your competitors like- and how are people actually using their product? Is there anything about their design that could be improved?
2. Your market depends on your user base. Who, in particular, is actually going to use your app? How are they likely to engage with your idea?
   

Here, UX research plays a supporting role in helping you decide if you want to move forward with your idea.

Concept Development: Defining the Product

In this stage, you want to pin down your idea to a concrete, well-defined plan. It's ok if you need to change it later- in fact, you probably will- but you should at least feel confident that the plan you define here is a good start.

Market research helps you define your value proposition. Ideally, it should fit your customer's pain points like a glove, and you can only know their pain points through market research.

UX research, on the other hand, defines the "who" and "what" of your product: buyer personas and user journeys. A product is ultimately not just the thing that is sold; it is also who buys it, and how they use and continue to use it. At this stage, by understanding actual user behaviour, you can make solid plans about your target audience.

Design and Development: Building the Product

This is where UX starts to become more important. By now, you should have confirmed that there is some market demand for your idea. So use UX research to fine tune your actual design.

Market research is still important here, though. You can't fit everything in your app, especially if it is an MVP. Use market insights to prioritise which features to add, and which to ignore for now. You want to make sure that your core value proposition- the main reason you think people will buy- is front and center.

Launch Phase: Releasing the Product

Launching a product is really just the first step on the potentially never ending journey of repeatedly iterated refinements and adjustments. Software applications are never perfect on their first go. Instead, they need to be updated again and again to perfectly match user needs.

Market research plays a key role here in marketing strategy. You should use what market research you have to help make an intelligent launch plan. And after launching, you should use the same market research techniques used previously to find out how your product is doing: who is buying it, who becomes a loyal customer and who does not, and so on.

UX research really comes into its own after launching- because that's when you can finally get hard data about how real customers actually use your application. Before that, research is reliant on focus groups and beta testers. This provides useful information, but is never the full story.

Ethics in Research

Many kinds of research involve important ethical considerations. While the sorts of actions taken by UX and market researchers are not usually the kind that can ruin lives, it's still important to keep ethics in mind. Many firms fail to do this, cause real harm, and wind up with a damaged reputation or even legal troubles.

Privacy concerns are among the most important here. You will have to collect all kinds of data from people, and it's important to be upfront about this. Provide a clear privacy policy, and don't share data with third parties unless absolutely necessary.

Avoid testing dark patterns and other malicious UX techniques on unsuspecting users. Your proposed interface may frustrate or annoy users by accident, but you shouldn't be trying to do so on purpose.

Be clear and upfront about your intentions. Many people are suspicious of tech companies. By clearly indicating your research goals, and asking for consent, you can help gain users' trust.

Conclusion: Do your research

Knowledge is power. In this day and age, there's plenty of information, but knowledge is still scarce. That's why it's so important to be doing market research and UX research throughout the entire product lifecycle, so you can be sure you are making good decisions.

As a digital product studio, we take research seriously. We help founders design and build the best apps and websites they can, be carefully examining market trends and user behaviours.

Do you have a digital product you want to bring to life? Let's talk!