01 / RESEARCH
Understand the problem before deciding what to do about it.
Research helps founders, investors, and product teams understand customers, behaviour, markets, alternatives, and constraints before committing to a direction. Its purpose is better judgement, not a larger folder of findings.
The phases give the work structure, but the process is iterative. New evidence can change the strategy, what gets built, and what happens next.Research → Test → Learn → Adjust
THE DECISION
Which opportunity deserves attention, and which questions must be answered before the team chooses a proposition, product direction, or investment thesis?
DIRECT ANSWER
What should startup research actually tell you?
Startup research should clarify who the team is trying to serve, what those people are trying to accomplish, how they solve the problem today, and which important claims are still assumptions. It should make the next decision easier to frame.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE UNDERSTOOD
Start with the uncertainty behind the decision.
- Customer goals, problems, behaviour, and existing workarounds
- Market context, category dynamics, competitors, and alternatives
- Signals already present in analytics, customer data, support data, and stakeholder knowledge
- Constraints that affect adoption, delivery, commercial viability, or investment
ASSUMPTIONS TO RESOLVE
Make the claims visible before acting on them.
- The problem is important enough to change behaviour
- The chosen audience is specific and reachable
- The apparent gap is not already solved well enough by an alternative
- The opportunity fits the team, timing, and operating constraints
WHAT MARCUS HELPS WITH
Shape the work around the decision.
- Research planning and question design
- Customer and user interviews
- Market, category, competitor, and alternatives analysis
- Analytics and existing evidence review
- Opportunity framing and hypothesis identification
WHAT YOU MAY RECEIVE
Useful outputs, not a fixed package.
Depending on the decision, the work may include:
- A focused research plan
- Customer and market findings
- A competitor and alternatives map
- An assumption map with unresolved questions
- Recommended tests for the claims that matter most
WHAT GOOD EVIDENCE LOOKS LIKE
Evidence must fit the claim.
Good research shows patterns, tensions, context, and uncertainty. It does not claim proof from a small set of conversations. Research helps us understand what might be true. Evidence comes from testing whether the assumptions that matter are strong enough to act on.
WHO THIS WORK SERVES
The phase is shared. The context is not.
Founders use research to frame an opportunity. Investors and VC teams can use product, customer, and market research to examine the case behind a deck. Premium brands can use the same discipline before changing positioning, experience, or market direction.
WHAT JUSTIFIES THE NEXT COMMITMENT
Move forward when the team understands the important unknowns, can describe the opportunity without relying on vague personas, and knows which assumptions need evidence.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Turn the most consequential assumptions into proportionate validation tests.