When do you use market research to inform decisions vs when do you use behavioral data?

I absolutely start with behavioral data first - assuming that by "behavioral" you mean product usage data, regardless of the question I am trying to answer. Behavioral data is unbiased (it is users in their "natural" environment with your product), and it is always much more valuable to observe behaviors vs. stated answers. You want market research to confirm or disprove a hypothesis, which you develop looking at the data you already have. After you understand usage patterns (ideally by your rel ...Read More

Used on its own, market research is a reasonable tool for getting gaining and sharing knowledge on customers, markets, and competitors. What market research won't do is tell you if you have the right solution. For that, you need to run experiments to test if there's a good fit between the problem and solution. Experiments provide you with the data you need to shape the solution. Here is what the best teams do: - Capture granular behavioral data that describes the complex relationship spanning th ...Read More

If you have the ability to use both, it tends to help paint a richer picture. That said, a good rule of thumb is that behavioral data can help you understand what people are doing, and market research can help you understand why they're doing it. Let's imagine you lead product marketing for a subscription food delivery product (like a DoorDash's Dash Pass or Postmates Unlimited) and are seeing cancellations increase. That's a big behavioral data-based insight. Now, you might be able to use behav ...Read More

In our experience, market research is generally better suited toward future-focused strategic decisions than behavioral data (e.g. where can we expand our product offerings and what problems should we be solving?). Behavioral data can usually offer a clearer view into how to improve experiences and deepen engagement with existing products (e.g. after they do X, Y is a natural next step so let's send them a notification to nudge them in that direction). You can even link your survey data to behav ...Read More

Organizations will typically have the most behavioral data on their own customers and visitors. They know what customers are doing (and not doing) on their platform... where they drop off in a conversion funnel, what they click on, how frequently they log in, the product/feature mix they have used/purchased. This wealth of information can inform where to focus on if conversion/renewal/repeat/expansion within your own customer base is the goal. In some cases, for example if you're experiementing ...Read More