Step 14: Preliminary research
Phase 1: Preliminary Research · Step 14
Before you build anything, you need to know where the fish are. This is how you find out.
Watch this first
Video coming soon — check back for the Preliminary Research walkthrough.
Why this step exists
Most people build first and research later. They have an idea, they start building, and somewhere down the road they discover the market is too small, too crowded, or moving in the wrong direction. Then they pivot. Then they pivot again. Then they run out of time and money.
This is not bad luck. It is a predictable consequence of skipping the first step.
Preliminary research is how you choose your market before you enter it. That is the entire point. Not to confirm that your idea is good. Not to find evidence that someone will buy it. To understand the landscape as it actually is, so that every decision you make afterward is grounded in reality.
The fishing metaphor
Imagine two fishermen.
The first one picks a spot on the map and starts paddling. Maybe there are fish. Maybe there aren't. He won't know until he gets there, and by then he has already spent his energy getting upstream.
The second one studies the river first. She finds where the water is deep, where the current runs strong, where the fish have been feeding. Then she paddles downstream to exactly that spot and casts her line.
One is pioneering. The other is fishing.
When you build a business without preliminary research, you are pioneering. You are betting that the market you accidentally discover will be large enough, growing fast enough, and hungry enough to sustain a decade of growth. That is a bet most people lose.
Preliminary research lets you fish. You get to choose your river before you ever pick up a paddle.
What you are trying to learn
Preliminary research covers four dimensions. Each one is distinct. Together, they give you a complete picture of the landscape before you talk to a single customer.
1. Market landscape
What market are you entering? How do people in that market describe themselves and search for solutions? How large is it, how fast is it growing, and what forces are shaping it right now?
This is your orientation. You are finding out whether you are entering a rising tide or a receding one, a crowded harbor or an open sea.
2. Competitive landscape
Who is already serving this market? What do they offer, at what price, and for whom? Where are the gaps in what they deliver? Is there room for a new entrant, and if so, where is the opening?
You are not looking for reasons to be discouraged. You are building a map of the terrain so you know exactly where you are going.
3. Technology landscape
What technologies currently power solutions in this space? What does it cost to access them? What is emerging that could change how this problem gets solved in the next two to three years?
Technology is the enabler. You need to understand what tools exist, what they cost, and what is coming before you commit to an approach.
4. Customer landscape
Who are the people currently buying solutions in this market? What do they care about? How do they make decisions? What do they love about existing solutions and what frustrates them most?
This is not qualitative research. You have not talked to a single person yet. This is desk research — what is already known and documented about the people in this market. You are building hypotheses to take into your first conversations.
The first principles
These are the truths that make this step worth doing.
You are buying down ignorance. Before you do this research, you are operating on assumptions. After you do it, you are operating on informed hypotheses. That is a meaningful difference.
Markets are chosen, not discovered. The research-first path gives you the power to select the arena before you enter it. You can verify the water is deep before you pick up a paddle.
Secondary data exists because others have already done the work. Markets, competitors, and technologies have been analyzed, sized, and documented. Your job is to find and synthesize what already exists before generating anything new.
The cost of skipping this step is paid later at a higher price. Every step in this process builds on the one before it. A flawed market thesis that makes it all the way to a customer survey is still a flawed market thesis. Errors compound.
You are looking for truth, not confirmation. The goal is not to find evidence that your idea is good. The goal is to understand the landscape as it actually is.
This step sets the aperture for everything downstream. Every step after this one narrows. If the funnel is pointed in the wrong direction, no amount of downstream precision corrects that. Get the direction right here.
Speed is a feature, not a bug. This is desk research. You are not in the field yet. The value of this step is that it is fast and cheap relative to what comes later. Move quickly and build a working model of the landscape.
How to do it
You do not need a research firm. You do not need a budget. You need a clear description of your business idea and access to an AI with web search capability.
Here is the process:
- Write one or two sentences describing your business idea — what it does and who it is for.
- Use the prompts below as your starting point. Run them in sequence in Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.
- Read the outputs critically. Flag anything that surprises you. Note anything that contradicts your assumptions.
- When the outputs stop surprising you, you have reached saturation. You are ready for Step 2.
You have done enough preliminary research when new searches stop producing new insights. You will start seeing the same competitors, the same market numbers, the same trend themes. That repetition is the signal. It means you have a working model of the landscape.
Your research prompts
Copy these prompts and run them in sequence in your AI tool of choice. Each one builds on the previous conversation — do not start a new chat between prompts.
Prompt 1 — Market landscape
You are a senior market research analyst. I am preparing to build a new business
and need to understand the market landscape before I talk to a single customer.
[Paste your business description here]
Research and deliver:
1. How this market is categorized and how customers search for solutions like mine
2. Total addressable market size — cite your source and methodology
3. Annual growth rate and trajectory
4. The 3–5 most important trends shaping this market right now
5. Key metrics and KPIs the market uses to measure success
6. The most credible analysts, publications, and thought leaders covering this space
Be direct. Flag anything surprising. If market data is thin or contested, say so.
Use your web search capability and cite your sources.
Prompt 2 — Competitive landscape
We have covered the market landscape. Now I need to understand the competitive
landscape for the same business.
Research and deliver:
1. Dominant established players — what they offer, approximate pricing, positioning
2. Fast-growing challengers and what they are doing differently
3. Niche players serving segments I might be overlooking
4. How the landscape has evolved in the past 2–3 years
5. The most significant gaps in what existing solutions deliver
6. Honest assessment: is there room for a new entrant, and where is the opening?
Do not just list players. Tell me where the white space is.
Prompt 3 — Technology landscape
We have covered market and competitive landscape. Now I need to understand the
technology landscape for the same business.
Research and deliver:
1. Technologies currently powering solutions in this space
2. Cost and accessibility of those technologies for a new entrant
3. Emerging technologies that could change how this problem gets solved in 2–3 years
4. Any technical moats competitors have built
5. Build vs. buy vs. integrate considerations for a new entrant
Focus on what matters now and what is coming.
Prompt 4 — Customer landscape
We have covered market, competitive, and technology landscape. This is the final
piece before I begin qualitative interviews.
Research and deliver:
1. Demographics of current buyers — company size, industry, geography, budget,
job titles involved in the decision
2. Psychographics — motivations, fears, how they measure success
3. How customers currently perceive existing solutions — what they love,
what frustrates them
4. The buying process — who initiates, evaluates, decides, and how long it takes
5. Underserved segments that current solutions ignore
6. The 3 most important questions I should ask in my first qualitative interviews
This is the foundation for my customer conversations. Set me up well.
What you are producing
By the end of this step you should have:
- A clear understanding of the market you are entering and whether it is growing
- A map of the competitive landscape with identified white space
- A working knowledge of the technology available to you
- A set of customer hypotheses to test in qualitative interviews
- A list of the most important questions to ask when you get in front of real people
You are not done when you have run the prompts. You are done when you could walk into a room and give a ten-minute briefing on your market, your competitors, your technology options, and your customer hypotheses — and answer follow-up questions.
That is the standard. Hold yourself to it.
What comes next
Preliminary research gives you informed hypotheses. The next step is to find out whether those hypotheses are true.