For any startup, having a great product idea or new technology is only the first step. The next critical challenge is understanding if there is a viable market for your offering, and if so, how to best serve that market. This is where comprehensive market research becomes absolutely vital.
In essence, market research takes the guesswork out of many crucial startup activities. It provides verifiable information directly from the marketplace to validate assumptions and support decision making. This evidence-based approach increases the odds that a product will resonate with customers, fill an important niche, and ultimately drive business success.
As a founder of Releven, a blockchain and web 3 market research company, I believe that for startups entering the exciting world of Web3, thorough market research is especially critical.
Web3 refers to the next evolution of the internet towards a more decentralized, blockchain-based model which gives users greater control over their own data and digital identities. The growth of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, the metaverse and decentralized apps built on blockchain networks like Ethereum has led to an explosion of Web3 and blockchain startups. The global web 3.0 market is
However, because Web3 represents a relatively new and complex domain, market dynamics can be hard to grasp intuitively. Many products are still emerging to define entirely new use cases, so guessing customer needs is improbable. The ecosystem evolves rapidly. Hype vs. reality is often unclear. All of this ambiguity means market research is essential for Web3 and blockchain startups to cut through the noise.
This comprehensive guide will explore the most effective market research methods and tools Web3 and blockchain startups should leverage at each stage, from ideation to launch and beyond.
Key topics covered will include:
- Core market research approaches like surveys, interviews, focus groups, competitor analysis, user testing and analytics. When should each technique be used?
- Researching key factors like market size, customer demographics, user needs, pricing models, positioning, and more.
- Leveraging secondary sources like industry reports and academic research to understand the Web3 landscape.
- Sampling and surveying target users at scale to quantify market demand.
- Running focus groups and usability tests to refine products based directly on user feedback.
- Understanding the competitive landscape and identifying unmet needs or gaps.
- Using tools like Google Trends to identify rising searches and interest in topics.
- Mining user analytics and behavior data for insights.
- Turning research insights into concrete requirements, product decisions and marketing strategies.
- Updating research continually as the market evolves.
Web3 and blockchain Startups that embrace research will increase their odds of identifying the right product-market fit, making strategic decisions, and ultimately driving adoption. In a fast-moving Web3 landscape, research is the compass Web3 and blockchain Startups need to navigate wisely.
Key Market Research Methods and When to Use Them
Secondary Research
Secondary research involves analyzing existing sources of market data rather than collecting new primary data directly yourself. It is typically the most affordable and time-efficient way to start understanding the target market landscape at a high level.
Useful secondary sources for Web3 and blockchain Startups include:
Industry reports – Research firms like Gartner, CB Insights, Fortune Business Insights and MarketsandMarkets publish in-depth industry reports covering blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, the metaverse and other Web3 domains. These provide market size estimates,
Academic studies– Universities are conducting studies evaluating different aspects of Web3 tech, such as user attitudes, development challenges, and security issues. These provide unbiased perspective into adoption challenges. Search Google Scholar or university research databases.
News articles– Media publications covering crypto like CoinDesk, TechCrunch, Hacker Noon and CoinTelegraph often reference key industry statistics and trends. Search their sites for terms like “Web3 market size” or “NFT sales growth”.
Conference presentations – Talks from events like NFT.NYC, ETHDenver and SXSW offer insights from experts in the space. Search for slide decks on SlideShare or video recordings on YouTube.
Company websites– Competitor sites will provide information on product offerings, positioning and messaging. Review carefully to analyze strengths vs gaps.
The benefit of secondary research is it can be done independently without customer interaction, and provides a strong baseline understanding of the market context to inform primary research. It may sufficiently answer some research questions, eliminating the need for costly primary approaches.
However, secondary data also has limitations. It may lack specificity for a startup’s unique product or use case. The data is not customized, and can grow stale quickly in fast-changing markets like Web3. Primary research is still needed to fill gaps.
Surveys
Survey research collects quantitative data directly from a sample of target customers using online questionnaires. Surveys allow Web3 and blockchain Startups to gain measurable insights into customer behaviors, attitudes, perceptions, preferences and needs at scale.
Useful to:
- Gauge awareness or interest in new product concepts
- Assess reactions to branding, messaging, pricing
- Identify feature needs and priorities
- Quantify market demand for an offering
- Segment customers by demographics, psychographics
- Get feedback from beta testers
Web3 and blockchain Startups should use tools like Typeform, SurveyMonkey and Google Forms to create and distribute surveys through emails, ads, social posts or on their site. Keep surveys concise (under 10 minutes) with mostly closed-ended questions to encourage participation, then analyze data using dashboards. Can survey existing users, competitors’ users, or a general population sample.
The key strength of surveys is efficiently gathering customer opinions in an unbiased way not influenced by researcher. However, they lack qualitative depth. Important to follow up with interviews for more nuanced insights.
Interviews
Interviews allow in-depth, qualitative conversation with customers, experts or influencers to explore needs, behaviors, attitudes and perceptions. The open-ended two-way nature provides more spontaneous and detailed information than surveys.
Useful to:
- Deeply understand customer problems and needs
- Gather detailed feedback on concepts and offerings
- Learn how customers interact with competitors
- Identify objections, concerns inhibiting adoption
Web3 and blockchain Startups should interview at least 15 customers one-on-one for 30-60 minutes via video chat. Take detailed notes and analyze for themes. Recruit through community channels or compensated market research panelists.
The conversational nature makes interviews ideal to explore customer motivations and "why" behind behaviors. But due to small sample, findings may not be representative. Pair with surveys for more representative market read.
Focus Groups
Focus groups convene 6-12 people for an in-person or video discussion led by a moderator on a product, concept or topic. This direct interaction between startup and customers yields observations and insights that surveys cannot capture.
Useful for:
- Evaluating early-stage ideas and features
- Testing and refining user interface designs
- Observing how groups interact with prototype/demo
- Gauging reactions to branding, messaging, positioning
- Understanding perceived benefits vs. limitations
Focus groups provide direct customer feedback in a realistic social environment. But observations are limited to a small group and may be swayed by vocal participants. Balance with 1:1 interviews.
User Testing
User testing has participants from the startup’s target audience use a product prototype while observers watch, record and analyze their behavior and feedback. This reveals how real users navigate, use and experience the product.
Useful to:
- Identify usability issues and pain points
- Observe where users struggle with workflows
- Test new features and interfaces
- Measure task success rates and completion times
- Get unfiltered reactions and suggestions
Web3 and blockchain Startups should recruit 5-8 participants representing customer segments, provide a prototype or demo, then have them complete representative tasks while recording screen and audio. Remote options like UserTesting, Validately and TryMyUI are cost-effective.
Testing reveals design flaws and confusion points before launch. It slows if not observed directly by customers in real environments. Iteratively test with larger samples.
Analytics Analysis
Examining usage analytics provides quantitative understanding of how real customers interact with an existing product.
Useful to uncover:
- Most popular vs. least used features
- Common user workflows and behaviors
- Pages/features with high exit rates
- Conversion funnel data
- Traffic sources driving engagement
Web3 and blockchain Startups should integrate Google Analytics for web products or Mixpanel for apps. Analyze trends over time, drill into behaviors, identify optimization opportunities.
Analytics offer the most accurate, unbiased window into real customer engagement. However the data is limited to your product experience. Supplement with primary methods for full context.
Competitive Analysis
Comparing your offering to competitors’ helps identify gaps and opportunities in the market.
Useful to analyze:
- Competitors’ positioning, key messaging, differentiation
- Product features, pricing, business models
- Online presence, website traffic, social media
- Target customers and market share
- Funding raised, investor landscape
- Partnerships, hiring, acquisitions
Web3 and blockchain Startups can research this through competitors’ sites, Crunchbase, LinkedIn, SimilarWeb, Pitchbook, and more. Sign up for competitor email lists and ads.
Competitor insights prevent replicating existing solutions, inform pricing and features, and reveal partnership opportunities. But competitors may seem further ahead than they are. Validate assumptions through primary research.
In summary, savvy Web3 and blockchain Startups will leverage a combination of secondary and primary research approaches at each stage, rather than any single method in isolation. Each tactic provides a different lens into the target market. Together they offer the complete picture required to maximize customer understanding and make smart data-driven decisions.
Important Market Research Areas for Web3 and blockchain Startups
Market Size and Demand
One of the most fundamental market research questions is assessing whether sufficient demand exists for a startup’s proposed product or service. Estimating the total addressable market (TAM) helps quantify the revenue opportunity within a defined target customer segment.
For Web3 and blockchain Startups, secondary research can provide a top-down understanding of the market size. For example, industry reports may estimate the global market for NFTs will reach $35 billion by 2025. Web3 and blockchain Startups can use this benchmark to estimate the TAM for their specific NFT use case.
However, primary research is crucial to validate assumptions. Surveys can quantify how many target users would be interested or willing to pay for a specific offering. Interviews can probe customers’ buying criteria to more accurately model potential adoption.
Without tangible evidence of adequate market demand, Web3 and blockchain Startups risk building offerings that users may not want or need. Research to estimate TAM and directly assess demand can ensure product-market fit.
Customer Research
Beyond gauging demand, Web3 and blockchain Startups must deeply understand target customer segments, their needs, behaviors, and preferences.
Surveys and interviews can profile demographics like customer age, gender, income, education level and location. Psychographic questions can quantify attitudes, values and interests.
User testing and analytics analysis provides behavioral data on how customers engage with current solutions. What workflows are they trying to complete? Where do they struggle? Observing these behaviors and pain points is key.
Synthesizing qualitative and quantitative data will coalesce an accurate picture of the target audience. This enables creating detailed customer personas and user maps that will directly inform product requirements.
Pricing Analysis
Determining optimal pricing models is another key area for Web3 Web3 and blockchain Startups to research. Customers may express interest at a high level, but balk at specific price points.
Surveys can directly ask target segments what pricing they consider affordable versus too expensive for a proposed offering. Interviews allow probing customers’ willingness to pay further. Questions can frame pricing in the context of perceived value to determine aligned pricing models.
Testing different price points with subsets of users also reveals price sensitivity thresholds. Optimal pricing should balance affordability for the target audience with supporting a viable business model.
Competitor Analysis
While assessing customers, equally important is analyzing competitors. What offerings currently exist? How are competitors positioned? What traction have they achieved?
Secondary competitive research establishes the landscape. News articles, Crunchbase, LinkedIn, and SimilarWeb provide a high level view.
Interviews can uncover how customers perceive strengths vs. weaknesses of competitors. Surveys can test reactions to competitors’ positioning and messaging.
This research identifies gaps in the market, and opportunities to disrupt competitors by solving an underserved need, or executing better on pricing, features or positioning.
Go-to-Market Strategy
Once a Web3 startup has defined their product and market, a go-to-market strategy must be researched and developed.
Surveys, interviews, focus groups, and customer advisory boards can test what messaging and positioning would most resonate with each target customer segment.
Research should guide optimal marketing channels. Where does the target audience consume relevant content? What social platforms, influencers, media sites, or events offer opportunities to engage each segment and activate word-of-mouth?
For distribution, research can identify the right partners, affiliate programs, app stores, or sales channels tailored to how each customer segment prefers to research, evaluate and purchase offerings in the space.
Branding
Every element of a Web3 startup’s brand - from name to logo to tone - should be informed by market research. Focus groups can explore potential branding concepts and positioning statements to evaluate what feels unique, memorable, and aligned to the target audience.
Surveys can test recognition and associations with proposed brand names. Interviews can assess what attributes different names evoke.
The desired brand personality and identity should ultimately distill key themes from research on the target audience - their values, interests, attitudes, and needs.
Fundraising Analysis
For Web3 and blockchain Startups seeking investments, market research is required to understand trends in the investor landscape.
Secondary sources like pitchbook, Crunchbase, and websites detail active investors, their focus areas, portfolio companies, past deals, and criteria.
Interviews with investors assess current appetite, investment thesis, concentration areas, deal flow preferences, and concerns. Surveys can also quantify broader investor trends.
This research reveals what thesis and traction investors seek for Web3 and blockchain Startups, projected capital requirements given similar deals, and how to best resonate with specific firms.
In summary, well-executed market research leaves no major business decisions up to guesswork. It allows Web3 and blockchain Startups to stay laser focused on serving the right customers, outsmarting the competition, hitting the market at the right time with the right message, and aligning every aspect of the startup with the market opportunity. Research turns assumptions into facts, risks into strategy, and ideas into validated products.
Best Practices for Conducting Market Research
Define Clear Research Objectives
The foundation of effective market research is defining clear objectives and specific questions that need answered. Vague research goals will yield vague results.
Web3 and blockchain Startups should spend time articulating:
- The specific problems they need insights on
- How research will inform upcoming decisions
- Quantitative vs qualitative data needed
- Ideal customer segments to target
- Common research goals include validating demand, gauging pricing, testing positioning, optimizing conversion funnel, understanding competitors, identifying new markets, etc.
Start with the highest priority questions where reducing uncertainty would have the greatest business impact. Also consider timing. Certain questions may be more appropriate at specific stages.
Other 17 Practises as a List
- Ensure cross-functional alignment on research objectives across product, engineering, marketing, sales and leadership teams. Feedback from all perspectives will enrich final analysis.
- Qualitative methods like interviews provide nuanced contextual insights, while quantitative data from surveys produces measurable benchmarks. Using both delivers comprehensive understanding.
- Blending also mitigates limitations of each approach. For example, surveys may signal high demand, but interviews uncover barriers reducing actual conversion rates. Together they explain the discrepancy.
- Results are only relevant if the researched sample represents the startup’s actual target segments. Avoid convenience sampling of whoever is accessible.
- Carefully recruit participants matching target demographics, psychographics, buying criteria and behaviors. Budget to compensate participants for their time if needed.
- Subconscious biases can influence how questions are framed and interpreted. Seek neutral perspectives to avoid biased wording leading participants or distorting data analysis.
- Focus groups are ideal for exploring early-stage ideas, mockups or prototypes. The open reactions allow pivoting concepts before investing in full product development.
- Use surveys to test how well different positioning statements and messaging resonate with each target customer segment. This data drives marketing strategy.
- Experts like academics, analysts and authors can provide objective insights on market forces, competitive dynamics and adoption trends.
- Search forums, social media, review sites and other online sources for useful real-world data on customer problems, competitor perceptions, feature needs, etc.
- Usage metrics, conversion funnels, churn rates and other behavioral analytics reveal how customers actually interact with products.
- Markets move fast. Continuously collect feedback and data through embedded surveys, NPS measures, interviews, beta tests and other learnings mechanisms.
- Don’t over invest in analysis for its own sake. Make research tangible. Distill insights into market requirements, user personas, PRDs, positioning briefs and business plans.
- Rushing research to save time often backfires. Set realistic timelines, and budget appropriately. Market research will pay dividends.
- If bandwidth is stretched, work with market research consultants and agencies to supplement efforts. Their expertise and manpower can accelerate quality research.
- To increase research participation, provide reasonable thank you rewards. But avoid introducing excessive incentives that taint objective feedback.
- Conduct initial research internally using free/inexpensive tools for foundational understanding. Outsource specialty initiatives to fill gaps.
In summary, following structured market research best practices will allow Web3 and blockchain Startups to cut through assumptions, de-risk decisions, save valuable resources by investing in the right opportunities, and ultimately build products users want and need.
Cost-Effective Tools and Methods
Google Trends
Google Trends analyzes search volume patterns for terms, revealing rising or declining searches over time. This identifies trending topics that may signal opportunities.
Web3 and blockchain Startups should research relevant category terms, products, competitors, and news events. Peaks may warrant investigating new offerings for emerging demand. Dips may suggest waning interest.
For example, a spike in “NFT art marketplace” searches suggests rising demand to potentially capitalize on. Monitor over time and across geographic regions.
Google Keyword Planner
Keyword Planner provides monthly search volumes for terms and related keywords. This quantifies demand for topics which can inform new offerings.
Research terms related to your product idea. High search volume indicates Internet users are seeking information and solutions for a topic, signaling viable demand. Low search volume suggests limited interest.
SEMrush, Ahrefs
SEMrush and Ahrefs aggregate keyword difficulties, volumes, rankings and other SEO metrics. They offer topic research to find rising SEO terms and guide content strategies. The data quantifies interest and difficulties ranking for key terms. Use this to identify topics with high commercial intent suitable for new offerings.
SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey offers free survey templates and a basic free tier. Paid tiers unlock advanced features, but basic surveys up to 10 questions and 100 responses are free.
Use SurveyMonkey to quickly validate concepts with target segments, or get feedback from beta users. Keep surveys focused for sufficient free tier responses.
Typeform
Typeform provides online form and survey creation with engaging templates. It offers a free tier for surveys with up to 100 responses per month.
The polished templates drive higher response rates. Affordable paid tiers scale for larger research. Use for beta tests, customer feedback, and lead generation capture forms.
Monitor Twitter conversations for market insights. Search by keywords or hashtags to see discussions by real users about needs, complaints, competitor perceptions and more.
Twitter can surface pain points and feature requests. Track competitor hashtag mentions and solutions people recommend. This real-time qualitative data complements other methods.
Subreddits forum communities focused on your market are rich sources of user insights. Search discussions on Web3, crypto, NFT or metaverse subreddits relevant to your space.
Reddit reveals how people describe problems, evaluate competitors, request features and more. Aggregate these insights to guide product development and positioning.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is free and gives Web3 and blockchain Startups visibility into site visitors, referrals, conversions, behavior flows, location, technology used and more.
The data reveals landing pages, buttons and flows that drive conversions. Use this to continuously improve conversion funnels. Integrate on any web product.
YouTube
YouTube is a top destination to learn about new products and technologies. Search it for your startup focus area to analyze relevant channels, videos and influencers.
Observe contributors with high view counts and engagement. Reach out to collaborate on educational content and market education.
Intercom
Intercom offers free tiers of their user messaging platform. This can be leveraged to gather in-app user feedback through quick surveys, polls and questions.
Prompt feedback during the user journey rather than post-experience surveys. Use this real-time input to refine products while maintaining engagement.
Discord
Discord communities focused on Web3 domains are an ideal source for participant recruitment. Engage respectfully with groups relevant to your focus area.
Offer incentives for participating in surveys, interviews or testing. Community members provide built-in access to target user segments for feedback.
In summary, combining free tools and affordable paid solutions allows early-stage Web3 and blockchain Startups to conduct quality market research even on a lean budget. Prioritize tools aligned to business goals and allocate budget to the resources that will give the highest return on investment in the form of actionable data.
Putting Research into Action
Feed Insights into Product Requirements Documents
Too often research findings get siloed in decks. To drive action, directly incorporate insights into PRDs.
Summarize key findings upfront. Link to research reports for details. Call out relevant insights in each feature section using quotes or data to justify priorities.
Engineering teams reference PRDs to guide development. Research-backed PRDs ensure the roadmap aligns to real user needs.
Build User Personas and Maps
Synthesize research learnings into fictional but representative user personas with names, backgrounds, behaviors and concerns.
Group personas into primary, secondary and negative segments based on needs and prototypical behaviors. Map detailed user workflows.
These tools make research insights tangible for everyone. Embed personas across PRDs, marketing sites, sales materials, etc. to guide strategy.
Craft Research-Based Messaging
Optimal messaging resonates with what research reveals motivates target users.
Turn insights on user hopes, frustrations and desires into concise positioning statements, taglines and ad copy. Test wording with surveys and interviews.
Research proves assumptions wrong about “what will resonate”. Use data to keep efforts focused on actual buyer psychology.
Develop Differentiated Products
Let research provide differentiation opportunities. Analyze competitor solutions against key findings to spot gaps.
If no competitors solve a validated user problem, build features specifically for this. If competitors lack certain functionality, develop it.
Delivering differentiated value builds loyal users. Research provides the map to unmet needs.
Set Pricing Based on Willingness to Pay
Never make up pricing. Use surveys and interviews to quantify acceptable price points based on perceived value.
Test pricing models and bundles. Optimize price/feature combinations that maximize revenue while aligning to user budgets.
Pricing aligned to actual willingness to pay encourages conversion. Overpricing based on assumptions leads to failure.
Prioritize by User Demand
Limit internal opinions on priorities. Instead rank roadmaps and backlogs based on research data.
Quantify demand and value for each feature with surveys. Stack rank by importance scores. Align engineering to high-value priorities verified by users.
identifies blindspots in assumed “must have” features. Build what users validate vs what executives assume.
Identify Untapped Opportunities
Avoid mirroring competitors. Use research to identify whitespace opportunities.
Analyze adjacent markets not served by competitors. Explore alternate segments and use cases.
New opportunities are revealed through a broad external view based on data, not internal brainstorming.
Select Sales and Distribution Channels
Meet users where they are already engaging. Don’t assume certain channels.
Use surveys to identify where each persona prefers to research, assess, and purchase offerings like yours. Meet them there.
Research also provides strategic partnership opportunities for distribution channels lacking.
Develop Content Strategies
Create content that guides users through their buyer journey, rather than self-promotional content.
Identify each person’s gaps in knowledge from research. Develop content, tools and materials to address these gaps.
Educate - don’t sell. Content that resolves pain points builds authority and trust.
Determine Funding Requirements
Research funding sources and trends in your vertical. Model potential runway costs.
Interview investors on current appetite and criteria. This provides realistic funding targets.
Accurate funding targets and investor matchmaking sets appropriate expectations on both sides.
In summary, tightly coupling research insights with startup execution is the only way to maximize impact. Too often research fails to directly inform decisions, wasting resources. By purposefully operationalizing learnings into each facet of the business, Web3 and blockchain Startups guarantee market realities shape strategy at every level.
Conclusion
This guide explored the critical importance of market research for Web3 and blockchain Startups, and provided actionable frameworks and tactics to embed research throughout the product development and business strategy process.
Key research methods covered included:
- Secondary research for baseline industry understanding
- Surveys to quantify and qualify market opportunities
- Interviews to deeply explore customer problems
- Focus groups to test concepts and positioning
- User testing to optimize UX and features
- Competitive analysis to benchmark offerings
- Analytics to derive insights from usage data
Powerful market research blends quantitative data on market size and customer needs with qualitative insights on perceptions, problems and behaviors. Together these guides strategic business decisions to build differentiation.
This guide also emphasized key practices to get the most value from research:
- Setting specific objectives to focus efforts
- Sampling target audience respondents
- Using both quantitative and qualitative data to complete the picture
- Testing early concepts quickly with focus groups
- Iterating on findings as the market evolves
- Turning insights directly into requirements, personas and positioning
Efficiency tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Twitter, and SurveyMonkey facilitate quality research on a lean startup budget. Prioritizing the right tools for each objective maximizes resources.
But the importance of research does not end at launch. Continually gathering customer feedback, feature needs, and market trends allows Web3 and blockchain Startups to keep pace with a rapidly changing Web3 landscape.
Applied effectively, market research transforms assumptions into facts, risks into strategy, and ideas into validated product-market fit. Web3 and blockchain Startups that embrace continuous learning from the market increase their odds of identifying the right problems to solve, building the right solutions, and marketing them effectively.
With so many emerging Web3 needs yet to be defined, the market itself provides the strongest compass. Listen closely, for it reveals paths to disruptive opportunities and lasting success. Research paves the road for Web3 and blockchain Startups to navigate wisely.