How can key assumptions help you with your market research?
Key Assumptions are fundamental beliefs or hypotheses about market dynamics, trends, or behaviors that guide the collection and interpretation of data and inform strategic decision-making.
Clear and Specific: A good key assumption should be clearly articulated and specific, avoiding ambiguity or generalization. It should focus on a particular aspect of the market or consumer behavior.
Belief or hypothesis: Key assumptions are typically presented as statements rather than questions. They express a belief or hypothesis about a certain aspect of the market that influences the research.
Impactful and Relevant: Key assumptions should have a significant impact on the outcomes of the research. They address important factors or variables that could influence the results and are relevant to the objectives of the study.
Testable and Verifiable: While not all assumptions are directly testable, a good key assumption should be plausible to verify through data analysis, research findings, or other means. This helps ensure that the assumption is credible and reliable.
Transparent and Documented: It's essential to transparently document key assumptions, including the rationale behind them and any supporting evidence. This helps stakeholders understand the basis for the research approach and facilitates communication and collaboration
Document underlying beliefs or hypotheses that guide the data research from a market scan, over a market maturity analysis and ecosystem health analysis to a blind spot analysis.
NEW: The analyst describes the key assumptions with the assistance of the platform generating 5 new key assumptions based upon content in the knowledge base to be accepted or dismissed.
IN PROGRESS: The analyst will gather supporting and challenging evidence for all the accepted key assumptions with the assistance of GenAI.
TRUE / FALSE ASSUMPTION: Whenever sufficient evidence has been collected to come to a conclusion, the validity of the assumption is assessed and documented in a written conclusion, generated with GenAI
Document underlying beliefs or hypotheses that guide the research strategy and methodology
Provide a descriptive title to the Key Assumption to understand at a glance what this belief or hypothesis is about and analyse the linked proof points.
Identify main concepts that describe this key assumption to steer the data collection process.
Describe the Key Assumption in Natural Language to guide further analysis and validation throughout the research.
FAQs
Do I need to start with the key assumptions?
Building Market Intelligence is an iterative process. As you will progress in the research, you will notice that key assumption become more concrete, testable and verifyable. Don't get stuck at the start of your research by defining all key assumptions. Be pragmatic and let Minerva guide you through the process. Explore the market to gain a better understanding of the market dynamics and add key assumptions as you uncover the risks and opportunities.
What are risky assumptions?
Risky assumptions are those assumptions that carry a high degree of uncertainty or pose significant potential challenges to the success of a project or initiative. These assumptions typically involve factors that are difficult to predict, control, or validate.
Shall I remove validated key assumptions ?
No, we recommend to keep track of the key assumptions you validated throughout your research. This allows for transparency and knowledge sharing.
Does DataScouts use Generative AI
DataScouts uses Generative AI to suggest the most relevant key assumptions. The analyst guides the research by selecting the most relevant key assumptions or by writing specific assumptions that require attention. The WHY, WHAT and HOW are defined by the research scope as well as the focus of the research, i.e. Market Maturity, Ecosystem Health or Blind Spot Analysis. The WHO is an auto-generated list of stakeholders that involved in the ecosystem. These stakeholders are reflected on the Stakeholder Landscape.