More tips on doing research on a shoestring budget (Part 2)

Random Thoughts

April 14, 2023

Welcome to another week of “Random Thoughts” post! Well, last week, I wrote a post on how to conduct end-user research on a shoestring budget, with the caveat of you having to spend some type of research money. So this week I want to cover more on how to do research without spending any money at all.

But before I go into it, it is important to note that research data you obtained without spending any money is often risky, particularly in terms of its reliability—you simply cannot be sure how trustworthy the data source is (even macro-economic data coming from certain governments cannot be trusted).

Actual “on the ground” end-user research that you pay for is still very much needed, especially when you are trying to gather data for important decisions such as entering a new market or launching a new product. So, let’s recap on last week’s post—the 3 main tips on conducting end-user research on a shoestring budget:

1. Prioritise “paying research” for important business decisions only, especially those that involve areas of business you have little or no knowledge of, such as entering a new market; or launching a new product/service;

2. Do not always need a large-scale quantitative survey for you to trust the research data, small-scale qualitative end-user research can also yield confident decision-making;

3. Spread your research budget out strategically across different time periods to get the most out of your dollar.

Now onto my two main tips on what you can do in terms of “free” research:

1. Just Google it! Yes, everyone says this, but there is a little more to it than just typing a search word and clicking on the first few search results. You need to be very sensitive to the search results:

   1. Is the website you are clicking on legitimate and reliable? You can do another Google search of them and see what you find.

   2. If there are data you are looking into, then are the data reliable and accurate? You will need to check the source of the data, most legitimate research papers do quote their sources.

   3. If it is proprietary data, then how did they obtain those data? You will need to check what methodologies they use to obtain the data. If they are legitimate, they will tell you what it is.

2. Talk to anyone that is relevant to the market you are looking at, whether partners up and down the supply chain or friends and families! This might sound obvious, but you be surprised how many people are just too shy to do it. So don’t hesitate to arrange a coffee meet-up with people you know within the market’s ecosystem, most of them with experiences in the market would have a lot of helpful insights to share with you.

Well, that’s all I have to share this week. As usual, I hope this helps you in some way. But feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts. As always, follow us on our socials for more!