Market Research
Most useful market intelligence arrives as a throwaway remark in a sales call - a complaint about a competitor, a budget constraint, a workaround someone built themselves. Market Research is where those observations get captured, and where AI turns a pile of them into a defined problem worth solving.
The Four Pieces
| Piece | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Research Notes | Raw observations - what you heard, saw or read |
| Problems | Structured problem statements derived from those notes |
| Market Insights | AI-generated reports across your whole research base |
| Competitors | Profiles of who you're up against and how they position |
Capturing a Research Note
Go to Intelligence > Research and click New Research Note. A good note records:
- What you observed - the actual content, in your own words
- Source type - client conversation, competitor material, industry report, and so on
- Confidence - how much weight this deserves (low, medium, high, verified)
- Region and industry - so patterns can be grouped later
- Tags - your own vocabulary for grouping
- A linked account or contact - where the observation came from
You can also attach a voice note to a research note, which is often faster than typing straight after a call.
Tip
Confidence matters more than volume. One verified observation from a customer who actually pays you outweighs ten "someone mentioned" notes. Be honest when you set it.
Identifying a Problem
Open a research note and click Identify Problem. The AI reads the note and produces a structured problem definition - a clear statement of the problem, market context, how the market currently solves it, a severity score, and an assessment of the opportunity.
Important
Identifying a problem is a one-time action per research note. Once a note has produced a problem, the button becomes View Problem instead - running it again would only create duplicate problems from the same research. If you delete the problem, the note becomes available to analyse again.
The notes list shows a small Problem chip against any note that has already been analysed, so you can see at a glance what's been worked through.
Working with Problems
A problem definition moves through three states:
Drafts are AI output that nobody has checked yet. Reviewing is where a human decides whether the AI actually understood the research. Publishing marks it as something your team agrees is real and worth acting on.
Edit any field - the AI gives you a starting point, not a verdict.
Market Insights
Market Insights generate reports across everything you've captured, rather than a single note. Available report types include:
- Regional Problem Map - problems organised by geography
- Industry Trend Report - emerging shifts across your research
- Opportunity Assessment - where the highest-value openings are
These are most useful once you have a reasonable body of notes. Run one with three notes and you'll get thin results; run one with sixty and patterns appear that no individual noticed.
Competitor Profiles
Record who you're competing against: their services, strengths, weaknesses and market position. Competitor profiles feed into insight reports, so the AI can factor in the landscape rather than just your customers' complaints.
Why This Sits Inside Your CRM
The research is linked to the accounts and contacts it came from. When a deal stalls, you can see which observations came from that customer. When you're writing a proposal, the problems you've defined are the language your customer already used.