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Market research is incredibly useful at any stage of the game. Though starting out small may seem like an unnecessary step, sometimes it works out better for you and your client. A thorough study is necessary for any new product or service launch. When dealing with a NEW concept, you may want to conduct a smaller initial study to gauge interest level before continuing.

When conducting the smaller study, set criteria for continuation of the study. Criteria for every client and every study will be different, but the goal of setting parameters should always be the same. Decide what percentage of respondents must be interested in order for you to further develop the concept before continuing the study.

For example, if you gathering product feedback for a major cleaning product company about a brand-new product, you might want 60% of product market research survey respondents to express an interest in order to develop the study further. A full product market research study is extremely time-consuming - the entire project will likely include multiple online product surveys, focus groups and other data-gathering methods.

Market research projects like this have a lot of moving parts - your team will have to write survey questions, compile results and create presentations based on their market research analysis of the data. If it turns out that only 20% of respondents are interested in the new product, it may be better to return to the development phase before continuing with the study.

Even though it might be tempting to forge ahead, particularly in lean economic times, your clients will appreciate you more if you save them time, effort and money by starting out small.