4 Steps to Seizing the Right Market for Your New Idea

Written by Innovate New Albany@InnovateNA8 years ago

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To be a success, every business must understand how much money they can make from their particular product or service. Determining that information starts with the proper evaluation of the business’s target market.

Kevin Dwinnell is the Commercialization Practice Leader for Taivara, a tech innovation and software firm. He has a proven track record of testing potential business markets, driving product innovation and ensuring success of B2B and B2C businesses. Kevin presented “Seizing the Right Market: Calculating the Potential of New Ideas” to a group of entrepreneurs at Innovate New Albany’s February 17 TIGER Talk. TIGER Talks are offered free of charge throughout the month, and educate business owners in the area of technology, innovation, growth, entrepreneurship and responsibility.

Kevin said the market size driver is about getting your investors, customers and your founding team excited about what you are going to deliver. The market size drives the excitement.

There are four steps to seizing the right market for your business:

Step 1: Research your market opportunity.

Kevin said to look at the market with fresh eyes, and evaluate what has been thoroughly reviewed, what has been under considered, and what questions have not been asked. Ask questions that force you to peel back the layers and allow you to look at things with a new perspective.

Research if other industries have been disrupted by the same problem, or if there is contrary data to the information you have. Kevin offered suggestions of where to find the data you need, such as the Columbus Metropolitan Library, PDF searches, Google Keyword Tools and Google Keyword Trends, and online communities such as Quora, Hacker News and Reddit, to identify what problems have not been addressed.

Step 2: Calculate the market size for your product.

Kevin said the primary goal is to understand how big the market is, who is being serviced, and who is being underserved. He recommended looking at websites such as marketsandmarkets.com, forrester.com and others to identify how much is spent annually on a program.

Try to determine how many people are affected, and look for industry reports on annual revenue and spending in a particular niche. Do your best to develop a funnel, and tell a story about the rationale you used to get there.

Step 3: Anticipate trends, competition and unexpected solutions.

Conducting patent searches, listening for chatter in online communities, and researching market intelligence platforms such as cbinsights.com could help identify industry trends. He advised developing a list of 10 direct and indirect competitors, and being open to and prepared for unexpected solutions.

Step 4: Project your success.

Determine the process you’re going to go through to achieve the success you want. Kevin said that companies in new markets who hire and execute like they’re an existing market burn through their cash and go out of business. Your process is a compass, not a roadmap.

Kevin’s presentation is the first of a two-part series about building a successful business by understanding your target market. Feeling the Pain: Articulating the Problem You Solve, part two of his TIGER Talk series, will be presented Friday, March 10. Attending part one is not a prerequisite to getting value out of part two.

If you have any questions about how to seize the right market for your business, contact Kevin at kdwinnell@taivara.com, or visit Taivara’s website.

Innovate New Albany, the city’s incubator for technology startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses, features 16,000 square feet of space within the New Albany Business Park’s Signature Office Building, 8000 Walton Parkway.