✅ What this stage is about
Market Context Enquiry is about understanding the conditions that shape your opportunity—not just counting users or sizing the market.
Unlike traditional market research, this process focuses on qualitative and contextual insight: industry shifts, user motivations, competing solutions, and adoption barriers. It’s a discovery activity designed to inform how you position, communicate, and deliver your idea—before you commit to product direction or development.
This is less about finding facts—and more about making sense of the landscape you're entering.
📘 What you’ll learn
- What environmental, commercial, or cultural forces influence adoption
- Where the user sits within wider systems, decisions, or trends
- What’s changing in the market—and what that means for timing
- How competitors are framing, failing, or succeeding with similar offers
- What expectations or behaviours might affect how your product is received
🛠️ Tools and methods
| Method | Purpose |
| Contextual desk research | Explore relevant articles, papers, forums, trend reports |
| Competitor narrative mapping | Analyse how others explain and position similar products |
| System/actor mapping | Understand who influences, uses, or blocks uptake |
| Landscape shift identification | Spot regulatory, environmental, or cultural change signals |
| Enquiry interviews | Open-ended conversations with non-users, adjacent experts |
| Product framing tests | Share draft narratives with users or stakeholders to test fit |
🧠 Use flexible canvases and maps—this is about sensemaking, not static data.
📂 Output Format (Suggested)
- 1x Market Enquiry Summary Slide or Board
- 2–3 Key Forces or Themes shaping opportunity
- 1x Competitive Framing Grid
- 1x Short recommendation: “How should we position this?”
⚠️ Mistakes to avoid
- Confusing this with lead generation or traditional surveys
- Over-relying on competitor features instead of user context
- Skipping analysis—research without synthesis gives no direction
- Ignoring indirect influencers (regulators, funders, ecosystem partners)
💡 Tips from the field
“Market context isn’t the same as ‘market size’. We found the opportunity between trends—not in the biggest pie chart.”– Innovation Strategist, Materials Startup
💡 You’re not just entering a market—you’re entering a moment. Understand the context and your offer will land stronger.
🔗 Helpful links & resources
- Context Enquiry Worksheet
- Download: Competitor Narrative Grid
- Article: Don’t Just Research—Sense the Market
- Follow-on: Product Themes
✍️ Quick self-check
🎨 Visual concept (optional)
Illustration: A system map with the user at the centre, surrounded by arrows labelled “Legislation change”, “Competitor story”, “User attitude shift”, and “Tech enabler”. Each one leads to a decision or design factor.
Visual shows how Market Context Enquiry helps you position and shape your product by understanding what surrounds it—not just what it does.