Product & Market ResearchHow to use qualitative feedback to do product and market research

Great products are built on evidence, not instinct.

The best teams know that understanding customers doesn’t stop after a sale or a launch. It’s an ongoing process of discovery—learning from the people who use your product today and the markets you’ll pursue tomorrow.

But for most organizations, research is slow, fragmented, or buried in silos. Interviews get delayed waiting for approvals. Notes are scattered across Slack. By the time insights surface, important decisions have already been made.

There’s a better way.

This guide will show you how to modernize your product and market research—using the audience you already have inside your CRM, and combining Live Interviews, AI Interviews, and automated insight delivery to generate fast, structured learning loops. We’ll cover what product and market research are, why they matter, and how to turn qualitative input into confident, data-backed decisions that move faster than your competitors.

What are product and market research?

Product research helps teams understand how real users experience value—what’s working, what’s confusing, and what’s missing. It validates ideas before they’re built, tests concepts before they’re launched, and grounds decisions in reality instead of gut feel.

Market research focuses on the buyers you haven’t won yet. It explores new segments, uncovers decision criteria, and tests messaging or positioning before go-to-market investments.

They shape what you build next—and how you talk about it.

• Product research shows how value is experienced.
  
  
• Market research reveals how value is perceived.
  
  

These combined insights help you:

• Validate roadmap decisions with confidence
  
  
• Enter new segments with less risk
  
  
• Test narratives that actually resonate
  
  
• Align product, marketing, and sales around the same buyer truths
  
  

“Our product and engineering teams now have the ability to go deeper in interviews and fully understand the customer’s perspective.”
—Shane Evans, Chief Revenue Officer at Gong

Read the full Gong interview.

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Why product and market research matter more than ever

1. Gut feel is fast—but expensive

When teams skip structured research, they move quickly … right into avoidable mistakes. Features miss the mark. Campaigns fail to convert. Entire launches underperform because no one validated what real users or buyers thought beforehand.

Continuous research keeps those missteps from happening. By embedding feedback loops at every stage, you catch misalignment early and ship with confidence.

2. Internal blockers slow great ideas

Even when teams want to run interviews, access becomes a bottleneck. Product requests get lost in Slack. Account owners hesitate to connect researchers with customers. By the time approvals come through, timelines have slipped.

With automated workflows and one-click approvals, Clozd makes outreach seamless. Everyone stays in the loop—and research happens without politics or delay.

3. Panels are outdated

Traditional market panels are slow, costly, and disconnected from your reality. The best insights come from the buyers and users already in your CRM—the ones who’ve evaluated you, adopted your product, or churned. They know your category, competitors, and context. You don’t need an outside panel to find them—you just need structure.

4. Scattered feedback kills momentum

You can’t make good decisions if insights live in a bunch of different places. Teams share notes in Google Docs, post quotes in Slack, and never centralize their findings. The result: duplication, debate, and decisions made from opinion instead of evidence.

Structured research turns chaos into clarity. With an AI-powered platform like Clozd, every interview is transcribed, summarized, and tagged into searchable themes—so you can see trends instantly and share them with anyone.

When to run product and market research

Research shouldn’t be reserved for annual planning—it should run in parallel with your work. Here’s where it adds the most value:

For product research:

• Before building: Validate user needs, compare concepts, and test reactions to prototypes or designs
  
  
• After release: Gauge satisfaction, uncover adoption friction, and measure how new features perform
  
  
• Before roadmap prioritization: Use feedback to decide where to invest or defer
  
  

For market research:

• Before entering new segments: Test assumptions about needs, language, and budget priorities
  
  
• Before messaging or campaign launches: Validate positioning and compare narratives
  
  
• After large competitive wins or losses: Analyze decision drivers to refine your go-to-market strategy
  
  

By alternating between product and market research sprints, you create a continuous discovery rhythm—always learning, always adapting.

How to do product and market research

Step 1: Start with your biggest decisions

Every research project should anchor around a decision.

For product: “Should we build this?”
For market: “Should we pursue this segment?”

Clarify the hypotheses you need to test.

• “Admins care more about speed than flexibility.”
  
  
• “Healthcare buyers fear integration complexity.”
  
  
• “New users need faster setup experiences.”
  
  

This focus keeps research purposeful and outputs actionable.

Step 2: Recruit smarter (from your CRM)

Forget the panel providers. The most relevant participants are already in your ecosystem—your customers, prospects, and churned accounts.

Use CRM filters to target the right mix:

• Closed-lost prospects for market validation
  
  
• Current users for adoption insights
  
  
• Past customers for gap analysis
  
  
• Qualified leads for message testing
  
  

Clozd automates recruitment and handles outreach, scheduling, and incentives. You get high-quality interviews from people who already understand your context.

Step 3: Choose your research modes

Live Interviews go deep. Use them for critical decisions—like strategic roadmap choices or entering new markets. Skilled interviewers uncover nuance, emotion, and context that surveys miss.

AI Interviews go broad. They let you collect input at scale from many users or evaluators asynchronously. Participants answer at their convenience, and you get immediate transcription, tagging, and synthesis.

Together, they deliver both the depth and coverage you need.

Step 4: Analyze quickly—and seamlessly

Each interview should be instantly usable—not a pile of raw notes. That’s why Clozd uses generative AI to transcribe, tag, and summarize responses in real time.

You’ll see:

• Decision Drivers: the key factors shaping feedback
  
  
• Themes: recurring patterns across interviews
  
  
• Quotes: verbatim evidence for storytelling or reports
  
  

Within moments, qualitative data becomes structured, searchable insights.

Step 5: Deliver findings where your teams work

Don’t let reports sit in folders. Send insights directly into Slack, your CRM, or email—so your product, marketing, and leadership teams can see what’s changing in real time.

What to include:

• The question(s) you were trying to answer
  
  
• The top Decision Drivers (both positive and negative)
  
  
• Key quotes by role or segment
  
  
• Clear recommendations and next steps
  
  

It’s critical that your research becomes part of the daily workflow—not a separate deliverable.

Who to talk to—and why it matters

The quality of your insights depends on who you ask.

For product research:

• Admins and power users: Reveal detailed usability insights
  
  
• End users: Highlight everyday friction and unmet needs
  
  
• Churned customers: Expose product gaps or value mismatches
  
  
• Support-heavy accounts: Show where documentation or UX falls short
  
  

For market research:

• Closed-lost evaluators: Share unfiltered reasons for rejection
  
  
• Stalled leads: Reveal pricing, timing, or feature gaps
  
  
• Decision-makers in new segments: Validate language and value narratives
  
  

Every perspective helps paint a full picture—from adoption to awareness.

Turning research into action

Insights matter only when they drive change. Here’s how organizations use product and market research to create measurable results.

1. Smarter product roadmaps

Product teams prioritize based on verified pain points, not internal debate. Repeated feedback from users about a missing workflow becomes the evidence behind roadmap updates.

2. Better adoption and satisfaction

When research uncovers onboarding friction, enablement teams can fix it before it hurts retention. Continuous input keeps customers engaged and prevents small issues from snowballing.

3. Clearer messaging and positioning

Testing narratives with buyers ensures your GTM story resonates. The best messaging doesn’t come from brainstorming—it comes from buyer language.

4. De-risked new market entry

Before expanding into a new segment, interviews with qualified prospects clarify what matters most and what might block adoption. That saves months of trial and error.

5. Cross-functional alignment

Shared insights align product, marketing, and sales. Everyone sees the same customer truth—and decisions stop being subjective.

Product research in action

Clearbit is one company that has effectively used customer feedback to guide its product roadmap. 

“If you look at our product roadmap, huge swaths of it have been dictated by the information we claim from reading Clozd reports and looking at the themes and customer pain points,” said Rebecca Yang, vice president of engineering at Clearbit. “I was reading a Clozd report today that reviewed the main reasons our customers churn, and we've either fixed or are in the process of fixing a bunch of them."

As a result, they increased gross retention by 10% thanks to win-loss analysis with Clozd.

“We were able to get to the core of some issues that current customers were having, and we’ve seen a massive improvement in retention—greater than 10 percent GRR improvement quarter over quarter,” Rebecca said.

Read the full Clearbit case study.

Who benefits most

• Product managers
  
  
  
  • Prioritize features with confidence
    
    
  • Avoid building low-impact enhancements
    
    
  • Turn customer input into validated roadmaps
    
    
• Product strategists
  
  
  
  • Use buyer feedback to shape pricing and positioning
    
    
  • De-risk investment decisions early
    
    
  • Align leadership with real-world data
    
    
• Research & insights teams
  
  
  
  • Run structured, scalable programs—not one-off studies
    
    
  • Use CRM-powered recruitment for better coverage
    
    
  • Automate analysis and shorten delivery cycles
    
    
• Product marketers (PMMs)
  
  
  
  • Test value props before launch
    
    
  • Validate copy and proof points with real buyers
    
    
  • Fine-tune GTM strategy based on message resonance
    
    
• Executives and revenue leaders
  
  
  
  • See unified insights across product and market
    
    
  • Base investments on validated opportunity signals
    
    
  • Drive top-line growth with less guesswork
    
    

Best practices for sustained research impact

1. Tie every sprint to a decision
   Research should always answer a “why” that influences action.
   
   
2. Mix depth and breadth
   Combine Live Interviews for nuance and AI Interviews for scale.
   
   
3. Recruit from your CRM first
   It’s faster, cheaper, and more relevant than panels.
   
   
4. Use workflow automation
   Keep outreach approvals fast and account owners in the loop.
   
   
5. Centralize and tag everything
   Searchable insights compound in value over time.
   
   
6. Push findings to where people work
   Email summaries, Slack updates, and CRM integrations keep insights visible.
   
   
7. Keep it continuous
   Monthly or quarterly sprints outperform annual “big studies.”
   
   
8. Close the loop
   Let participants know their feedback led to change—it builds long-term goodwill.
   
   

Measuring success

Quantitative signals prove the value of qualitative research.

Leading indicators:

• Interview participation rate
  
  
• Time-to-insight (from kickoff to delivery)
  
  
• Coverage across target segments
  
  
• Stakeholder satisfaction and adoption rate
  
  

Lagging indicators:

• Win-rate improvements in influenced segments
  
  
• Feature adoption or NPS lift tied to fixes
  
  
• Faster decision cycles during roadmap planning
  
  
• Churn reduction from resolved friction points
  
  
• Expansion revenue tied to validated opportunities
  
  

When you can trace strategic wins back to research inputs, executive buy-in skyrockets.

Scaling research as a core business motion

As your product and market research matures, patterns will emerge:

• Decisions get made faster and with more confidence
  
  
• Product launches face fewer surprises
  
  
• Marketing copy resonates on the first try
  
  
• Leadership alignment improves
  
  

Document these outcomes. Create playbooks for intake, interview design, and analysis. Build a searchable library of validated claims—so every future decision starts with evidence, not assumptions.

By combining deep, structured interviews with AI synthesis, you can move at market speed—without losing insight depth.

Product research in action: a quick playbook

1. Frame the decision: “Should we simplify onboarding or add advanced configuration?”
   
   
2. Target the right users: Power users, admins, and churned customers
   
   
3. Run mixed interviews: 6–10 Live Interviews, 30–50 AI Interviews
   
   
4. Tag themes: Setup friction, usability, feature gaps, success moments
   
   
5. Deliver recommendations: The smallest change with the biggest impact
   
   

The result: A clear roadmap backed by evidence—not opinions.

Market research in action: A quick playbook

1. Define the segment: “We’re evaluating expansion into mid-market healthcare”
   
   
2. Target from CRM: Closed-lost deals, unconverted leads, industry peers
   
   
3. Get one-click outreach approval. Keep account teams aligned
   
   
4. Test hypotheses. Decision criteria, objections, value perceptions
   
   
5. Synthesize themes. Pricing, trust, messaging, integration
   
   
6. Deliver a go/no-go summary. Recommendations grounded in buyer reality
   
   

The result: Confident entry into new markets, backed by authentic buyer data.

Building a culture of continuous learning

When product and market research become an everyday rhythm—not a special project—your organization changes and becomes stronger.

• Curiosity replaces assumption
  
  
• Confidence replaces debate
  
  
• Insights flow faster than opinions
  
  

You stop guessing what buyers and users think—because you already know. That’s how great teams innovate faster, build smarter, and lead markets instead of following them.

Because the smartest companies don’t just talk to their customers once a year. They never stop listening.

FAQs

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What is market research?
Market research is the process of collecting and analyzing data about your target market, customers, and competitors so you can make better decisions about what to build and how to position it. It helps you understand market size, customer needs, pricing expectations, and how your product fits into the competitive landscape.

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What is product research?
Product research focuses on how real users experience your product—what they value, where they get stuck, and what’s missing. It validates ideas before you build them, tests concepts and prototypes, and turns qualitative feedback into evidence for roadmap decisions.

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What are the main methods of market research?
Common market research methods include:

• Surveys and product feedback surveys (quantitative insight at scale)
  
  
• Interviews (live or AI-powered, for depth and nuance)
  
  
• Focus groups (guided conversations with multiple participants)
  
  
• Observational or in-product research (watching how users actually behave)
  
  
• Secondary research (analyzing existing reports, industry data, and competitor content)
  Great teams mix qualitative and quantitative research methods to get a complete view.
  
  

What is a product survey?
A product survey is a structured questionnaire used to gather feedback about your product from customers, prospects, or users. Product surveys can measure satisfaction, test new product ideas, prioritize features, or evaluate how well a recent release or experience is landing.

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What questions should I ask in a product survey?
Strong product survey questions are specific, unbiased, and often include at least one open-ended prompt. For example:

1. On a scale of 1–10, how satisfied are you with [feature/workflow] today?
   
   
2. How easy or difficult was it to complete [key task] in our product?
   
   
3. What were you trying to accomplish when you last used [product/feature]?
   
   
4. What’s the biggest frustration you have with [product/feature] right now?
   
   
5. If you could change one thing about our product, what would it be and why?
   
   

These questions surface both numeric trends and rich qualitative insight.

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What is the difference between product research and market research?
Product research focuses on people who already use your product and how they experience value day to day. Market research looks at buyers and segments you haven’t won yet—how they evaluate vendors, what alternatives they consider, and what message resonates. Together, they inform both your roadmap and your go-to-market strategy.

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What are the steps in a basic market analysis?
A simple market analysis often follows these steps:

1. Define your objective and target market
   
   
2. Estimate market size and key segments (by industry, company size, or demographics)
   
   
3. Analyze competitors and alternatives (a lightweight competitive analysis)
   
   
4. Identify market trends, customer needs, and pain points
   
   
5. Translate findings into positioning, pricing, and product decisions
   
   

Your guide already covers pieces of this; framing them as steps helps answer “how do I start market research?” explicitly.

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What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?
Qualitative research (like interviews and open-ended questions) digs into the “why” behind customer behavior: motivations, perceptions, and stories. Quantitative research (like surveys, usage analytics, or win-rate data) measures “what” is happening at scale. The strongest product and market research programs combine both.

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How do I start market research for a new product or segment?
Start by defining the decision you’re trying to make—such as “Should we prioritize this feature?” or “Should we enter this segment now?” Then:

• Recruit participants from your CRM (current customers, closed-lost prospects, or churned accounts)
  
  
• Run a mix of Live Interviews for depth and AI Interviews or surveys for scale
  
  
• Tag themes, decision criteria, and objections
  
  
• Share a concise summary of findings, recommendations, and next steps with stakeholders
  
  

That turns research into a fast, repeatable sprint instead of a one-off project.

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What are the 5 P’s, and how do they relate to market research?
The “5 P’s” usually refer to product, price, place, promotion, and people. Market research helps you understand:

• Which product features matter most
  
  
• How buyers think about price and value
  
  
• Where they expect to discover and purchase (place)
  
  
• Which messages and channels work best (promotion)
  
  
• Who is actually involved in decisions (people—your target audience and personas)
  
  

Using research to inform each “P” leads to more effective marketing strategies and launches.

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