| Research brief and scope | Business question, assumptions, audiences, markets, categories, data sources, exclusions and decision criteria | Research plan and scope document | Discovery | Business objectives, product idea, geography, constraints and stakeholders |
| Market opportunity scan | Category context, demand indicators, trend signals, customer segments, channel patterns and adoption barriers | Report, opportunity map or briefing deck | Research and analysis | Target market, product category and available internal evidence |
| Customer insight summary | Survey, interview, review, support, sales or behavioural themes grouped into usable product findings | Insight report and evidence table | Customer research | Customer access, feedback sources and research permissions |
| Competitor comparison matrix | Competing products, positioning, features, pricing signals, offers, reviews and apparent strengths or weaknesses | Spreadsheet, dashboard or report | Competitive analysis | Known competitors, category boundaries and priority attributes |
| Pricing and margin-input research | Observed price bands, promotional patterns, fee considerations, cost assumptions and margin-risk notes | Pricing research sheet and summary | Commercial assessment | Target margin, cost assumptions and channel information |
| Product shortlist | Ranked product, category, feature or vendor options based on agreed evidence and scoring criteria | Shortlist and scorecard | Opportunity evaluation | Evaluation criteria, risk tolerance and business priorities |
| Review mining and sentiment themes | Customer review patterns, complaints, praise, feature requests, objections and quality signals | Theme map and findings summary | Customer evidence review | Approved review sources and product categories |
| Validation report | Evidence synthesis, assumptions tested, remaining unknowns, risks, trade-offs and recommended next steps | Executive report | Decision preparation | Stakeholder feedback and decision criteria |
| Research repository | Source links, notes, datasets, definitions, update log, methodology and handover documentation | Workspace, spreadsheet or shared folder | Documentation | Access rules, retention requirements and ownership decisions |
| Ongoing monitoring report | Category changes, competitor moves, price changes, review themes and emerging demand signals | Monthly or agreed cadence report | Managed service | Priority categories, source list and reporting cadence |