Templates · market research data and findings
Market Research Template (free)
Structure your market research data and findings into clear themes and insights so you can make confident, evidence-backed product and strategy decisions.
What is in it
Template components
Research Objective
State the core question your research is trying to answer and who the target audience is.
Example: Understand why mid-market B2B buyers choose competitors over us during the final stage of the purchasing decision, targeting procurement managers at companies with 100–500 employees.
Raw Data & Sources
List all data sources collected and note the volume and type of responses from each.
Example: 18 customer interviews (60 min each), 214 survey responses, 6 win/loss call transcripts, and 3 competitor review exports from G2 and Capterra collected between March and April 2025.
Key Themes & Patterns
Summarize the recurring themes you identified across sources, with a note on how frequently each appeared.
Example: Pricing transparency concerns (mentioned in 14 of 18 interviews), lack of integration with existing ERP systems (11 interviews, 67 survey responses), and slow onboarding timeline fears (8 interviews, 42% of survey respondents).
Recommended Actions
For each major theme, write one specific action the team should take based on the evidence.
Example: Pricing transparency → publish a detailed pricing page with tier breakdowns by company size; ERP integrations → prioritize SAP and NetSuite connectors in Q3 roadmap; onboarding concerns → create a visual 30-day onboarding timeline for sales to share during demos.
The template
The full template, ready to copy
Market Research Template (free)
1. Research Overview
Research objective
Understand why small business owners who start a free trial of our accounting software fail to become paying customers within the first 14 days, and identify the highest-impact fixes for conversion.
Primary business decision this research should support
Decide whether to prioritize onboarding improvements, pricing changes, or feature messaging before the next quarterly product release.
Research type
Mixed-method study: 12 customer interviews, 1 competitor review, survey of 146 trial users, and funnel analysis from signup to subscription purchase.
Target audience
US-based businesses with 1–20 employees, especially owners and office managers in agencies, retail, and professional services who currently use spreadsheets or entry-level accounting tools.
Research hypothesis
Trial users are dropping off primarily because setup feels too time-consuming, the value of automation is not obvious early enough, and pricing appears high compared with simpler tools.
Scope and boundaries
In scope: onboarding, perceived value, competitor comparison, purchase objections, and segment differences. Out of scope: enterprise buyers, international markets, and deep tax compliance requirements.
Tip: Write the objective as a decision, not just a topic. Good research should clearly influence what the team does next.
2. Audience and Market Definition
Ideal customer profile
Owner-led businesses with fewer than 20 employees, annual revenue between $250k and $3M, limited in-house finance expertise, and a need to simplify invoicing, expense tracking, and cash flow visibility.
Primary segment
Service-based small businesses such as marketing agencies, consultancies, and design studios that invoice clients monthly and want cleaner reporting without hiring a bookkeeper.
Secondary segment
Local retail and e-commerce sellers who need simple reconciliation and inventory-aware financial tracking but are frustrated by overly complex accounting systems.
Top jobs to be done
Send invoices quickly, know which clients have paid, categorize expenses automatically, prepare for tax season with less stress, and understand monthly cash flow without manual spreadsheet work.
Current alternatives customers use
Excel or Google Sheets, QuickBooks Simple Start, Xero, Wave, outsourced bookkeeping support, and “do nothing until tax season” behavior.
Observed buying triggers
Rapid business growth, tax filing deadlines, increasing invoice volume, frustration with manual data entry, and switching after a negative experience with a current accounting tool.
Which customer segment has the strongest pain, the clearest willingness to pay, and the shortest path to activation?
What problem does this audience urgently want solved this quarter, not “someday”?
Tip: If your market is broad, define one primary segment first. Research becomes more actionable when the audience is narrow and concrete.
3. Research Methodology and Data Sources
Research methods used
Customer interviews, churn win/loss review, signup funnel analysis, on-site poll, pricing page heatmap review, and competitive teardown of three major alternatives.
Sample profile
12 interviews: 5 trial non-converters, 3 recent converters, 2 churned customers, and 2 prospects evaluating alternatives. Survey respondents: 146 trial users from the last 60 days.
Data sources
CRM notes, product analytics, website session recordings, billing conversion data, support tickets tagged “setup” or “pricing,” G2 reviews for competitors, and customer interviews conducted over Zoom.
Research timeframe
Behavioral data collected from the last 90 days; interviews conducted between May 3 and May 15; competitor review completed on May 18.
Key limitations
Interview sample skewed toward service businesses, survey underrepresents highly price-sensitive users who abandoned the product in under 24 hours, and competitor pricing was reviewed only from public sources.
Do the research methods match the decision we need to make, or are we collecting data that is interesting but not useful?
What critical gaps remain in the sample, such as missing industries, company sizes, or customer outcomes?
Tip: Include limitations directly in the template. This helps stakeholders weigh confidence appropriately and avoids overstating the findings.
4. Key Findings and Evidence
Finding 1: Setup friction delays first value
8 of 12 interviewees said the initial setup felt “longer than expected,” especially when importing transactions and connecting bank accounts. Funnel data shows 37% of trial users drop off before completing account connection.
Supporting evidence
Users who connected a bank account within Day 1 converted at 22%, while users who did not converted at only 5%. Session recordings show repeated exits on the account connection step after permissions prompts.
Finding 2: Product value is too abstract early in the trial
Prospects understood features like “automation” and “cash flow visibility,” but could not clearly describe what they would save in time or effort within the first week. Many wanted a fast “before vs. after” proof point.
Supporting evidence
In the survey, 54% of non-converters selected “I wasn’t sure the product was worth switching for” as a top reason for not upgrading. Interview quote: “It looked powerful, but I didn’t see the payoff fast enough.”
Finding 3: Pricing concern is real, but mostly after weak activation
Pricing came up often, but users who reached two or more “success events” (invoice sent, bank connected, dashboard viewed twice) were significantly less price-sensitive than users who never reached activation.
Supporting evidence
Among non-activated users, 48% called the product too expensive. Among activated users, only 19% cited price as the main objection. This suggests value realization likely matters more than list price alone.
Finding 4: Competitors win on simplicity, not depth
QuickBooks and Wave were perceived as easier to “get started with today,” even when users acknowledged our product had stronger reporting and automation features.
Customer language to reuse in messaging
“Get tax-ready without cleaning up spreadsheets,” “See where cash is going each month,” “Send invoices and track payments without chasing clients manually,” and “Set up once, save time every week.”
Which findings are repeated across interviews, survey responses, and product data?
What evidence is strong enough to drive action now, and what still needs validation?
Tip: Pair every major finding with at least one concrete piece of evidence: a number, a quote, a behavioral pattern, or a competitor example.
5. Competitor and Market Landscape
Top competitors reviewed
QuickBooks Simple Start, Xero Early, Wave, and spreadsheet-based workflows as the non-software alternative.
Competitor positioning summary
QuickBooks emphasizes familiarity and broad trust, Xero emphasizes modern bookkeeping for growing businesses, and Wave emphasizes free or low-cost simplicity for small operators.
Where competitors appear stronger
Faster perceived setup, more recognizable brand trust, clearer “start now” onboarding, and lower-friction entry pricing or free plans for very small businesses.
Where our product appears stronger
Cleaner reporting, better automation for recurring financial tasks, stronger visibility into cash flow, and a more modern interface once setup is complete.
Market opportunities
Own the “simple but powerful” positioning for service businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets but do not want enterprise-grade accounting complexity.
Threats to monitor
Competitors introducing AI-assisted bookkeeping setup, discount-led acquisition campaigns, and growing buyer skepticism about switching costs between finance tools.
Why do customers choose a competitor even when our feature set is stronger on paper?
What part of the market is underserved by existing options and realistically winnable for us?
Tip: Include the “do nothing” alternative in market research. Often your real competitor is inertia, not another company.
6. Recommendations, Actions, and Next Steps
Recommendation 1
Shorten time-to-value by redesigning onboarding around one guided outcome: connect account, import data, send first invoice, and view first cash flow summary within 10 minutes.
Recommendation 2
Update messaging across the homepage, pricing page, and trial emails to focus on measurable outcomes such as “save 3–5 hours per month on financial admin” instead of broad platform claims.
Recommendation 3
Delay major pricing changes until activation improves. First test onboarding and value communication, then reevaluate whether price objection remains a top barrier among activated users.
Immediate experiments
A/B test a simplified onboarding checklist, add an interactive sample dashboard for new trials, and send a Day 1 email with a “See your first cash flow snapshot” CTA.
Success metrics to track
Bank connection completion rate, first invoice sent within 48 hours, trial-to-paid conversion by segment, pricing page exit rate, and percentage of users reaching two or more activation events in the first 7 days.
Owner and deadline
Product onboarding team to launch first experiment by June 10; lifecycle marketing to update trial messaging by June 14; research team to run follow-up validation interviews by July 1.
What is the smallest, fastest action we can take based on this research within the next two weeks?
How will we know whether the research led to better product, messaging, or go-to-market decisions?
Tip: End every research document with actions, owners, and metrics. Insight without a follow-through plan is just interesting reading.
How to use
How to use it
- Collect and centralize your data
Pull all your research inputs — interviews, surveys, review exports, and call transcripts — into one place before you begin coding or tagging. - Tag responses by theme
Read through each data source and assign one or more thematic labels to each response or quote, grouping similar concerns, motivations, or behaviors together. - Count and rank themes by frequency
Tally how often each theme appears across sources and rank them by prevalence so you focus your analysis on what matters most to the largest share of respondents. - Write one concrete action per theme
For each top theme, translate the insight into a single specific recommendation that a product, marketing, or sales team can act on in the next sprint or quarter.
Filled in
What it looks like filled in
Pricing Opacity Kills Late-Stage Deals
"We got to the final call and still had no idea what we'd actually pay — that made us nervous enough to go with someone else who was upfront."
→ Launch a public pricing page with clear tier breakdowns and an ROI calculator to reduce friction in the final buying stage.
Integration Gaps Block Purchase Approval
"Our IT team vetoed it immediately when they saw there was no native SAP connector — that's a non-negotiable for us at this company size."
→ Prioritize SAP and NetSuite native integrations in the Q3 product roadmap and add integration compatibility to the sales discovery checklist.
Onboarding Timeline Uncertainty Creates Risk Aversion
"We couldn't get a straight answer on how long it would take to be fully live — our last vendor took four months and it nearly derailed the project."
→ Build a shareable 30-day visual onboarding roadmap for the sales team to present during demo calls to replace uncertainty with a concrete commitment.
Or skip it
Why teams skip the template
Usercall reads the market research data and findings for you and drafts the themes, quotes and recommendations. See how qualitative analysis works.
- Manually tagging hundreds of responses takes days
Coding themes across 18 interviews and 200+ survey responses by hand is slow, inconsistent, and easy to bias toward what you already expect to find. - Frequency counts are tedious and error-prone
Counting how often a theme appears across multiple data sources in spreadsheets means one missed row or misread label can quietly distort your entire prioritization. - Turning themes into actions requires another round of interpretation
Even after you surface patterns, translating them into specific, team-ready recommendations requires a separate effort that often gets rushed or skipped under deadline pressure.
Keep reading
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How Usercall does this
Qualitative analysis
Transcripts and open-ends, coded with their quotes
Research triggers
Interview people at the moment something happens
Voice of customer analysis
Every feedback source in one analysis
Sample interviews and reports
Hear an AI-moderated interview and open a real report
Free question generators
Interview guides and NPS, CSAT, CX and employee surveys
Reviewed by
Founder of Usercall. 15+ years in qualitative research and insight led strategy
Analyze your market research data and findings automatically — no template needed
Free to start. Upload transcripts, notes or survey responses and get themes with the quotes attached.