Market research or trust intuition?

The intuition of seasoned brand professionals is highly valuable, but it often answers the question "what do I think about the customer," not "what reasons do customers actually decide for." These two questions may seem similar but lead to completely different outcomes when you bet your budget on them.

Intuition is hypothesis, not evidence.

The founder often has the deepest understanding of their product. However, being too close can lead them to view customers through their own lens. When asking acquaintances to try it out and receiving positive feedback, that is not market evidence. When a few friends in the community praise it, that is an encouraging signal, not confirmation that the target segment you want to reach will buy.

The correct approach is to treat your intuition as a good hypothesis that needs to be validated. The role of research is not to replace your judgment but to confirm or refute it before committing significant resources.

When is it mandatory to conduct research?

There is a simple question for self-checking: if this decision is wrong, will the cost to fix it be high, and will it take a long time to turn back? If the answer is yes, that is a sign that you need evidence before proceeding.

• Repositioning the brand: changing how the market perceives you is an expensive and time-consuming decision that can lead to rebuilding if done incorrectly.
• Changing or expanding the customer base: assuming that a new group of customers will understand and price your product similarly to the old group is a significant risk.
• Moving up to a higher segment: the buying motives and decision criteria in higher segments often differ significantly from those in the mass market.
• When seeking funding or opening new markets: investors and partners will ask for evidence, not just listen to the vision.
• Rebranding after a crisis: understanding how customers perceive you before engaging with them is essential.

When quick testing is enough

Not every decision requires research. Waiting for perfect data for every small step will slow down the organization and waste unnecessary resources.

• A small, reversible decision: change the message on one channel, test new content, adjust the pricing presentation.
• Data is already available: feedback from previous customers, sales figures, and conversion rates are sufficient to answer the questions being raised.
• The cost of testing is actually lower than research costs: sometimes launching a small version to the market and observing the response is the fastest and cheapest way to learn.

Research does not need to be big and expensive.

A common misconception is that "systematic market research" means hiring a large research company, surveying hundreds of people, and taking months. In reality, for the strategic decisions of small and medium enterprises, in-depth qualitative interviews with the right people are often more valuable than large-scale surveys that ask the wrong questions.

Clayton Christensen's Jobs to be Done method is a practical approach: instead of asking customers what they think about the product, ask them what problem they are trying to solve, what they have done before, and what led them to decide to change. This way of questioning turns subjective feelings into evidence of true motivations.

Positioning must be based on how customers actually make decisions, not on internal assumptions.

Sinh Vũ practice perspective, inheriting Jobs to be Done (Christensen).

Common mistakes when guessing instead of asking

• Allocating the entire communication budget to a positioning based on the founder's intuition, without validating it with real customers first.
• Confusing the praise of a familiar majority as evidence of a broader market.
• Hearing clients say what you want to hear instead of what they truly think: this is the natural bias of those close to the product.
• Waiting for perfect research for every small decision slows down the entire process due to unnecessary detailed evidence.

The viewpoint of Sinh Vũ

In Sinh Vũ's S1 working process, market research and customer interviews are scheduled for weeks 2 and 3, before writing any strategies or positioning. The simple reason: Sinh Vũ respects the intuition of business owners as a valuable source of hypotheses, but does not use it as a foundation for major decisions without verification with real customers.

For small decisions during implementation, Sinh Vũ does not recommend costly research. Quick testing, observing real reactions, and adjusting is a more effective way to learn at that stage. The important thing is to know what type of decision you are facing before choosing an approach.