Here's how you can overcome the key challenges in conducting market research.

Clearly outline what you want to achieve with your research. Whether it's understanding customer preferences or identifying market trends, having specific goals will guide your efforts.

Without a good scope of work, your research will be all over the place and you'll end up wasting time, budgets, and energy. The tricky part is that most of the time you don't know what you don't know, so in order to channel your research, answer this set of questions: (1) what insights do you need from your research? (2) what will you be using it for (marketing or sales strategy? SEO or PPC? etc) (3) what market are you targeting (geography, industry, audience, etc.)? (4) what timeline are you looking for (past 3 months? past 5 years? future-focused?)? Finally, set up a time target, accounting for your budget, and stop as soon as you hit your budget/time limit.

Para superar los principales retos en la investigación de mercado, lo ideal es utilizar un enfoque integral basado en Big Data e Inteligencia Artificial. Esto permite integrar información interna con grandes volúmenes de datos alternativos y externos, ofreciendo análisis más profundos y personalizados. Así, se evita depender de fuentes limitadas, pequeños tamaños de muestra y sesgos en la interpretación. Las metodologías avanzadas incluyen análisis de consumo, cliente, mercado, participación de mercado, viabilidad de proyectos, producto, ventas, competencia, canales óptimos y áreas específicas.

I remember being given a market research report to use in my strategy design that was just poor research: it was mainly done with AI, it was too vague and mostly wrong or outdated, and although it was very long, it was useless. In the end, I had to re-do the research myself, using quality sources of data and info, double and triple-checking the data. In the end, there was a massive waste of time (over 3 weeks) and resources (over $6k): the people who first did the research; the PM who had to liaise between them and me, and myself I'd wasted my time reading through useless information and then having to redo the research. It was costly and entirely avoidable if the research had been done properly.

Staying up to date with the research is essential, that's why I recommend to my clients to regularly update the research at least every 6 months (in some hyper-dynamic industries it could even be monthly). I once did a research on NFTs and the client wasn't available for a presentation until 2 months later. Before the client call, I had to update part of the research because in the meantime the market had crashed and the data was already outdated. Set yourself a Google news alert on the specific keywords you will use during your research (e.g. industry trends, big companies in the industry, etc.), so that you get ping-ed every time something new happens. Make a habit of checking out industry publications once a week at least.

Your client won't care about how much data you've gathered: they won't read a 300-page report. They want just the essentials and what it means to their business. You may conduct a survey where respondents will say X, Y, Z about the product, but your client will want to know what that means in practical terms for them: do they have to change the marketing strategy? Do they have to adjust their sales colateral? Do they have to change entirely their product? Think in terms of "what's in it for me" when analysing the research findings. Extract only the useful and essential insights for you or your clients. However, make sure you store your findings in a report/deck, as you will need it for future reference.