A thorough analysis of competing designs is required to establish the market need. What is this typically called?

• A. Research methods
• B. Competitive analysis
• C. Market sizing
• D. Design review

Answer: (A)

Understanding market need comes from using a structured information-gathering process—the way researchers plan, collect, and interpret data about users and competitors. This is what research methods cover. By outlining what to study, selecting methods like interviews, surveys, and desk research, and then analyzing the results, you can see how well competing designs meet user needs and where opportunities lie. Competitive analysis is a technique you’ll use within this broader approach, but the term that captures the full set of activities to establish market need is research methods. Market sizing would tell you how big the potential market is but not what people actually need, and a design review focuses on evaluating a design itself rather than discovering market demand.