Specialist Market Researcher

An autonomous agent that conducts market research — analyzing market size, customer segments, competitive landscapes, and industry trends to inform product strategy and go-to-market decisions with data-backed insights.

When to Use This Agent

Choose Specialist Market Researcher when:

• You need TAM/SAM/SOM analysis for a new product or market entry
• You want to identify and validate customer segments with demographic and behavioral data
• You need industry trend analysis to inform product roadmap decisions
• Investors or stakeholders require market research for fundraising or strategic planning

Consider alternatives when:

• You need competitive feature analysis (use a competitive analyst agent)
• You need user research on your existing product (use a UX researcher)
• You need financial projections based on market data (use a financial analyst)

Quick Start

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# .claude/agents/market-researcher.yml
name: specialist-market-researcher
description: Conduct market research and segment analysis
agent_prompt: |
  You are a Market Researcher. When analyzing markets:

  1. Define the market boundaries and relevant segments
  2. Estimate market size (TAM, SAM, SOM) with methodology
  3. Identify customer segments with persona profiles
  4. Analyze industry trends and growth drivers
  5. Map the competitive landscape with market share estimates
  6. Identify market entry opportunities and barriers

  Always cite data sources. Distinguish between confirmed data
  and estimates. Provide confidence levels for projections.
  Use bottom-up AND top-down approaches for market sizing.

Example invocation:

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claude "Conduct market research for a developer productivity SaaS tool targeting mid-market engineering teams (50-500 engineers)"

Sample research output:

Market Research — Developer Productivity SaaS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Market Sizing (2025):
  TAM: $32B (global dev tools market, Gartner)
  SAM: $8.5B (productivity-focused SaaS, mid-market)
  SOM: $425M (addressable with current product scope)

Growth Rate: 18% CAGR (2025-2030)
  Drivers: AI-assisted development, remote engineering teams,
  developer experience as competitive advantage

Customer Segments:
  1. Scale-up Engineering (50-200 eng) — 42% of SAM
     Pain: Outgrowing homegrown tools, need standardization
     Budget: $50-200K/year, VP Engineering decides

  2. Enterprise Platform Teams (200-500 eng) — 35% of SAM
     Pain: Tool sprawl, developer onboarding time
     Budget: $200K-1M/year, CTO/Director decides

  3. Agency/Consultancy (50-150 eng) — 23% of SAM
     Pain: Multi-project context switching, time tracking
     Budget: $30-100K/year, Operations lead decides

Market Entry Strategy:
  Recommended: Target Segment 1 (scale-ups) first
  Rationale: Fastest sales cycle (2-4 weeks), least competition
  from enterprise incumbents, highest word-of-mouth growth

Core Concepts

Market Sizing Methodology

Method	Approach	Best For
Top-Down	Total market → apply filter percentages	Initial estimates
Bottom-Up	Count customers × average deal size	Validation
Value Theory	Problem cost × willingness to pay	Pricing research

TAM/SAM/SOM Framework

TAM (Total Addressable Market):
  All revenue if you captured 100% of the relevant market
  Method: Industry reports, analyst estimates
  Example: $32B global developer tools market

SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market):
  Market reachable with your product and go-to-market
  Method: TAM × geographic filter × segment filter × capability filter
  Example: $32B × 40% (English-speaking) × 35% (mid-market) × 60% (productivity) = $2.7B

SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market):
  Market you can realistically capture in 3-5 years
  Method: SAM × market share estimate (5-15% for new entrant)
  Example: $2.7B × 15% = $405M

Customer Segment Profile

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## Segment: Scale-up Engineering Teams

**Demographics:**
- Company size: 100-500 employees
- Engineering team: 50-200 engineers
- Funding: Series B-D or profitable
- Geography: US, UK, Germany, Australia

**Psychographics:**
- Values: Engineering velocity, developer happiness
- Pain: Outgrowing startup tools, not ready for enterprise
- Decision process: VP Eng evaluates, CTO approves, IC advocates

**Behavioral:**
- Buying trigger: Team grows past 50 engineers
- Research: Community recommendations, DevRel content
- Trial: Free tier or 14-day trial, need 3+ team members to adopt
- Contract: Annual, $50-200K

**Channels:**
- Discovery: Hacker News, Dev.to, engineering blogs
- Evaluation: G2 reviews, peer recommendations
- Purchase: Product-led + sales-assisted

Configuration

Option	Type	Default	Description
marketScope	string	"global"	Geographic scope: global, regional, country
sizingMethod	string	"both"	Method: top-down, bottom-up, both
segments	number	3	Number of customer segments to identify
includeCompetitors	boolean	true	Include competitive landscape
forecastYears	number	5	Projection timeframe in years
confidenceLevel	boolean	true	Include confidence levels on estimates

Best Practices

1. Use both top-down and bottom-up sizing — Top-down estimates (industry report × filters) give a quick but imprecise number. Bottom-up estimates (count potential customers × average deal size) validate the top-down figure. If they diverge by more than 3x, investigate which assumptions are wrong.

2. Validate segments with real customer conversations — Desk research identifies potential segments, but only customer interviews confirm whether they exist and behave as hypothesized. Talk to 5-10 potential customers per segment before committing resources to a segment-specific go-to-market strategy.

3. Distinguish between market size and market opportunity — A $10B market where the top 3 players have 80% share leaves $2B for everyone else. Market opportunity depends on competitive concentration, switching costs, and unmet needs, not just total market size. A $500M market with fragmented competition may be a better opportunity than a $10B oligopoly.

4. Update market research quarterly, not annually — Markets move fast, especially in technology. Quarterly updates on competitive moves, funding rounds, and trend shifts keep your strategy current. Annual research is outdated by the time it informs decisions.

5. Present ranges, not point estimates — Market sizing is inherently uncertain. Present "SAM is $2.5B-4.0B" rather than "$3.2B" to communicate the uncertainty. Include your assumptions so stakeholders can adjust the estimate as new information emerges.

Common Issues

Market size estimates vary wildly across sources — One analyst says the market is $5B, another says $15B. The difference is usually in how the market is defined (narrow vs broad) or which segments are included. Clearly define your market boundaries, state your inclusion criteria, and use multiple sources to triangulate rather than relying on a single estimate.

Customer segments overlap significantly — A "scale-up engineering team" and an "enterprise platform team" share many characteristics, making targeting difficult. Use one primary segmentation axis (team size, pain point, or buying behavior) and accept that segments will overlap. The goal is not perfect separation but clear enough differences to inform distinct go-to-market strategies.

Research becomes an excuse for not making decisions — "We need more data" delays product and go-to-market decisions indefinitely. Set a research timeframe (2-4 weeks) and a decision date. After the research period, make the best decision with available data. Waiting for perfect information guarantees you will be late to market.