Conducting market opportunity assessment

A good market opportunity assessment confirms that your vision addresses real market needs with enough potential value. This combines market sizing with understanding customer needs and the competitive landscape.

Start by identifying your target market segments:

• Problem-based segmentation: Group customers by specific problems they're solving
• Behavioral segmentation: Categorize by how people use existing solutions
• Demographic/firmographic segmentation: For B2B, consider company size and industry; for consumers, factors like age and digital literacy

Then, estimate market size using two approaches:

• Top-down: Start with broad market research (e.g., "global fitness app market is $5 billion"), then narrow to your specific focus
• Bottom-up: Calculate potential users × acquisition rate × customer value (e.g., 50M interested users × 2% reach = 1M potential users)

Analyze market trends including technology shifts, regulatory changes, and evolving user behaviors. Consider if the timing is right for your approach.

Document both validated insights and assumptions needing testing and update quarterly as you learn more.^[1]