Market Research Red Flags: Common Mistakes That Undermine Your Strategy

Lena Baudo
Sep 25
3 min read

After more than 15 years in market research, I keep seeing the same mistakes come back. They look small at first, but they often end up wasting months of work and large budgets.

I’ll walk you through the most common red flags I see, why they happen, and what you can do to avoid them.

Asking colleagues instead of customers

This is the fastest way to bias your research. Colleagues know your product, they share your culture, and they already speak your company’s language. That is the opposite of what you want when you need unbiased customer insights.

Why it matters:

You end up with data that confirms what you already believe.
You miss blind spots because colleagues don’t necessarily represent buyer motivations or frustrations.
Decisions based on this kind of input look good internally but can collapse when tested externally.

How to fix it: talk to the people who actually decide whether to buy. That means structured interviews, focus groups, or surveys with your real target audience. Even five conversations with actual customers can be more valuable than 50 surveys filled in by colleagues.

Copying a European strategy in the U.S.

I’ve seen this mistake derail expansion plans. A strategy that worked in Europe is applied as-is in the U.S. The assumption is that “the market is the same, just bigger.” It’s not.

What changes?

Regulations: Industries like healthcare, finance, or even retail operate under very different rules.
Buyer behavior: In some countries, people compare extensively before buying. In others, trust in the brand or recommendation channels matter more.
Competition: Your European competitor set is not the same as in the U.S. A player you’ve never heard of may already control the space.

When you don’t adapt, you risk burning resources. Campaigns don’t resonate. Sales cycles take longer than expected. The product–market fit that felt obvious in Europe suddenly disappears.

Expansion always requires new research!

Market sizing with population × price

This one looks good in a pitch deck but falls apart in reality. Let’s say there are 10 million people, and your product sells for $100. You multiply and claim a $1 billion market.

Here’s what’s missing:

Not everyone in that population is a realistic buyer. Adoption rates matter.
Of the potential buyers, some can’t or won’t pay full price. Affordability matters.
Competitors already hold part of the market. You’ll never start at 100% share.

A real sizing exercise looks at addressable segments, willingness to pay, and likely adoption over time. It often produces a number much smaller than the flashy “billion-dollar” market. But it’s better to work with a realistic number than to chase a fantasy.

Copying competitor features

This is the red flag I see most often in product strategy. The thinking goes: “Our competitor has these five features, so we should have them too.”

The risks are clear:

You enter a race to the bottom, where the only difference is price.
You always follow, never lead. The competitor sets the agenda.
You lose the chance to focus on what makes you different.

The companies that succeed use research to understand unmet needs. They don’t just ask, “What features are missing?” They ask, “What problems are still unsolved?” Differentiation creates value.

What this means for you

Market research is not about filling reports with charts or running surveys for the sake of it. It is about challenging assumptions and avoiding shortcuts.

The red flags above are easy to spot, but they survive because they save time in the short term. Asking colleagues is faster than finding customers. Multiplying population × price is faster than building adoption models. Copying features is faster than uncovering unmet needs.

But every shortcut has a cost. The cost is failed launches, wasted budgets, and missed opportunities.

If you want research that really supports decision-making, ask yourself: