Secondary Research Guide
This guide should be used with the methods outlined in the Archival and Secondary Research Experiments section of Chapter 4 Explore the Community.
Secondary research helps you explore what is already known about your community, market, and competitors. Use it to avoid rediscovering basics, sharpen your primary exploration, and ground your insights in broader context.
What to Search For
- Customer insights: demographics, psychographics, behaviors, usage patterns.
- Market analysis: market size, growth rates, adoption trends.
- Competitor analysis: existing players, their models, strengths, and gaps.
- Industry & environment trends: technology, regulation, cultural shifts, economics.
Where to Look
- Free and open sources:
- Government portals (e.g., census, labor data, trade stats)
- Google Trends, social media trend tools
- World Bank, OECD, NGO/think tank reports
- Business press and consulting firm white papers
- Government portals (e.g., census, labor data, trade stats)
- Paid / institutional sources:
- Mintel, Euromonitor, IBISWorld, Factiva
- Industry associations
- University library databases (e.g., BYU innovation database index)
- Mintel, Euromonitor, IBISWorld, Factiva
How to Use It
- Start here: scan secondary sources before entering the field.
- Triangulate: compare published findings with conversations and observations.
- Treat as experiments: ask “If I search here, what will I learn?”
- Track surprises and absences: sometimes missing data is as telling as what you find.
Success measure: When your secondary research confirms or challenges your field discoveries and prevents wasted interviews on what is already known.