Market Sensing, bit of a new term for me and I am still trying to wrap my head around it. Fortunately for you, two things are about to happen... One, Jim Holland is going to introduce the concept in his webinar on Wednesday (Market Sensing - Anticipating Market Problems with Jim Holland) and two, I am going to give my view.

Market sensing is the collection and analysis of ideas from not only your market but potential markets. However, it goes beyond traditional research (or collection) by diving deeply into how market personas (i.e. buyer & user) think and act.

The challenge is never collecting ideas. If you ask me about anything, I'll give you ideas. And we can sit and talk through them and dream up a hundred more. Not the problem. I realize there might be (are?) challenges around the management of those ideas. Different topic, another day. The challenge is not prioritizing those ideas. Again a different topic for another day. The challenge is understanding those ideas to the root of the problem. Sakichi Toyoda introduced a concept called the "5 Whys" that simply states you need to ask "why" 5 times to get to the root of the problem. Anyway, problem definition is a different topic for yet another day. To define the problem you need to understand the big picture, you need to know how people think and act. This goes beyond a single idea.

I see market sensing a little like Google (a stretch, bear with me!) in that it is consistently crawling, looking for more web pages, more content, more links. I see market sensing in the same light, you are trolling for more ideas for a deeper understanding of the existing ideas that lead to more ideas, that lead to more ideas and you constantly pour out like a spider builds its web or Google builds its index. I hope that helps.

The benefit is that you have a bigger picture that is validated by the potential market and now you are better able to anticipate the needs of your current and potential markets.

Past Webinar Updates:
1) Market Sensing - Anticipating Market Problems with Jim Holland
2) Market Sensing 201 - What Process Works for You? with Jim Holland