EuPMA - European Product Management Association
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European
Product
Management
Association
Product Management Action Card
Conduct Quantitative Customer Research
We drive the future of Product Management in Europe
Why
Qualitative research helps uncover needs, motivations, and problems, but Product Managers often need quantitative evidence to understand how widespread, important, or valuable those findings are.
Quantitative customer research helps validate assumptions, compare customer groups, prioritize needs and attributes, and support product decisions with measurable evidence.
What
Collect and analyze structured data from a sufficiently large and relevant sample of customers or users.
Typical methods include:
- Surveys — to measure needs, preferences, satisfaction, behaviors, attitudes, purchase intentions, and differences between customer segments.
- Conjoint Analysis — to understand how customers make trade-offs between product attributes, estimate their relative importance, and evaluate preferred product configurations.
The method should always be selected according to the decision that needs to be supported.
How
- Define the decision to support
Start from the business or product question. Clarify what you want to validate, compare, prioritize, or estimate. - Define the target population
Identify the customers or users whose answers are relevant. Consider segments, user roles, markets, applications, or purchasing situations. - Select the appropriate method
Use a survey when you need to measure opinions, behaviors, needs, or preferences directly.
Use conjoint analysis when you need to understand trade-offs between attributes, features, price, or alternative product configurations. - Design the research carefully
Keep questions clear, neutral, and easy to understand. Avoid leading questions, ambiguous wording, unnecessary complexity, and excessively long questionnaires. - Define an adequate sample
Ensure the sample is sufficiently large and representative for the conclusions you want to draw. - Collect the data
Use appropriate channels such as online surveys, customer panels, direct invitations, distributors, CRM contacts, or research platforms. - Analyze differences, not only averages
Compare results across relevant customer segments and look for meaningful patterns, clusters, preferences, and outliers. - Translate results into product decisions
Use the findings to validate customer needs, prioritize requirements, compare concepts, define product configurations, support pricing decisions, or identify opportunities for differentiation.
Need support applying this Action Card?
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Download the: “Conduct Quantitative Customer Research” Action Card.