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Checklist · 4 min read

Market Feasibility Studies Checklist: 12 Steps Before You Commission a Study

A 12-step checklist for planning a market feasibility studies project in India, from objectives and audience to sampling, quality control and reporting.

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Quick answer

Before commissioning market feasibility studies, define the decision it will inform, the audience, the cities, the sample, the method, the timeline and the budget. Then agree quality-control and reporting standards with your agency.

At a glance

Guide type
Checklist · 4 minute read
Method covered
Market Feasibility Studies
Research family
Strategy research
Typical timeline
6–10 weeks, longer where regulatory or land-approval enquiries are in scope
Typical sample
15–25 stakeholder interviews plus a demand-side survey of 200–400 potential buyers
Written for
Project managers running the study · In-house teams doing it themselves · Reviewers signing off a vendor plan

Key takeaways

  • Start from the business decision, not the questionnaire
  • Fix the audience definition early
  • Agree QC and deliverables upfront
  • Plan how findings will be used

Reader intent

Who this guide is for

Three readers arrive here with different problems. Each should be able to act on this page without reading all of it.

  • Project managers running the study

    A working sequence for a market feasibility studies project, from brief through field to debrief.

  • In-house teams doing it themselves

    The quality controls an agency would apply, written so that you can apply them yourself.

  • Reviewers signing off a vendor plan

    Read it as an audit list against the proposal currently on your desk.

01

The 12-step checklist

  • Write down the business decision
  • List the information gaps
  • Define the target audience precisely
  • Choose cities and the urban/rural split
  • Set the sample size and key segments
  • Pick the method (desk research, demand estimation, stakeholder interviews, financial modelling)
  • Agree languages and translation
  • Draft and pilot the questionnaire or guide
  • Agree quality-control checks
  • Set the timeline and milestones
  • Define deliverables and format
  • Plan the debrief and next actions

02

Why the order matters

Each step constrains the next. Changing the audience late, for example, can reset sampling, cost and timeline.

03

How Market Research India can help

Market Research India designs and runs market feasibility studies projects across 50 Indian cities and 30 industries. A senior research director leads every study, and our own supervised teams handle the fieldwork. You get clear recommendations, not just data tables.

Share your objective and we will send a scoped, fixed-fee proposal within 24 hours, with a recommended method, sample and timeline.

What goes wrong

Common mistakes in market feasibility studies

Most disappointing market feasibility studies studies fail for reasons that were visible in the design, not in the fieldwork. These are the ones we see most often, and what to do instead.

  • 01

    A top-down market size with no bottom-up check

    Multiplying a published national figure by a share assumption is not an estimate, it is a hope. Build demand from units, outlets or households and reconcile the two.

  • 02

    Reading stated intent as demand

    Purchase intent overstates behaviour everywhere, and by more in interview settings. Discount it, or triangulate against observed proxies such as current category spend.

  • 03

    Leaving the approval path out of the timeline

    Licences, clearances and local permissions routinely add months. A case that ignores them is optimistic on both cash flow and launch date.

  • 04

    A single base case with no downside

    A board cannot sanction a number with no range around it. Model base, downside and upside, and state what triggers each.

  • 05

    Analysis with no recommendation attached

    Senior readers need a position. Close each section with what you would do, and what would have to be true for you to change your mind.

  • 06

    Findings that arrive after the decision

    Research timed to land after the investment committee has met is an audit, not an input. Work back from the decision date and cut scope rather than slip.

Run through this before sign-off

Your checklist before you brief anyone

A working sequence for a market feasibility studies project. Most of it costs nothing, and it saves the two weeks a re-field would take.

  1. 1

    Write the go/no-go criteria before the research starts, and have them signed off.

  2. 2

    Build demand top-down and bottom-up independently, then explain the gap between them.

  3. 3

    Interview the supply side — distributors, suppliers, competitors — not only prospective buyers.

  4. 4

    Price the regulatory and approval path in both money and months.

  5. 5

    Name the two or three conditions under which the recommendation would flip.

  6. 6

    Hand over a working model rather than a PDF, so the team can update it next quarter.

  7. 7

    Agree in writing who acts on each finding, and by when, before the debrief ends.

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Answers

Frequently asked questions

The questions buyers ask us most often before they commission market feasibility studies.

Can an agency help with the checklist?

Yes. A good agency will workshop these steps with you before it quotes.

Request a proposal

Talk to a market feasibility studies specialist.

From guide to project

Where market feasibility studies actually gets commissioned

If this guide has settled the method, these are the pages worth opening next: the service itself, and the markets where market feasibility studies is most often run for our clients.

Keep exploring

More reading on market feasibility studies

Grouped rather than listed, so you can find the one page you need instead of scanning a wall of links.

More on market feasibility studies

14

Every angle we have published on this method: what it costs, how long it takes, how large the sample should be and how to choose a partner.

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Other checklist articles

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The same checklist written for each of our other research methods, so you can compare like with like.

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Market Feasibility Studies city by city

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Local field teams, local languages and the sector mix each market is strongest in.

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Related research services

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Strategy methods first — these are the ones most often combined with market feasibility studies in a single study.

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