A commercial question can arrive as a worry or a hunch: is this segment worth chasing, why do buyers hesitate, what is the competition really doing. Before any source is opened, the question is rewritten as something a desk review can answer and a reader can act on. The scope is written down and agreed first.
A research question is usable when at least one answer changes an action. We ask what decision follows, who will read the result and what they already believe. If no answer would change anything, the question is reshaped before work starts, because a well-sourced answer to the wrong question does not help the decision.
The output of this step is a written scope, not research findings. It states the question, what counts as an answer, the source types to be used and the points the sources are unlikely to settle.
Crowded by whose count? The scope fixes what counts as a competitor, which geography is read and which attributes are compared, so the answer can be checked.
This may be positioning, listing, price position or assortment. The scope picks the part that public sources can speak to and flags the part that needs your own sales data.
Region choice is a decision, not a finding. The scope limits research to comparable facts about supply in each region and leaves the choice with you.
Rough is fine. Add the reason it came up now and who is waiting for the answer.
Previous research, your own figures, assumptions you have been working under. We will not retest them unless the scope says so.
A board date, a negotiation, a seasonal order. It decides how deep the scope can reasonably go.
The same sequence is used whether the question is a single line in an email or a page of background.
Your wording is kept. Next to it we put a narrower version that names a subject, a population and a thing to be established.
Facts you hold are marked client-provided and are not independently checked. Suspicions become hypotheses the sources can support or fail to support.
A yes or no, a ranked comparison of criteria, a map of who does what, a list of open points. The form is fixed before the sources are chosen.
Public registers, company websites, published documents, trade material and anything you supply. Official or registry records come first, then the subject's own material, then third-party material, then what you supplied; the order can vary by question and the scope says what it follows.
Some questions need interviews, panels or confidential data. The scope says which part of the question is left outside and why.
Research reports what can be established from public and provided sources. It is not a guarantee about a counterparty's future conduct and not legal advice.
Then it is outside this service. The commercial part that research can support can be separated from it.
The scope is agreed in writing before research starts; changes are discussed when requested.
No obligation. We read your request and reply with a straight answer.
Tell us what you need to find out and by when. We confirm scope before any work starts.
Request research