How do you recommend researching on a very limited budget?

I've already shared some ways that you can be scrappy with research, but one more thing I will add here is that even without some of these low-cost programs product marketing still has access to a mountain data that they can mine for insights. Sales and success are talking to customers every day, product are running their own research programs, support is sitting on a mountain of customer feedback via tickets, and the list goes on!

If you don't have the budget or bandwidth to do your own research, find ways to tap into these sources to get some insight into the market. Even better, recruit these functions to help answer any questions that you might have. Looking for some messaging validation? Work with your favorite salesperson to test it out in their talk track. Want to explore new persona development? Customer success could be a great channel to access that persona in the customer base for qualitative interviews. Just like other product marketing disciplines, those who can effectively lead by influence are setting themselves up for long-term success.

Don't overthink it. there is a lot of free information and data available. Look through patterns in your CRM or call data. join Sales on pitches. Listen in to SDR calls. Reach out to LinkedIn contacts or other internal contacts and simply ask for 15-30 mins of their time and interview them

When I was working at startups, I have done really scrappy qualitative research by reaching out to people directly on LinkedIn and simply asking for their time. You would be surprised at how many people are willing to help and share their expertise (even better if you can offer a small monetary incentive or a donation to a charity of their choice). Conducting as little as 8-10 interviews can help you identify common themes to inform product decisions, develop a POV on the buyer persona, or gather feedback on messaging/value props.

Here is the message template that you can personalize further: "I saw that you are an expert in _____. Curious if you'd be open to giving honest feedback on the product I'm building in _____. I'd be happy to compensate you with a $75 gift card of your choice for your time. To make scheduling easy, here is a link to sign up for a time that works best for you..."

We're currently exploring AI tools like outset.ai to let AI conduct, moderate and synthesize conversations -- will share more details in my next AMA as we're just getting started.