SaaS companies still make six and seven figure calls on positioning, pricing, and product direction off gut feel and internal debate. Winston Francois replaces the debate with buyer data and competitive intelligence.
The Problem
Your Buyer Understanding Is Stale or Invented
Most SaaS companies built their personas at launch and have not touched them since. The market moved – competitors shipped new AI features, and buyer evaluation criteria shifted toward what a product can automate, not just what it can report on. Decisions built on outdated buyer understanding produce messaging that misses, features nobody asked for, and campaigns that underperform quarter after quarter.
Competitive Intel Is Anecdotal
Your sales team reports what they hear in deals. Your product team tracks competitor announcements when someone happens to notice. Nobody owns a structured view of how competitors position, price, or package their AI capabilities. Without systematic competitive intelligence, you react to fragments while competitors who track this systematically move first.
Strategic Decisions Happen in a Data Vacuum
Should you move upmarket? Enter a new vertical? Change your pricing model to compete with AI-native entrants? These are high-stakes calls that most SaaS companies still make on internal opinion and a handful of customer conversations. Getting one wrong costs a quarter or two on the wrong bet, not a few hours of rework.
How We Help
Winston Francois delivers market research and competitive intelligence that SaaS teams actually use to make decisions. We do not hand over an 80-page report that sits in a Google Drive folder. We produce intelligence built to change how you operate.
Our [growth strategy](/services/strategy/) team designs research around your decision, not a generic template. If you need to understand a new market segment, we structure the research to answer the questions that determine your go-to-market approach. If you need competitive intelligence, we build the framework your team uses to track competitors on an ongoing basis, including how they price and position new AI features.
Research methods depend on the question. We use buyer interviews, win/loss analysis, competitive teardowns, survey research, and secondary data analysis. We pick the methods that answer your question with enough confidence to act, not the methods that produce the thickest deck.
Our [product](/services/product/) team translates findings into product and positioning recommendations. We do not just hand you data – we tell you what it means for your roadmap, your messaging, and your go-to-market.
Every engagement includes a [measurement](/services/measurement/) component – how will you know if the decisions you make from this research are working? We define the metrics and tracking before you act, so you can validate the research against real-world results.
We also build the ongoing intelligence capability. Point-in-time research is useful, but the companies winning right now are the ones tracking their market continuously as competitors ship new features every month. We set up the systems for your team to maintain that awareness after the engagement ends.
What we deliver
- Buyer research with updated personas and decision-making maps
- Competitive intelligence framework and initial analysis
- Strategic recommendations tied to specific business decisions
- Ongoing intelligence playbook and tracking systems
- Validation metrics to test research-informed decisions
Research is only valuable if it changes a decision. Every research question should map to a specific choice your team needs to make.
Our Methodology
Winston Francois runs research engagements on a 90-day sprint model. The first 30 days are research design and data collection – defining the questions, selecting methods, recruiting interview or survey participants, and starting competitive analysis.
Days 31 through 60 are analysis and synthesis. We process the data, identify patterns, and develop findings. Raw interviews become buyer insights, and scattered competitive data becomes structured intelligence. We pressure-test findings with your team before finalizing anything.
Days 61 through 90 are activation. We present findings, deliver strategic recommendations, and stand up the ongoing intelligence systems. We work with your team to define the metrics that validate the decisions you make from the research, so this does not end as a one-time exercise.
How We Work
In the first 30 days, we align on the specific decisions your research needs to inform. We design the research plan, start recruiting interview participants, launch surveys if applicable, and begin competitive analysis. You approve the research design before we proceed.
During days 31 through 60, we conduct interviews, complete competitive teardowns, and analyze all collected data. We share preliminary findings mid-sprint so you can start thinking through implications, and we pressure-test emerging insights with your customer-facing teams.
Days 61 through 90 deliver the final analysis, strategic recommendations, and ongoing intelligence framework. We present findings in a working session, not a slide deck, so your team can ask questions and start planning next steps in the room. You leave with the insights and the system to keep them current.
Ongoing engagements typically focus on maintaining competitive intelligence, running regular buyer pulse surveys, and providing strategic advisory as market conditions shift.
- Decision-ready buyer insights based on primary research
- Structured competitive intelligence with regular update cadence
- Strategic recommendations for positioning, pricing, or market entry
- Ongoing intelligence capability your team can maintain independently
If your saas / tech company needs market research & insights leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
How is this different from hiring a traditional market research firm?
Traditional research firms produce reports. We produce decisions. Every engagement starts with the specific choice you need to make and works backward to the research that informs it. We also fold research findings directly into your growth strategy and marketing execution, which a standalone research firm will not do. The output is not a document – it is a change in how you operate.
What research methods do you use for SaaS buyer insights?
It depends on the question. For buyer decision-making, we run structured interviews with recent buyers and prospects. For validating positioning or messaging, we use survey research with real statistical rigor. For competitive intelligence, we combine product teardowns, pricing analysis, content audits, and win/loss interviews. We pick the methods that answer your question efficiently, not exhaustively.
How many buyer interviews do you typically conduct?
For most SaaS research questions, 15 to 25 structured interviews reach saturation – the point where new interviews confirm existing patterns instead of revealing new ones. We design interview guides to maximize insight per conversation. For quantitative validation, we supplement interviews with survey research targeting a larger sample.
Can you do competitive intelligence without talking to our competitors' customers?
Yes. Competitive intelligence draws from public positioning, pricing pages, product documentation, job postings, content strategy, review sites, community discussions, and your own win/loss data. Talking to a competitor's customers adds depth but is not always necessary or appropriate. We size the approach to what you need to know and what sources are actually available.
How do you keep research from becoming shelfware?
Three ways. First, we tie every research question to a specific decision before we start – no decision attached, no question. Second, we present findings in working sessions, not slide readouts, so your team leaves with action items instead of a PDF. Third, we define validation metrics up front so you can test whether the decisions made from the research are actually working.
What does an ongoing competitive intelligence program look like?
We set up a tracking framework that monitors competitor positioning, pricing, feature releases, content strategy, and hiring patterns on a regular cadence. Your team gets a monthly brief on what changed and what it means for your strategy, plus quarterly deep-dives on specific competitive dynamics. The goal is continuous awareness, not getting blindsided by a competitor's launch.
