Most solution launches don't fail at launch. They fail about four months earlier, in a room where somebody said "there's definitely a need for this" and nobody asked how we know.
That's the bit worth fixing. Because by the time you've built the thing, named it, briefed the designer and booked the webinar, you're not testing demand any more - you're hoping for it.
So here's a practical way to pressure-test a new solution before you commit the budget. No off-the-cuff decisions. Just evidence you can actually point at.
Start with the claim, not the solution
Before you look at a single data source, write down what you believe in one sentence. Something like: "Mid-market manufacturers in the UK are actively looking for help securing OT environments, and they'll pay a partner rather than do it in-house."
That's a claim. It has three moving parts - who, what problem, and whether they'll buy - and every one of them can be proved or disproved.
Vague claims can't be tested. "There's a big opportunity in security" isn't a claim, it's a mood. Get specific enough that you could be wrong, and you've given yourself something to validate. If you're stuck on the wording, that's a value proposition job, not a product one.
Go and look at what people are actually searching for
Search intent is the most honest data most partners never touch. Nobody types a query to impress anyone. They type it because they've got a problem right now.
Two things to look for
- Volume. Is anyone looking at all? A term with 40 searches a month in the UK isn't a market, it's a hobby. That doesn't kill the idea, but it tells you demand has to be created rather than captured, and that's a much more expensive go-to-market.
- The shape of the query. This matters more than volume. "What is Copilot" is someone learning. "Copilot readiness assessment cost" is someone with a budget line and a deadline. Same topic, completely different buying stage.
Then read the "people also ask" boxes and the forum threads. That's your customers writing your objections for you, free of charge. If three of the top five related questions are about licensing confusion, you've just found the hook for your whole market entry.
And look at who's already ranking. If page one is wall-to-wall Microsoft first-party content and three partners with near-identical propositions, you're not entering an empty market - you're entering a crowded one where you'll need something with actual bite to be noticed. This is the groundwork behind any serious search engine optimisation plan.
Mine the data you already own
Before you buy a report, go through what's sitting in your own business. Most partners are wildly under-using this.
Where the evidence already is
- Your CRM. How many deals in the last 12 months touched this problem, even in passing? What did people ask for that you couldn't deliver?
- Your support tickets and service desk. Recurring issues are a demand signal with a timestamp on them.
- Your lost deals. Why did you lose? "No budget" and "went with a specialist" mean very different things for a launch.
- Your sellers. Not "do you think this would sell", because they'll be polite. Ask "when did a customer last raise this with you, and what exactly did they say?"
That last distinction is the whole game. Opinions are cheap. Recalled conversations with dates attached are evidence.
Talk to ten customers, properly
Ten good conversations will tell you more than any survey. But only if you resist the urge to pitch.
Don't ask "would you buy this?" - everyone's nice, and nice isn't a forecast. Ask what they did the last time this problem came up. Who got involved. What they spent. What made them stop.
You're listening for three things: whether the problem is urgent or merely annoying, who actually signs it off, and the words they use to describe it. That last one is gold for your marketing - if your customers say "keeping the auditors happy" and your website says "compliance posture optimisation", you've got a translation problem before you've even started. Fixing it is exactly what audience-led messaging is for.
If nobody's done anything about it in the last year, it's not a priority. That's a finding, not a failure.
Check the Microsoft side of the equation
There's a data source most businesses would love and it's sitting right there. Microsoft's own signals tell you which workloads are being pushed, where the funding sits, and which customer conversations keep stalling for want of a partner who can deliver.
Use what you have access to: Partner Center demand and marketplace data, Microsoft's published investment priorities for the year, and any conversations you can get with Microsoft account and specialist teams in your solution area. If you have a partner development manager, ask them straight: what are you being asked for that nobody's serving well? If you don't have one, the published priorities and marketplace activity get you most of the way.
If your idea lines up with a Microsoft priority, your market entry gets a lot cheaper - you've got a co-sell route, funding options like co-op and MDF, and Microsoft sellers with a reason to say your name in a meeting you're not in.
If it doesn't line up, that's fine - just know you're funding the whole thing yourself.
Test it before you build it
Now put something in front of the market that costs you a week, not a quarter.
Write the landing page as if the solution already exists. Run a small paid campaign against the search terms you found. Send it to a slice of your list. Take the same positioning into ten sales conversations and see whether it changes the temperature.
What you're measuring isn't traffic - it's whether people take a step that costs them something. A booked call. A form filled in with a real job title. A "can you come and talk to my team about this?"
If the message lands, you'll know within a fortnight. If it doesn't, you've learned that for the price of a landing page, and your launch planning just got a lot better informed.
Decide, and write the decision down
Then make the call: go, adjust, or park it. All three are wins.
Whatever you decide, write down what you learned and why - the search data, the customer quotes, the Microsoft view, the test results. Six months from now, when someone asks why the positioning is what it is, you'll have the answer. And if you do park it, the next person to raise the idea starts from your evidence rather than from scratch.
Market validation isn't a stage gate you tick off. It's the habit of getting clearer before you push on, and it's the difference between a launch you're confident in and one you're quietly hoping works out.
Doing this properly takes a bit of discipline, but it beats finding out at the webinar.