What if two credible sources give me different numbers?

This is one of the most common problems in market research, and this course shows you how to handle it. You will learn to check whether the sources use different definitions, base years, or geographies, judge which estimate is more credible, and document your decision so a stakeholder can follow it.

Can I research private companies that do not publish financial reports?

Yes. Alongside annual reports, investor presentations, and regulatory filings for public companies, you will learn how to research private companies by triangulating around limited public disclosure, using sources such as company websites, published pricing, press coverage, and digital signals.

What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?

When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.

Is financial aid available?

Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.

Finding and Evaluating Market Intelligence

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Finding and Evaluating Market Intelligence

This course is part of Secondary Market Research and Analysis Specialization

Instructors: Rajesh Menon

Included with Learn more

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Advanced level

Recommended experience

6 hours to complete

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Advanced level

Recommended experience

6 hours to complete

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

Select the right government, industry, company, and digital sources for a defined market research question.
Apply advanced search operators and systematic queries to find specific market evidence quickly.
Evaluate sources for authority, methodology, currency, relevance, and transparency, and identify bias.
Reconcile conflicting market data through triangulation and build a traceable evidence trail.

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Build your subject-matter expertise

This course is part of the Secondary Market Research and Analysis Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate

There are 4 modules in this course

Every market question returns hundreds of results, and many of them disagree. The hard part is knowing which numbers will hold up when a stakeholder asks where they came from.

This course will teach you to find secondary market research evidence quickly and judge whether it deserves a place in your analysis, so your decisions rest on sources you can trust. You will explore where market intelligence comes from, including government databases, trade data, industry associations, analyst reports, company filings, and digital signals such as Google Trends. You will sharpen your searches with search operators, evaluate sources for authority, methodology, currency, relevance, transparency, and bias, cross-check findings across independent sources, reconcile conflicting market estimates, and document a traceable evidence trail. Practice labs, scenario activities, and a role-play let you apply these skills to realistic market research questions. Built for marketing, insights, competitive intelligence, and business professionals, this course will help you spend less time searching, back every figure with credible evidence, and defend your conclusions with confidence.

In this module, you will map the secondary research source landscape, the full range of places market evidence actually lives. You will work through government databases, trade and regulatory data, industry associations, analyst reports, and market research databases, learning what each category is good for and, just as importantly, what it cannot tell you. You will also learn how these sources are actually accessed, what is free, what is gated behind a login, and what requires a subscription you don’t need to buy, so a paywall never derails your research. A hands-on lab and a role play give you practice matching sources to questions and defending that choice to a stakeholder who wants a shortcut.

What's included

4 videos5 readings3 assignments

4 videosTotal 16 minutes

Course Introduction3 minutes
The Secondary Research Source Landscape4 minutes
Government and Public Data Sources5 minutes
Industry and Market Intelligence Sources4 minutes

5 readingsTotal 32 minutes

Course Overview2 minutes
How to Make the Most of This Course2 minutes
Understanding Source Access Models4 minutes
Lab: Source Landscape Mapping20 minutes
Summary and Highlights: The Secondary Research Source Landscape4 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 33 minutes

Practice Quiz: Understanding the Source Landscape6 minutes
Practice Quiz: Accessing and Choosing Sources6 minutes
Graded Quiz: The Secondary Research Source Landscape21 minutes

In this module, you will research companies and competitors directly while developing the search skills needed to find specific evidence quickly, rather than relying on unfocused browsing. You will examine annual reports, investor presentations, regulatory filings, company websites, and press coverage, including approaches for researching private companies with limited disclosure. You will then practice using search operators, systematic query construction, Google Trends, and other digital behavioral signals as evidence. A hands-on lab and a short search challenge will help you find real evidence under time pressure.

What's included

1 video4 readings3 assignments1 plugin

1 videoTotal 4 minutes

Advanced Online Search Techniques4 minutes

4 readingsTotal 35 minutes

Company and Competitor Information6 minutes
Google Trends and Digital Research Sources5 minutes
Lab: Market Intelligence Source Hunt20 minutes
Summary and Highlights: Company, Competitor, and Digital Research4 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 33 minutes

Practice Quiz: Researching Companies and Competitors6 minutes
Practice Quiz: Digital Signals and Finding What You Need6 minutes
Graded Quiz: Company, Competitor, and Digital Research21 minutes

1 pluginTotal 8 minutes

Activity: Search Challenge: Constructing an Effective Query8 minutes

In this module, you turn from finding sources to judging them, the skill that separates a researcher from a collector of links. You will evaluate sources against authority, methodology, currency, relevance, and transparency, and learn to recognize commercial bias, selection bias, and methodological weakness before they quietly bias your conclusions. You will then practice triangulating findings across independent sources and work through the situation every researcher meets: two credible sources publishing different numbers for the same market. The module closes with building an evidence trail, documenting sources, assumptions, and citations so your conclusions can be traced back and defended.

What's included

3 videos4 readings3 assignments1 plugin

3 videosTotal 12 minutes

Evaluating Source Credibility4 minutes
Understanding Research Bias 4 minutes
Triangulating Market Information4 minutes

4 readingsTotal 35 minutes

Dealing with Conflicting Market Data 6 minutes
Building an Evidence Trail 5 minutes
Lab: Source Credibility Challenge 20 minutes
Summary and Highlights: Evaluating and Validating Sources4 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 33 minutes

Practice Quiz: Judging the Quality of What You Find6 minutes
Practice Quiz: Resolving Conflicts and Building Trust6 minutes
Graded Quiz: Evaluating and Validating Sources21 minutes

1 pluginTotal 8 minutes

Activity: Scenario: Two Reports, One Market8 minutes

In this final module, you will consolidate your learning by completing a comprehensive final project that brings together source-finding, evaluation, and triangulation from across the course. You will take a defined market question and assemble and defend a complete evidence base: selecting sources, assessing their credibility, triangulating findings, resolving at least one conflict between credible sources, and documenting the resulting evidence trail. You will then review key terms in the course glossary and complete a final exam covering all three content modules, before wrapping up with a look ahead to Course 3 of the specialization.

What's included

1 video3 readings2 assignments

1 videoTotal 3 minutes

Course Summary3 minutes

3 readingsTotal 9 minutes

Glossary: Secondary Market Research and Analysis5 minutes
Congratulations and Next Steps 2 minutes
Thanks from the Course Team2 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 75 minutes

Final Project: Assemble and Defend an Evidence Base for a Market Question45 minutes
Final Exam: Finding and Evaluating Market Intelligence30 minutes

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Instructors

Rajesh Menon

5 Courses20,065 learners

Offered by

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Frequently asked questions

Market intelligence is information about markets, customers, competitors, and trends that organizations use to make business decisions. In this course, you will learn where to find it in secondary sources, such as government statistics, trade data, industry and analyst reports, company filings, and digital signals.

Yes. The skills in this course apply directly to everyday research tasks, such as sizing a market, profiling a competitor, or checking a statistic before it goes into a presentation. In the practice labs, you build the same outputs analysts use at work: a source list matched to research questions and a documented record of which sources you trusted and why. You can reuse this approach the next time a stakeholder asks where a number came from.

This course is for you if you need to find market evidence and defend it. It is designed for marketing professionals, market research, insights, and competitive intelligence analysts, business, strategy, and consulting analysts, entrepreneurs and founders validating a market opportunity, and anyone preparing for a research-intensive analyst role.

Not without checking them first. This course explains how analyst and syndicated research firms build their market estimates, and how to trace a figure on an aggregator platform, such as Statista, back to the original study. You will also learn to spot commercial bias, such as vendor-sponsored research and promotional statistics, so you can decide whether a figure is strong enough to use.

Yes. Short practice labs let you map research questions to the right sources, hunt for market intelligence, and decide which competing sources to trust. A role-play, a search challenge, and a scenario activity give you quick practice with source choices, search queries, and conflicting data. The course ends with a final project in which you assemble and defend an evidence base for a client market question.

To access course materials, assignments, and earn a Certificate, you'll need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. Eligible learners may also have the option to start with a Free Trial. Some courses may also offer a Full Course, No Certificate option. This lets you access course materials, submit required assessments, and receive a final grade, but you won't be able to earn or purchase a Certificate.