Industry research: how to get up to speed on an unfamiliar industry fast

Industry research is how you learn enough about an unfamiliar industry to make decisions in it: who pays whom, what the work involves, which numbers matter and what is changing. You can get a usable picture in about a week by combining three things. Public data gives you the size and shape. Company filings give you the vocabulary and the risks insiders worry about. A handful of conversations with people who work in the industry tells you how it actually runs.

Reading alone tends to leave you fluent in the terms but wrong about the practice. Conversations alone tend to leave you with a few strong opinions and no sense of scale. Do both, and start the conversations earlier than feels comfortable.

A worked example: joining a cold chain software company

Suppose you are a product manager who has just joined a company that sells temperature-monitoring software to refrigerated logistics firms. You have never worked in logistics. Your first roadmap review is in two weeks. This example is hypothetical and used throughout the page.

Your goal is not to become an expert in a week. It is to understand the industry well enough to ask good questions, spot claims that sound wrong and know whom to ask next.

Day 1: Name the industry and draw how money moves

Start by finding the industry's classification code. The North American Industry Classification System is the standard US federal statistical agencies use to classify businesses, so the code is the key to most government data. Search it by keyword on the Census site.

Then draw a simple chain of who pays whom. For cold chain logistics that might be: food and drug makers pay carriers and refrigerated warehouses to move and store goods; carriers and warehouses pay for trucks, equipment and software; retailers and pharmacies receive the goods and may reject loads that arrive out of temperature. Your company sits somewhere on that chain. Mark where, and mark every point where you are unsure who pays.

This sketch will be wrong in places. That is the point: it gives you something specific for people to correct later.

Day 2: Pull the public numbers

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Industries at a Glance pages show a snapshot of national data for more than 100 industries, drawn from several BLS programs. BLS notes that because the figures come from different surveys, they are not always directly comparable, so write down which program each number came from.

Paid industry reports summarize much of this with commentary. As one reference point, IBISWorld's published single-report price for a US Industry Research Report is $2,850, and its shorter Industry Spotlight Reports are $800. A report can save time on background, but read how it defines the industry before quoting its market size. A figure for "logistics" is not a figure for the part of logistics you sell to.

Day 3: Read two or three annual reports

Pick the largest public companies in the industry, plus one customer and one supplier if you can. Their annual reports on Form 10-K can be searched on SEC EDGAR. The SEC's investor guide on how to read a 10-K points to three sections worth your time: Business, which describes main products and services; Risk Factors, which lists significant risks, generally in order of importance; and Management's Discussion and Analysis, where management explains the year's results in its own words.

Keep a running glossary as you read. In the cold chain example you might collect terms for how loads are rejected, how temperature excursions are documented and how carriers are paid. Every term you cannot define is a question for day four.

Days 4 and 5: Talk to people who do the work

Filings show what companies choose to say. People who do the work can tell you how decisions are made, which numbers they actually watch and what changed in the last year that has not reached any report.

Aim for three to five conversations with people in different positions on your money chain. For the cold chain example, that might be a salesperson at a refrigerated carrier, an IT lead who has integrated monitoring systems and a warehouse or quality manager who handles rejected loads. Different positions matter more than impressive titles, because each person sees a different part of the chain.

Bring your sketch and glossary to each call and ask the person to correct them. Expert interview questions for an unfamiliar industry has a question map for these calls, and how to prepare for an expert interview covers what to send beforehand. When two people disagree, that is often the most useful thing you learn; what to do when experts disagree covers how to handle it.

There are several ways to reach these people. Your own network and warm introductions are free but slow. Expert networks will source people for you; AlphaSense's Tegus call service, for example, bills the expert's rate, which it says averages about $450, plus a $75 transcription fee. Our expert network overview compares that model with others. Instant Expert is another option: it finds people who match a description you write, you review them, it sends your invitations, and you pay only for calls that get booked. The directory pages for cold chain logistics sales professionals and cold chain logistics IT professionals are one place to start for this example.

Write a one-page industry brief

At the end of the week, write one page that someone else on your team could read in five minutes:

1. How money moves, as a corrected version of your day-one sketch.
2. The ten terms a newcomer most needs, with plain definitions.
3. Who buys products like yours, who uses them and who can block a purchase.
4. What is changing, with a source or a named conversation next to each point.
5. Open questions, and who you would ask next.

Label anything that came from a single conversation. One person's view of an industry is a lead to check, not a finding.

Mistakes that slow people down

• Reading for weeks before talking to anyone. The first conversation usually reorders your reading list.
• Quoting a market size without its definition. Check what the report counted before you repeat the number.
• Talking only to senior people. Executives explain strategy well, but the people doing the daily work know where it breaks.
• Treating the brief as finished. Update it after each new conversation, and date the changes.