SD-5 Market ResearchThe purpose of this document is to provide DoD and other Federal personnel involved in the acquisition process with practical guidance on using market research to ensure the acquisition of products and services that will best serve the government??s needs. Specifically, this document is designed for personnel involved with establishing requirements for products or services, such as engineers, technical specialists, project officers, and customers; personnel involved with purchasing products or services, such as contracting officers, contract specialists, and cost analysts; and personnel who support the acquisition process, such as logisticians, testing and quality assurance specialists, and legal counsel.

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Figure 2. Market Research Opportunities

Products                                             Services

Weapon system

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Subsystems

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Components

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R&D Engineering Design

Test and Evaluation

Training Technical Services Maintenance Repair

Logistics and Support

mation gathered during market research. Conversely, on small, low-dollar acquisitions, only one person may be involved in market research.

Consider the factors that will affect the success of the entire acquisition when you identify who must have input to the market investigation.What information is needed to make the de- cision to buy from the commercial market? To prepare the product or service description, you need to know the performance characteristics upon which products and services are valued and distinguished from one another. If a product needs follow-on support, such as spare parts and repair, you will need to know the characteristics of the follow-on support system. Is third-party testing used? What business practices are standard? What practices are standard for the insertion of new technology? The market research process lends itself to a team effort because of the many aspects that may be involved.The team may be composed of the following specialists as appropriate.

Technical Specialist

Depending on the stage of the acquisition and the type of acquisition, this person may be the program manager, the technical specialist, or the project officer.

The program manager defines and executes the acquisition strategy. He or she may join a market research team in the early stages of the acquisition, as the materiel developer representa- tive, to better understand the analysis of alternatives and other market factors affecting the ac- quisition.

The technical specialist or project officer has overall responsibility for market research after concept development.That individual may translate the requirement into a product description

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