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.

Pages 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 - 32 - 33 - 34 - 35 - 36 - 37 - 38 - 39 - 40 - 41 - 42 - 43 - 44 - 45 - 46 - 47 - 48 - 49 - 50 - 51 - 52

I                  f;                          •I                                            r ,                                •                                  ~·

'                            .•    I          (                                                                                                                             ..A#'

•

(commercial item description, statement of work, or specification).The technical specialist's base of knowledge of the product and industry ensures that the product or service meets the identi- fied need. Because he or she identifies the potential tradeoffs and product modifications that the users and the potential suppliers will consider, the technical specialist must be extremely con- scious of the cost-quality tradeoff.

User

The user-the customer-must be satisfied with the product's performance or the service pro- vided.The user has four roles:

•  Make the requirements as clear and precise as possible during requirements definition

•  Evaluate whether the potential product can operate in the environment in which it must function (or whether the proposed service will satisfy the needs)

•  Refine the requirement and consider tradeoffs to allow for the purchase of commercial items, commercial services, or nondevelopmental items

•  Be actively involved throughout the market research process.

Market research is also important to the user during the preparation of initial capabilities and capabilities development documents. Market research allows the user community, in conjunc- tion with the technical community, to identify acceptable risk or leading-edge technologies for systems to provide "leap-ahead" capabilities.

Logistics Specialist

The team may need a member who is experienced in support issues such as spare parts, main- tenance, and warranties for the potential commercial product or service. Initiatives such as Con- tractor Logistics Support and Performance-Based Logistics are transferring many logistics functions to contractors. Market research may be required to address various aspects of procure- ments related to such initiatives.The logistics specialist can identify the information that needs

to come from the market investigation on the existing support system and the support-related aspects of the product or service.

Testing Specialist

In a commercial item acquisition, the emphasis is on T&E and past performance, rather than on R&D.The testing specialist can use market research to obtain insight into the validity and rele- vance of outside testing results and to help specify the information that will be needed to ad- dress the criteria defined for operational testing.The testing specialist can also use market research to identify commercial entities that are capable of performing T&E services, as well as organizations that can accredit other quality assurance organizations. In addition, the specialist can evaluate whether a potential product can operate in the required environment.