The 20-Day Buyer Research Plan That Makes Your Product Launch Take Off

Show notes for Season 1 · Episode 1 of Product Marketing for You with Drew Giovannoli.

Most launches go to market on Slack opinions and whatever the loudest person in the room believed. I'd spend months building positioning, only to have it evaporate the moment we shipped. The problem wasn't the position—it was that nobody had actually talked to a buyer about it.

That's where Drew came in. He runs Buried Wins, a competitive intelligence and market research firm, and he's conducted over 1,000 buyer interviews for product launches. He's the guy who helped me understand that buyer research isn't a phase—it's a launch requirement. And more importantly, you don't need a vendor or a massive timeline to do it right.

So I asked Drew: "Give me the realistic path. We've got 30 days to launch. What can we actually pull off?" His answer: a 20-day buyer research plan that you can execute yourself, starting tomorrow.

Why gather buyer research for product launches?

According to Drew, your credibility as a PMM comes from knowing your market, customers, and competitors better than anyone else. The best way to build that credibility is first-party data and research on what people actually perceive about you and your competitors. It's not optional—it's the foundation that gets your entire cross-functional team bought in and ready to move together at launch.

Here's how Drew approaches buyer research for launches

• Step 1: Start with closed-won interviews — These are deals your team won recently. Talk to those customers about how they compared you to competitors and what put you over the edge. Your conversion rate is highest here, and the insights are gold: real perception data on you vs. your competition.
• Step 2: Set up a multi-step email cadence for closed-lost deals — After 10 days of a lost deal, send an automated email with your calendar link offering $85–150 for 30 minutes of their time. This isn't optional compensation; it's respect for their time. Treat it like an SDR motion with multiple touches across channels.
• Step 3: Recruit like you mean it — Don't send a $10 Starbucks card and hope. Use LinkedIn/Sales Navigator to reach out directly from person-to-person (not domain-to-domain). If you really care, have your exec or CS leader send a direct email. The higher the effort on recruitment, the higher your close rate.
• Step 4: Synthesize with themes, then deliver via video — Don't dump a 30-page Google doc. Research first to find the themes that matter, then pick specific video clips that illustrate each theme. Lead with emotion and context, not anecdotes. Your exec needs to understand the pattern, not just one great customer quote.
• Step 5: The diabolical move — interview former sellers/PMMs from competitors — Use Sales Navigator to find people who used to work at your competitors. Reach out on LinkedIn, offer compensation, and ask them directly: where did they position against you? Where were they strong? Weak? Which campaigns worked? This is the insight that makes exec jaws drop, and you can literally start today.

Resources from this Episode

• Access Drew's resources: BuriedWins.com
• The 2026 Buyer Truths Report: Buyer Truths Report

And a special shout out to this season's sponsor, PMM Camp — where product marketers build leadership range so they can move beyond execution to influence decisions, shape strategy, and build a trusted team.