The initial phase of the project involved engaging with key internal stakeholders, as well as conducting a secondary research via a thorough review of relevant documents, in order to help the client better frame the challenges impacting them, identify key informants to interview, and design a research plan and discussion guide to elucidate actionable information for increasing the client's share of their niche market.

Primary research was conducted via hour-long, virtual in-depth interviews (IDIs) with key informants who had opted into participating in the research study. The subject matter of the project was extremely sensitive, making recruiting a significant challenge: over 1,000 individuals were contacted in order to achieve the ~20 interviews. These subject matter expert conversations helped develop a macro understanding of the client's industry, identified salient opportunities for increasing the client's market share, and elucidated emerging trends in the sector for further investigation and consideration.

Learnings from the primary and secondary research activities were synthesized into actionable insights that helped inform the development of design principles for improving the client's outreach and marketing activities in an effort to capitalize on existing and emerging market trends. These findings were presented to key client stakeholders from marketing, sales, and business development departments, aongst others.