Synthetic Market Research Brief Template

A synthetic market research brief sets out the decision, audience, offers and evidence a simulated study needs to compare. Use this copyable template to ask providers for the same work, then check their methods, responsibilities and full cost. A hotel-rate example and supplier response sheet show how to use it.

You can start with an unfinished brief. Sapien’s team can help define the audience, comparison and follow-ups for a product, price or campaign question. Give the completed version to every supplier so you can compare the work and evidence.

Copy this research brief

1. Decision and owner

• Project and decision owner: [Name, role and contact.]
• Decision this study will inform: [Choose, revise, prioritize or investigate what?]
• Action after the readout: [What could change? What requires additional evidence before action?]
• Decision deadline: [Date and reason.]
• Budget sponsor: [Who approves the study fee, and by what date?]
• Evidence reviewer: [Who will check the method, relevant audience groups and findings before the recommendation is used?]
• Other approvals: [Any client, legal, IT or procurement review needed, with an owner and date. State none if none is required.]

2. Audience and buying situation

• Include: [Markets, roles, eligibility, relevant purchase or use situation, and period.]
• Exclude: [People, companies or situations outside the decision.]
• Compare separately: [Only groups whose differences could change the action.]
• Current alternative: [What this audience does or buys today, including doing nothing.]
• Uncertain coverage: [Groups or situations where you need the provider's advice.]

3. Offers or materials to show

• Alternative A: [Full offer, price, terms, image or copy, and version/date.]
• Alternative B: [Equivalent detail. Add alternatives only if needed.]
• Choice context: [Where and when the audience encounters the offer.]
• Keep consistent: [Information or presentation that should remain the same.]
• Deliberate differences: [What is changing, and whether you need to isolate its effect.]

Allow rejection of every offer when that is a real option. If price and features both change, the comparison tests the whole offer unless the design separates their effects.

4. Existing evidence and permitted use

• Available material: [Source, collection date, population, relevant finding and known gaps.]
• Access and permissions: [What may be shared, used to construct the audience, retained or reproduced.]
• Restrictions: [Identifying or confidential material to exclude; required handling terms.]
• Held-back reference, if validation is required: [Evidence reserved for evaluating the output rather than informing it.]

5. Questions the study must resolve

• Primary question: [The one answer needed for the decision.]
• Supporting questions: [Comprehension, preference, objections or other specified questions.]
• Design help requested: [What should the supplier propose or improve?]
• Out of scope: [Questions this engagement will not answer.]

6. Required outputs

• Quantitative output, if needed: [One row per named study condition × audience group × question × answer option. Columns: condition/group/question/answer identifiers, response source, eligible modeled base, share (%), human reference and eligible base if any, comparison and its unit, and uncertainty or limitation.]
• Qualitative output, if needed: [Themes and supporting responses tied to the audience, question and stimulus. Label human and simulated responses separately.]
• Recommendation: [Decision, evidence, dependencies and unresolved questions.]
• Inspection and format: [Report, response access, segment views, presentation, export or other deliverables your team needs.]
• Readout audience and meeting: [Who must use the recommendation, what they can approve, and the meeting date. Specify any concise client presentation, researcher attendance or revision round you want included in the quote.]

Ask for the result and unit you need: a ranking, price estimate or explanation may matter more than a percentage. Ask how the method handles uncertainty. A generated response count does not give a human-survey margin of error.

7. Evidence needed to act

• Relevant validation: [Audience, task, human or behavioral reference, scoring measure and errors to inspect. Ask for examples if undecided.] Our accuracy article shows specific comparisons with human references.
• Decision rule: [What difference or uncertainty would change the action? Agree this before interpreting results.]
• Follow-on evidence: [Customer interviews, usability observation, transaction test or other work needed before the final commitment.]

8. Work, timing and commercial terms

• Responsibilities to assign: [Audience construction, questions, stimuli, approvals, analysis and presentation.]
• Revision allowance: [Changes and follow-up questions needed after the first readout.]
• Schedule: [Inputs ready, approvals, research start, readout and final delivery.]
• Quote required: [Total project fee and currency, inclusions, optional charges, taxes, access period, renewal or minimum commitment.]
• Budget or constraints: [Disclose if useful.]

Use the same completed free market research brief template to ask every provider for the same decision, audience and outputs.

Example: a hotel’s flexible weekend rate

Linden Rooms is a hypothetical UK hotel group choosing a weekend rate for a limited booking test. This is a proposed brief, not a study with results.

Decision: Develop a flexible rate alongside its current non-refundable rate, revise the proposed offer, or gather more evidence before proceeding. The research will help select an offer for testing; bookings from the test will provide behavioral evidence.

Audience: UK adults who personally booked a paid leisure hotel stay in the past twelve months. Exclude business travel booked by an employer. Compare people who usually book flexible rates with those who usually choose non-refundable rates.

Offers: The same room for one Saturday night. A costs £129, paid on booking and non-refundable. B costs £149, paid on booking and refundable until 48 hours before arrival. Both prices include the same taxes and room amenities; breakfast and parking are excluded. Show the same photographs and a choice to keep searching. This compares complete offers, rather than isolating cancellation flexibility from its price.

Available evidence: Existing booking summaries and recent customer feedback, with their dates, coverage and permitted use documented before sharing.

Questions and outputs: Check what buyers understand about payment and cancellation. Compare modeled choice shares for A, B and continued searching within the two audience groups, with the eligible base beside each share. Return objections tied to the offer shown, plus a recommendation and remaining uncertainties.

Work requested: Supplier to propose the audience, instrument and relevant validation. Quote the full study, one review round, the readout format and the cost of any additional testing. Agree the decision rule before viewing results.

Suppliers now have the same commercial choice, with room to advise on audience construction and question design. One overall intent number for all travelers would miss UK leisure bookers, A/B/keep-searching choices and the two booking-style groups. Correct the work and outputs before comparing fees.

View an example study to see the audience, offer and findings before planning your own.

Copy a supplier response sheet

Copy one sheet per supplier. “Unknown,” “not offered” and “separately priced” are useful answers; a blank should not be interpreted as inclusion.

• Supplier, product and proposal date: [ ]
• Scope accepted and exceptions: [Which parts of the brief will you answer?]
• Who supplies the answers: [Actual participants, simulated respondents, a combination or another source. Identify generated versus observed data.] Our human-versus-synthetic guide explains which evidence supports different claims.
• Population and grounding: [Eligibility, groups, source coverage, freshness, customer inputs and material gaps.]
• Research plan: [Questions, conditions, comparisons and approvals. Explain departures from the supplied brief.]
• Validation and uncertainty: [Relevant evidence, metric, reference, discrepancies and limitations.]
• Deliverables and access: [Exact outputs, underlying response access, formats and access period.]
• Named responsibilities: [What your team does, what ours does, and who interprets the result.]
• Revisions: [Included changes, follow-ups, exclusions and additional charges.]
• Timing: [What starts the delivery clock, dependencies and committed dates.]
• Data terms: [Permitted uses, retention, deletion, confidentiality and any training use.]
• Total cost: [Currency, full scope, fee unit, optional charges, minimum term and renewal.]

Compare scope before price

Check that proposals cover the same audience and outputs. A cheaper study with a different audience or no needed response access is a different purchase. Resolve that before comparing suppliers. Our market research services guide explains which responsibilities to check.

Choose questions for the provider decision

• Sapien vs Aaru: connect a price comparison with a contribution threshold.
• Sapien vs Evidenza: plan a managed study for a buying-group message decision.
• Sapien vs Simile: check how audience data and uncertainty affect what to do next.
• Sapien vs Lakmoos: decide who runs ongoing research and how to assess a private-model pilot.
• Sapien vs Qualtrics Edge: plan a decision study within a human and simulated research program.

Three more comparisons cover specific jobs: Artificial Societies for buyer choice and social reactions, Synthetic Users for turning interview themes into onboarding options and Fairgen for respondent twins, survey expansion and new-audience coverage.

Start before the questionnaire is finished

Our audience-building guide connects the decision, relevant data and study. Ask for a recommendation you can check and use, with remaining questions clear.

Start with section 1 and the main question. Keep completed supplier sheets beside the brief when reviewing proposals. Book a Sapien introduction to discuss the audience, alternatives and gaps.

Related guides: concept testing; pricing research.