How do you conduct market research

I'm not too sure which section to post this in but the question is fairly simple - how does a person do about conducting market research.

I have an idea for a technology company, where do I start finding/gathering information on whether it's been done before, and would there be a big demand for it?

Any help or tips would be very much appreciated.

Market research is something that requires a methodological and scientific approach, othewise the results of the research are questionable. So its really going to be difficult for you to do your own market research that will be viewed as "valid" by anyone else. Its espeicially true if you are putting a business case together.

You can do some informal "qualitative" market research by talking to people and getting their views.

To get proper market research (espeicially quantitative market research, where you can confidently say things like "the market for this product will be worth 2 million euros in 2006) you will have to gather (from the web, from market research companies, from Enterprise Ireland etc) the market research that already exists.

So I'd suggest start searching for market research that already exists from sourses that are recognised. Companies like Gartner Research would probably have reports on your research interest but you'll pay for it.