Programs

Research skills · Facilitator-led

Industry Research Method

Sector research method with claim checking

Six research reports, run by a facilitator in sessions on method rather than content. Each participant researches their own sector from named public sources and checks the findings claim by claim. Unlimited attempts.

6 rooms · about 1 hour 20 min

Start program

Who it's for: Analysts, consultants, postgraduate students and journalists early in sector research, trained as a cohort or one by one by a facilitator.
Format: Facilitator-led
Program sessions: 6

Who it's for

Analysts, consultants, postgraduate students and journalists early in sector research, trained as a cohort or one by one by a facilitator.

Output

Six sourced reports on one sector, each with a confidence rating on every section
Eighteen source audits, three per report, logged against their cited sources
A final sector brief in the participant's own words, with every figure traced to a source
Every report rests on named, cited sources

Program contents

Sector scoping · Industry Intelligence
Market sizing · Market Intelligence
Competitive mapping · Competitive Landscape
Customer evidence · Customer Intelligence
Regulatory mapping · Regulatory Environment
Neutral briefing · Issue Briefing

How the program works

A six-week program for analysts, students and consultants learning to research a sector properly, assigned by a course lead, built on Renatus. Six research rooms · Six weeks, one room a week · Unlimited attempts · Ongoing thereafter.

The rooms

Industry Intelligence

Research

The participant names the industry, the sub-sector inside it, the region and the countries.

Market Intelligence

Research

The participant names their role, the industry, a market inside it, the region and the countries.

Competitive Landscape

Research

The participant names the industry, the sub-sector, the region and their own role in the market.

Customer Intelligence

Research

The participant names the industry, the sub-sector, the region and their own role.

Regulatory Environment

Research

The participant names their role, the industry, the sub-sector, the region and the countries.

Issue Briefing

Research

The participant names the issue, its geographic scope and their own role.

Why this program exists

Analysts, students and consultants who will research a sector for a living are rarely taught the method. They learn by copying a colleague's deck: a market-size figure with no source, three competitors chosen because they are famous, a regulation section written from memory. The habit holds, and years later the same person hands a client a number that came from a press release quoting a vendor's own estimate. This program prepares them through research and audit. Ren researches a named sector from public sources and writes a sourced report, one room at a time; the participant's task is never to read the report and move on, but to check it before it goes anywhere.

What you'll achieve

Six sourced reports on one sector, each with a confidence rating on every section and a plain statement of what could not be verified
Eighteen source audits, three per report, each logged against its cited source
A final sector brief, written in the participant's own words, with every figure traced to a source
Every report can be run again as the sector moves, each a new, dated version, for as long as they work in it

At a glance

Who it's for: Analysts in their first two years, consultants joining a strategy or research practice, postgraduate students on a business or policy course, and journalists moving onto a specialist beat. It works for a single participant or a cohort, because each person researches a different sector and the weekly sessions are about method, not content. A cohort where nobody shares a sector works best: nobody can copy. It assumes participants can read a report; it does not assume they know how to check one.
Cadence: 6 weeks
1: Sector scoping · Industry Intelligence · Read the report and the confidence ratings
2: Market sizing · Market Intelligence · Read the size sources and their reconciliation
3: Competitive mapping · Competitive Landscape · Read the players section and the stated basis for each claim
4: Customer evidence · Customer Intelligence · Read the gap named between need and what is on offer
5: Regulatory mapping · Regulatory Environment · Read the named regulations and the pending change
6: Neutral briefing · Issue Briefing · Read the final sector brief and the audit log behind it

Session by session

Week 1: Sector scoping

Scope the sector as an industry, before any single market is chosen, and see how it is structured.

Industry Intelligence

Week 2: Market sizing

State a market's size as a cross-referenced figure, not a single unchecked number.

Market Intelligence

Week 3: Competitive mapping

Map the competitive field from evidence rather than reputation.

Competitive Landscape

Week 4: Customer evidence

Say what drives a buying decision from evidence, not assumption.

Customer Intelligence

Week 5: Regulatory mapping

Name the rules that govern the market, and the change most likely to move it.

Regulatory Environment

Week 6: Neutral briefing

Brief the live issue shaping the sector neutrally, separate what the evidence settles from what it doesn't, and draw the six reports into one sourced brief.

Issue Briefing

Six sourced reports on one sector, audited claim by claim, one a week.

Start program

Whether a market is real, where it is growing, and where the opportunity sits

How an entire industry is structured, who controls it, and where it is heading

Who controls a market, how they compete, and where the real gaps are

Who buys in a market, what drives their decisions, and where the unmet needs are

What competitors charge in a market, how pricing is structured, and what customers will pay

Who supplies the critical inputs to a market, how concentrated it is, and what switching costs

The technology deployed in a sector, and where competitive advantage moves next

How product reaches the buyer in a market, and where channel power is shifting

Financials, leadership, strategy, and reputation on a company

Deep dive into how a company operates strategically, and where it is most exposed

Revenue, margins, cash, debt, and auditor signals on a company

How a company is perceived across customers, employees, media, and ESG

Discover a country's GDP, political environment, infrastructure, and outlook

Discover a city's GDP, economic drivers, workforce, and trajectory

Trade flows, tariffs, agreements, and friction points between two countries

Background, current state, key actors, evidence, and where an issue is heading

What a policy does, who wins and loses, and how it lands in practice

The specific risks facing a market — ranked, evidenced, and with the signals to watch

Single-source exposures, concentration, and trade-route risk for a market

Climate, governance, social, and controversy risk in a sector

Pending legislation, enforcement shifts, and where the rules are likely to change

Licensing, compliance, recent changes, and pending legislation in a jurisdiction

Government stability, policy direction, and the political risks facing a market

What a role pays — verified across named salary databases and job posting data

Whether to take a job at a company, with the evidence behind the answer

Who the credible candidates are, what they earn, and how the search will unfold

How a career in an industry works — entry, paths, pay, and prospects

The three things that will move a business forward this quarter

A 90-day plan that turns a strategy into something a team can act on Monday

Segment, positioning, channels, and pricing — tested against each other so the four hold together

A positioning the market can place — and a category claim worth defending

A pricing strategy that the market accepts and the business can defend in negotiation

Dashboard, thresholds and owners

Dashboard, thresholds and owners

Targets, thresholds and cadence

Whether an opportunity is worth pursuing — with conditions or risks named

The real problem behind the surface one, with options and a recommended next step

How a business creates, delivers, and captures value — and where it is exposed

Where work is breaking, where capability is missing, and the one structural change worth making

Build, buy, partner, or wait — with the killer assumption named

Whether a specific partnership is worth pursuing — with the asymmetries named

The right financing structure for the opportunity — tested against fit, cost, and flexibility

A fundraise structured to close on terms worth living with

Every variance classified — structural, timing, one-off or noise — with the call the pattern demands

How long the cash lasts across three scenarios, with the killer assumption named

Whether the per-unit economics hold up — with the killer assumption named

Whether the pay set serves the talent strategy, with the cost of fixing it

A board report that lands the narrative, the KPIs, the exceptions, and the decisions requested

What metrics are missing, misleading, or quietly rewarding the wrong thing

A complete business plan ready to put in front of investors, partners, or a board

A career decision weighed against criteria that matter, with a pre-mortem and a verdict

What matters most, what you would give up, and what stays true under pressure

Which option holds up under income loss, rate moves, or a downturn

A relocation decision and plan, with the trade-offs each destination forces

What the culture is like — values in practice, leadership behaviour, and where the gap sits

Strategy clarity, alignment, talent density, ways of working, and trust in leadership

What's energising people, what's draining them, and the levers that would move engagement

The patterns in how a person handles pressure, conflict, collaboration, and decisions

PENDING — product being redesigned. See Replit brief.

How a person leads — defaults, strengths, blind spots, and development areas

Real strengths backed by evidence — and the cost each one carries when overplayed

The values revealed by what a person has held the line on, refused, or regretted

What every role owns, what's silently dropped, and which handoffs are breaking

Where the team is aligned on priorities and goals, and where dangerous gaps sit

Where trust, conflict handling, and accountability are strong — and where they break

Any subject explained to a real listener, scored on accuracy, depth, audience adaptation, and handling the unknown

A presentation rehearsal scored on lead argument, evidence, question response, and poise

A stakeholder-influence rehearsal scored on reading the room, framing, negotiation, and durability

A managing-up rehearsal scored on positioning, evidence, flexibility, and outcome

A meeting rehearsal scored on structure, air-time management, progress, and closure

The conversation that's been avoided, with an assessment of how the conversation went

A saying-no rehearsal scored on clarity, rationale, alternative, and relationship

A performance-conversation rehearsal scored on clarity, ownership, empathy, and path forward

A team-conflict rehearsal scored on directness, fairness, action, and aftercare

A hiring interview rehearsal scored on question design, follow-up, bias, and assessment integrity

A leadership crisis scored on decision quality, communication, strategy, and pressure response

A negotiation rehearsal scored on preparation, anchoring, concession pattern, and pressure response

A strategic-decision rehearsal scored on framing, information use, trade-off recognition, and time horizon

An ethics rehearsal where the right path is costly, scored on recognition and response

A prioritisation rehearsal scored on triage, trade-off recognition, communication, and revisability