Other People's Data (OPD)

Other People's Data (OPD) is any market data that was collected and compiled by other people, for other projects, at other times, in other places, with other methods, and for other purposes.

While OPD can be tempting to use because it's often readily available, it's a dangerous shortcut. It's not a reliable substitute for Your Own DAta (YODA).

There are several problems with OPD:

• Relevance: The data may not be directly applicable to your specific idea or target market.
• Freshness: The data may be outdated, as market conditions can change quickly.
• Trustworthiness: You don't know how the data was collected, what biases may have influenced it, or how it was filtered. This is compounded by The Rashomon Effect, where different people provide contradictory accounts of the same event.
• Significance: The data may not be statistically significant for your purposes.

While you can use OPD to inform your thinking and to get a general sense of a market, you should not base your decisions on it. The most reliable way to determine if your idea is The Right It is to collect your own data.