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Research a market and write a landscape brief

Hand Cowork a topic and a set of inputs — get back a structured market brief you'd normally spend half a day writing.

Stage: Cowork · For: Manager, End user · Level: Intermediate · Time: 20 min

When to use this

You need to understand a new market, technology area, or competitive space — for a business case, an exec review, or a new initiative. The raw inputs exist (industry reports, news articles, competitor websites, internal strategy docs) but turning them into a structured brief is the work.

Cowork orchestrates the research and synthesis as a multi-step task: it reads your source documents, structures the findings, and produces a brief you can hand to stakeholders directly. Pair it with the Researcher agent for web-grounded depth.

What you'll need

  • M365 Copilot license with access to Cowork
  • Source materials: documents, links, or a topic description (Cowork can work from all three)
  • A clear output format in mind (landscape brief, SWOT, exec summary, competitive matrix)

Try it now — the task description

Open Cowork and describe the task:

Research the [market / technology / competitive space] landscape and write a structured brief.

Sources to use:
- [Attached document 1 — e.g., industry report]
- [Attached document 2 — e.g., internal strategy doc]
- [Any relevant web sources — describe or link]

The brief should cover:
1. Market size and growth trajectory (headline numbers)
2. Key players and their positioning (3-5 players)
3. Main trends driving change in the next 12-18 months
4. Risks or headwinds to watch
5. Implication for us / why this matters for [your team or initiative]

Target audience: [exec / product team / sales team]. Target length: [1-2 pages].

Why this task format works: Cowork needs a clear deliverable and structure. Listing the five sections up front means it organizes the research to fill each one, rather than producing a freeform summary. The audience and length constraints prevent over-engineering.

Step by step

  1. Gather your sources. This can be attached documents, a list of URLs, or just a topic area if you want Cowork + Researcher to do the gathering.
  2. Open Cowork and paste the task description. Attach the source documents.
  3. Let it run. Cowork will work through the research and synthesis — this typically takes 2-5 minutes depending on source volume.
  4. Review the draft. Check the "implication for us" section especially — it often needs a human judgment pass to connect the market analysis to your specific situation.
  5. Refine in-place: 
    Expand the section on [key player / trend] with more supporting detail.
The "implication for us" section needs to be sharper — our key concern is [X].
  6. Push to a Copilot Page and share with stakeholders for review.

Screenshots

We deliberately don't ship screenshots that go stale — the Microsoft Copilot UI changes often. Follow the numbered steps above, which we keep current. Maintainers can regenerate fresh captures with the Playwright tool in tooling/screenshots/.

Make it better

  • Use Researcher as a source: if you don't have source docs, ask Researcher to do a deep-dive on the topic first, then hand its output to Cowork for structuring.
  • SWOT format: replace the 5-section structure with "Format this as a SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats." for a one-page view.
  • Competitive matrix: ask for "A comparison table: key players as rows, dimensions (pricing / features / target customer / go-to-market) as columns." instead of a narrative.
  • Recurring update: save the task description as a Cowork recipe and re-run it quarterly with updated sources.

Watch out for

  • The “implication for us” section is where Cowork is weakest. It connects market facts to your situation by guessing, so that part needs your judgment.
  • A brief reads as authoritative even when a source was thin. Spot-check the claims that would change a decision.
  • Market data ages fast. Note the source dates and re-run the brief rather than trusting a stale one.

Where this leads (the ramp)

You're already saving this as a Cowork recipe to re-run each quarter — that instinct is exactly what Agent Builder is for. It turns a repeatable task description into a durable, shareable agent, so your team runs the brief without rebuilding the prompt.

Next: Stage 4 · Agent Builder

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