August 12, 2026
Connecting breakthrough research with real-world needs
A promising technology is only the beginning. For researchers looking to move an innovation beyond the lab, one of the biggest questions is often the hardest to answer: Who needs this, and why?
This question was at the heart of Market Fit Fundamentals, a two-session workshop series hosted by the Querrey InQbation Lab on August 5 and 12. The hands-on program brought together Northwestern PhD, MD, and MBA students, postdoctoral fellows, and research faculty to explore how customer discovery and market validation can help turn promising research into solutions with real-world potential.
Led by venture investor and entrepreneurship educator Emily Baum, the series moved participants beyond theory and into practice. Baum, who has coached more than 1,200 early-stage founders and previously served as Program Director of Project W, introduced participants to practical frameworks for understanding customers, testing assumptions, and evaluating potential markets before investing heavily in product development.
For Baum, the process builds on skills that researchers already use every day.
Researchers are already trained to form hypotheses, gather evidence, and change their thinking when the evidence points somewhere unexpected. Lean Startup brings that same evidence-based discipline to building a business.
By identifying and testing assumptions about customers and markets early, innovators can uncover opportunities they hadn't considered, surface barriers to adoption, and often challenge their original idea of who their initial customers will be.
A rigorous, evidence-based process reduces bias in developing a business plan and helps innovators move more quickly toward real-world impact.
Putting research to the market test
Participants then put those frameworks to work. In teams, they examined five technologies being developed by members of the Northwestern research community, exploring who might use each technology, what problems it could solve, and where the strongest market opportunities might lie.
The projects spanned a range of research areas, offering participants a chance to see how customer discovery and market validation can be applied across different types of emerging technologies.
- Synapse to Solution: A scalable neuroplasticity sensor platform for high-throughput CNS drug screening and in vivo studies, addressing the limitations of existing plasticity assays.
- TauSeeK: A synthetic platform that produces disease-specific tau fibrils without patient tissue, providing scalable research tools for tauopathy drug and diagnostic development.
- Mocobots: Collaborative robotic assistants that help people safely move bulky objects, with potential applications in construction and other dynamic environments.
- Quantum-Enhanced Imaging: A quantum-light imaging system designed to detect defects in advanced semiconductor chips at lower power and greater sensitivity than conventional optical tools.
- Safer Batteries that Power the Future: A flame-retardant lithium-ion battery separator designed to reduce battery fire risks while maintaining performance and compatibility with existing manufacturing.
The exercise challenged participants to look at research from a different perspective, not only asking What can this technology do, but also Whose problem does it solve, and What would make someone adopt it.
For Marie Lamarque, a PhD candidate in Professor Laura Lackner’s lab, the workshops highlighted how different customer discovery can be from the research process:
In the lab, I'm trained to design the perfect experiment to minimize how many times I have to repeat it. Customer discovery works the opposite way: it's fine not to get it right the first time. What matters is iterating fast: pick a target, go ask them, let their answers tell you what to do next.
That shift in perspective is an important part of the commercialization journey. Technical expertise can establish what is possible; customer discovery can help determine what is valuable, for whom, and under what circumstances.
Market Fit Fundamentals reflects the Querrey InQbation Lab’s commitment to helping Northwestern researchers explore the path from discovery to impact. By giving innovators the opportunity to test assumptions, engage with market questions, and practice commercialization skills in a collaborative setting, the Lab is helping researchers take the next step toward translating their ideas beyond the lab.
Putting research to the market test
For participants, the workshop offered more than a new set of commercialization tools.
It offered a new lens through which to view research, and the possibility of what that research could become.