Glossary
What is an analyst report?
An analyst report is a research firm’s considered verdict on a market or a category, published a few times a year and written by a named analyst from vendor briefings, surveys and the firm’s own framework. It is a secondary source: it tells you what one firm concluded, not what the people in the field said this week.
Updated 19 September 2026
What is an analyst report good for?
A considered position you can cite. An analyst has sat through the vendor briefings, compared the products against one framework and put a name to the verdict, which is why procurement teams and boards ask for one. It is slow by design: the value is the judgement, not the recency.
Is an analyst report a primary source?
No. It is one firm’s reading of what vendors and buyers told it, and the briefings behind it are rarely public. When a report says a category is consolidating, the primary sources are the founders and operators who said so themselves; the report is the conclusion somebody drew from them.
How is an analyst report different from a brief?
A report is a verdict a few times a year; a brief is the evidence, daily or weekly. A brief does not tell you who leads a category. It shows what the people in it said, each line linked to where they said it, and leaves the conclusion to you. Many teams use both: the report to frame a decision, the brief to see whether the field still agrees.