Market Demand Scorer
Market Demand Scorer
The Market Demand Scorer is a scoring sub-module that quantifies how strong the real-world demand signal is for a discovered SaaS product, based on evidence scraped from its reviews.
Overview
When the system deep-analyses a product, it collects review data — count, dates, star ratings, and sentiment. The Market Demand Scorer processes this data and emits two outputs:
- A numeric score from 1 to 10
- A written explanation describing the reasoning behind that score
Both outputs are stored in the product dossier and the numeric score contributes to the overall composite opportunity score used to rank products on the dashboard.
Input Signals
The scorer draws on four signals:
1. Review Volume
The total number of reviews scraped for the product. Volume is processed on a logarithmic scale, meaning:
- A product with 10 reviews scores meaningfully above zero
- A product with 1,000 reviews scores higher, but not 100× higher than a product with 10
- This prevents low-review products from being unfairly dismissed as having no demand
2. Review Recency
The dates of reviews are used to weight recent activity more heavily than older activity. A product with 50 reviews written in the past six months will score higher on recency than a product with 50 reviews spread over five years. This reflects current market momentum rather than legacy reputation.
3. Average Star Rating
The mean star rating across all scraped reviews is used as a proxy for whether customers are satisfied. A higher average rating contributes positively to the demand score.
4. Sentiment Ratio
The proportion of reviews classified as positive versus negative. This is distinct from the raw star rating — sentiment classification can capture nuance in review text that star scores may not fully reflect. A high positive-to-negative ratio increases the score.
Score Output
Numeric Score (1–10)
The four signals are combined into a single integer or decimal score between 1 and 10. The scale is calibrated so that:
- 1–3: Weak or very sparse demand signal
- 4–6: Moderate demand with mixed or limited review evidence
- 7–9: Strong demand signal with good volume, recency, and positive sentiment
- 10: Exceptional demand signal across all four dimensions
Written Explanation
Alongside the numeric score, the scorer stores a plain-English explanation of why the product received that score. For example:
"Moderate review volume (42 reviews) with strong recency — the majority posted within the last 8 months. Average rating of 4.1 stars and a positive sentiment ratio of 78% indicate healthy market appetite."
This explanation is displayed in the product's full dossier, giving analysts the context behind the number.
Role in the Composite Score
Market demand is one of the four scored dimensions used to rank products on the dashboard:
| Dimension | Description |
|---|---|
| Replicability | How easy the product is to build with the internal stack |
| Market Demand | This scorer — review volume, recency, rating, sentiment |
| Revenue Potential | Pricing tier and market size signals |
| Competitive Gap | What negative reviews reveal about weaknesses to exploit |
The composite opportunity score is a weighted combination of all four dimensions. A strong market demand score alone does not guarantee a high overall ranking.
Viewing the Score
- Dashboard: The market demand score is visible as a column in the ranked product table, sortable alongside the other dimension scores.
- Product Dossier: The full dossier page for any product shows the numeric score and its written explanation in the Market Demand section.