Not every market has a Magic Quadrant, here is why it matters

This is for both the vendor community and end-users of technology.

One of the most common questions asked in a sales meeting is, "where are you in the Gartner Magic Quadrant?"

This question is justified because it is always easier to sell the idea of a new vendor or technology internally to the stakeholders, if it's recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant.

Being recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant tells 3 things to someone:

1. The vendor we are considering is a globally recognized player and a brand

2. The technology/ product meets the standard requirements of the technology

3. Third party market validation

However, decision making would have been a lot easier if every technology market had a magic quadrant. The truth is that not every market has a Magic Quadrant report.

Gartner doesn’t produce a magic quadrant report for a market until it reaches a certain point of maturity and standardization but it doesn’t mean Gartner doesn’t have a coverage of non-MQ markets.

Gartner produces a series of reports on a market before it is turned into a Magic Quadrant report or sometimes the market get converged into another market before the Magic Quadrant.

For a new technology, the coverage in Gartner will start with:

Hype Cycle- Innovation Profile: A new technology will be first introduced as a dot in a hype cycle report and mostly starting with Innovation Trigger. The technology will have an ‘Innovation Profile’ which would include the challenges it is solving and business impact along with sample providers.

Example: AI Governance in the innovation trigger in Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence in 2025.

• Innovation Insight: For a technology whose market is developing and there are client requirements. This covers, "What exactly is this new capability, and what are its risks and rewards?". This report also includes representative vendors in the newly emerging market.

• Market Guide: A market report where the baseline definition has been identified and the requirements are still evolving. This includes a long list of vendors meeting the core requirements.

• Magic Quadrant: A magic quadrant serves a guide to the decision makers in identifying a suitable vendor in an otherwise complex market. The market vendors have the core set of capabilities but also offer distinguishing capabilities. It's a sign of a matured and well established market. The vendors are recognized as leaders, visionaries, challenges and niche players.

• Critical Capabilities: Generally, the MQ is always followed by a critical capabilities report, except the first year of MQ publication. The MQ serves a market evaluation which takes into account financial, marketing, sales, product aspects and CC serves a product evaluation guide across vendors based on the use-cases identified.

• Market Guide: Once the market becomes commoditized where difference between vendor A and Vendor B capabilities are insignificant.

• Cool Vendor: A vendor can receive a cool vendor mention in any state of market coverage as its vendor focused and not market focused. However, if you are already included in the Magic Quadrant or Market Guide, you will not receive a cool vendor mention.

Magic Quadrant report shouldn’t be seen as the only criteria for understanding a market or technology. Not having a magic quadrant also tells you more about the state of the market.

If you are a technology vendor and you don't have a Magic Quadrant for your market, use the blog to explain the different stages of market coverage and their reports.