Feasibility is a finding, not a formality

Feasibility assessment is usually treated as a gate: a yes that unlocks the project. Read properly it is the first piece of research in the study, and sometimes the most useful one, because it tells you what the population looks like before you have spent anything.

What a real feasibility answer contains

• Estimated incidence per market, with the basis for the estimate
• Achievable sample within the timeline, not the sample requested
• Which quota cells are at risk and what happens when they miss
• The cost difference between the definition as written and a workable one
• An explicit statement of what the supplier is not confident about

Why the honest answer is rare

A supplier who says a study is not feasible as written risks losing it to one who says nothing. The incentive runs directly against the client's interest, and the cost of that surfaces in week three of fieldwork when the quota cell will not fill.

The counter is to ask the question in a form that makes the honest answer cheap: what would you change about this definition, and what would you expect to go wrong?

Treat a fast yes with suspicion

A same-day yes on a low-incidence B2B study in eleven markets is not a sign of capability. It is a sign that nobody has looked. We would rather take a day and come back with the market where the target does not exist in the numbers the brief assumes.