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Module 02 — Product Research — Finding Winners Before Everyone Else
Building a 20-Product Shortlist in Under an Hour
15 min · interactive · Intermediate
Most beginners spend a week on product research and end with one product. An operator runs the same playbook in under an hour and ends with twenty validated candidates. The difference is workflow — not effort. Today: the live walkthrough.
The one-hour shortlist workflow
Twenty validated candidates in under an hour, every time. The workflow is five steps. Each has a time-cap. If you miss the cap, move on — you can always re-run.
Step 1 — Filter the Majorka catalogue (10 min)
Open Products. Apply this filter stack:
- Winning Score ≥ 80
- AU Relevance ≥ 70 (assumes AU launch — adjust for your market)
- Last 30-day order count ≥ 300
- Category = your target (Pet, Kitchen, Home, Beauty etc.)
- Saturation Index < 70 (avoid late-curve products)
Sort by Velocity descending. You'll see ~40-80 products.
Step 2 — Quick scan and dismiss (15 min)
Scroll the list. For each product, in under 15 seconds, decide:
- Reject immediately if: not visually demonstrable, requires sizing, or is a category you have no creative for
- Keep for full review if: passes all three of the above
You should land at 25-35 candidates after the quick scan.
Step 3 — Seven-signal scan on each (20 min)
Open each kept candidate's AliExpress source page. Run the 90-second seven-signal scan from Lesson 1.5:
- Velocity (already pre-screened)
- Review recency
- Supplier multiplicity
- Price-value gap
- Scroll-stop test
- Return risk by category
- Seasonal independence
Score each candidate as pass / borderline / fail. Aim for 12-15 passes.
Step 4 — Cross-validate with TikTok + Ad Library (10 min)
For your top 10 candidates by feel:
- Quick TikTok search: "this week" filter, look for organic content
- Meta Ad Library search: count active advertisers in your market, count globally
Mark each candidate with:
- TikTok signal (active organic / rising / quiet)
- Ad Library count (early / mid / late curve)
Eliminate any candidate where Ad Library shows 40+ advertisers in your target market — too late.
Step 5 — Rank and prioritise (5 min)
You should now have 8-15 candidates that survived all five steps. Rank by:
- Best fit for your creative capacity (can you produce ads tomorrow?)
- Best fit for your bankroll (lower-AOV products need less per-order CPA tolerance)
- Highest combined Winning Score + TikTok signal
The top 3 are your launch candidates. The next 5-10 are your reserve list — when the first product ages, you have backup options without redoing research.
Total time: ~60 minutes
Real practitioners hit closer to 45 minutes once they've run the workflow 5+ times. The bottleneck is the seven-signal scan in Step 3 — speed comes with reps.
Common mistakes that destroy the workflow
Mistake 1: Stopping at the Majorka filter without manual scanning. The score is a filter, not a decision. Always do the seven-signal scan on candidates.
Mistake 2: Falling in love with one product and skipping the workflow. The 20-candidate shortlist exists so you don't bet everything on a single bet. Even your top pick can fail validation in week 2 — you need the next 4 products on standby.
Mistake 3: Running the workflow once and never refreshing. Repeat the workflow weekly. The catalogue updates every 6 hours; today's top 20 is different from last Friday's top 20.
Mistake 4: Skipping cross-validation. The Majorka score is necessary but not sufficient. TikTok and Ad Library tell you what humans are responding to right now — orthogonal signals that catch failures the score doesn't.
What to do with the shortlist
Once you have the 20:
- Launch candidates 1-3 in priority order. Order samples on candidate 1 if AOV / margins justify (Module 3).
- Reserve candidates 4-10 in a saved list. Re-validate weekly.
- Watch candidates 11-20 for trend shifts. Some will inflect upward and become launch-ready.
A working dropshipping pipeline always has the next 5 products in the chamber. The operator who runs out of candidates is the operator who's about to make a desperate pick.
How Majorka collapses this further
In Majorka, you can save lists (via majorka_lists_v1 localStorage). Save your shortlist. Each lesson and each tool can refer back to it. Store Builder's "import product" picks from your shortlist. Ads Studio's "generate ad brief" reads from your shortlist. The shortlist is the central object of your research workflow.
Why this matters
Workflow beats effort. An operator running the structured 60-minute workflow weekly produces 2-3x more validated candidates than one running unstructured 5-hour scrolling sessions. The shortlist is your research memory — without it, every week starts from zero. With it, your launch pipeline is always 5 products deep.
A Perth operator runs the workflow on a Tuesday morning and launches Wednesday afternoon
Tuesday 9:00 — Operator opens Products, applies the filter stack. 67 results. Sorts by Velocity.
Tuesday 9:10 — Quick scan eliminates 39 (sized apparel, requires explanation, niche he has no creative for). Down to 28.
Tuesday 9:30 — Seven-signal scan on 28. Eliminates 16. Keeps 12.
Tuesday 9:50 — TikTok + Ad Library cross-check on top 10. Eliminates 3 (40+ AU Meta advertisers, late curve). Keeps 7. Adds 3 from earlier eliminations on second look. Down to 10 candidates.
Tuesday 9:55 — Ranks by creative capacity + bankroll. Top 3: pet hair remover (sample already in possession from prior order), magnetic phone mount (UGC easy), kitchen drain cover (visual demonstration easy).
Tuesday 9:58 — Saves all 10 to a Majorka list called "Q2-2026 shortlist."
Total time: 58 minutes.
Tuesday 10:00 — Begins building product pages in Store Builder for the top 3.
Wednesday 4pm — Pet hair remover live, ads launched at A$40/day with 4 creatives generated via Ads Studio. Magnetic phone mount built but not launched (reserve). Kitchen drain cover built but not launched (reserve).
Wednesday 4pm cumulative: ~10 hours total work, store ready, three products built, one launched, full shortlist on file. Most beginners take 3 weeks to reach this state.
Action items
- Block 60 minutes on your calendar today. Run the full workflow end to end.
- Save your top 20 to a named list in Majorka (e.g. "Q2 2026 shortlist").
- Set a recurring weekly 60-min slot for shortlist refresh — Tuesday morning is a common operator default.
- Decide your top 3 launch candidates by Friday end-of-day. Move into Module 3 (Suppliers) with those 3.
Module 3 starts here: supplier intelligence and logistics mastery. The seven metrics that separate reliable suppliers from the ones who will burn your store — and the playbook for choosing between five suppliers selling the same product.
Sources
- Majorka pipeline cadence (every 6 hours) — CLAUDE.md project memory
- localStorage shortlist key — majorka_lists_v1
- Product research workflow benchmarks — operator interviews, Common Thread Collective 2024
Module 02 — Product Research — Finding Winners Before Everyone Else
The hardest skill in this business. Data-driven frameworks for spotting products at the beginning of their curve, not the end.
Lessons in this module
- The 4 Types of Winning Products (and which you should pick) · 11 min
Problem-solvers, wow-factor, impulse, evergreen — the trade-offs of each. - Trend Velocity — Catching a Winner at Day 10, Not Day 60 · 13 min
How to read a velocity curve and when to pounce. - AliExpress Signals That Actually Matter · 9 min
Ignore reviews. Watch orders, store age, and "recently ordered" pulse. - TikTok Search for Product Discovery (the right way) · 10 min
The search strings that surface rising products, not viral replays. - Meta Ad Library — Reverse-Engineering Competitor Winners · 12 min
How to tell a test from a scale, and steal the ad angle without the copy. - The Majorka Winning Score Explained · 8 min
What goes into the score, why it beats raw order counts, how to use it. - Building a 20-Product Shortlist in Under an Hour (this lesson) · 15 min
Live walkthrough: from dashboard to validated shortlist, fast.