---
title: Forrester — what it is | RGM® Glossary
url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/forrester/
updated: 2026-06-10
source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/forrester/
---

# Forrester

/ˈfɔɹəstəɹ/proper noun

Where Gartner maps vendors, Forrester starts from the customer — then grades everyone against that.

Founded
:   1983, by George Colony

HQ
:   Cambridge, Massachusetts

Famous for
:   Forrester Wave, CX Index

Acquired
:   SiriusDecisions (2019)

## Forms & parts of speech

the Wave · shorthand

Its vendor evaluation graphic.

"Strong Performer in **the Wave** — read the criteria scores, not just the bubble."

## What it is

Forrester is the research and advisory firm George Colony founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1983, differentiated by a customer-first research lens: the Customer Experience Index linking CX quality to revenue, the Forrester Wave vendor evaluations (criteria scores published in a downloadable model), and — through its 2019 SiriusDecisions acquisition — the B2B revenue machinery (the demand waterfall, the messaging nomenclature) that runs inside most B2B marketing orgs.

## Why marketers rely on it

Two franchises matter to marketers. The CX research gives customer-experience investment a financial argument (the index correlates CX scores with growth). And the SiriusDecisions inheritance is quietly everywhere in B2B — if your org speaks 'MQL to SQL conversion' and stages its funnel as a waterfall, it's running on frameworks Forrester now owns. The Wave's published scoring model also makes it the more transparent of the big-two vendor ratings.

## How to use it well

Use the Wave's downloadable scorecard to re-weight criteria for YOUR requirements (the published model invites it — re-rank with your weights before shortlisting). Use the CX Index method to argue experience budgets in CFO language, and the B2B frameworks as shared vocabulary — while remembering frameworks describe the average org, and yours isn't average.

**Worked example.** A B2B marketing leader inherits a funnel nobody can explain. The Forrester-school rebuild: adopt the demand-waterfall stages so sales and marketing finally share definitions, instrument conversion at each gate, and benchmark against the published norms. The diagnosis falls out in the data — healthy inquiry volume, catastrophic MQL-to-SAL handoff (sales never agreed to the MQL definition). Fixing the definition, not the ads, doubles accepted leads in a quarter — the framework's whole job was forcing the conversation.

**Failure modes to watch.** Reading the Wave bubble without re-weighting the published criteria for your context; installing the waterfall's stages without sales agreeing to the definitions; and citing CX correlations as causation for any pet project.

## Synonyms & antonyms

### Synonyms

Forrester

## Origin & history

George Forrester Colony left a Harvard research role to found it in 1983, naming it with his own middle name; it rode the technographics wave of the 1990s, IPO'd in 1996, and bolted on the B2B layer by acquiring SiriusDecisions in 2019 for $245M.

Etymology: [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrester_Research).

## Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

[View interest-over-time on Google Trends →](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=forrester%20research&date=today%205-y)

## Common questions

What is Forrester?
:   A research and advisory firm founded by George Colony in 1983 — known for the Forrester Wave, the CX Index, and B2B frameworks via SiriusDecisions.

What is the Forrester Wave?
:   Its vendor evaluation — criteria, weights, and scores published in a downloadable model you can re-weight for your own requirements.

What is the demand waterfall?
:   The SiriusDecisions B2B funnel framework — staged definitions (inquiry, MQL, SAL, SQL, win) that align marketing and sales measurement.

## Related tools & calculators

- tool[CAC calculator](/tools/cac-calculator/)
- tool[LTV-to-CAC ratio](/tools/ltv-to-cac-ratio-calculator/)

## Resources & people to follow

- referenceForrester.com — research + the Wave methodology
- referenceThe CX Index — its experience-revenue research
- referenceGartner — the rival lens

Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.

## Related training

- module[Growth marketing foundations](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/)

## Disciplines

Areas of marketing where forrester is a core concern:

[Analytics](/training/marketing-analytics/)[Growth strategy](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/)

## Read next

## Related terms

[Gartner](/glossary/gartner/)[Customer journey](/glossary/customer-journey/)[Net promoter score](/glossary/net-promoter-score/)[David Skok](/glossary/david-skok/)[Conversion rate](/glossary/conversion-rate/)

## Sources

1. trends[Google Trends — "forrester research"](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=forrester%20research&date=today%205-y)