Finding the Sweet Spot: 3 Essential Steps to Attain Product Market Fit
Learn the three principles to navigate and reach product-market fit as an early-stage founder and how to ask people to buy as early as possible, be intentional about your target market, and focus on b
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If you're an early-stage founder, there's really just one thing that matters and it is reaching product market fit. But here's the thing. Product market fit, or PMF, is ever elusive. No one quite really knows what it is until you're in it. Sometimes you can even lose product market fit after getting it. So the big question is:
How do you actually know whether you are in product market fit?
How do you actually get to product-market fit?
How should you navigate to the product market fit?
Let's discuss steps that you need to know, on navigating and getting to product market fit which will help you to be able to make sure that you don't lose months building the wrong product, going after the wrong market, hoping the product market fit is right around the corner.
Different definitions of Product market fit:
Everyone's got a little bit of a different definition of product market fit, which is what makes it so elusive. Some describe it in a very scientific way, As mentioned in the book Hacking Growth, which goes like 40% of users surveyed said that they will be very disappointed if they couldn't use the product anymore. That's when you know you have product market fit. On the other hand, others will describe it more as a feeling. They're like, "Well it's when you're not pushing uphill into the market anymore when the market's pulling you." That's when you know you've got product market fit because the market really wants what you're selling. For some, It's when you're selling a product and the market really wants it, they use it, and they tell other people about it. When you start to see those three things happening over and over and over, that means you have a product market fit.
Instead of trying to shove your product down people's throats, you want them to beg for it. You want them saying, "Please, please, give me that magical solution!" And once they get a taste of it, they'll be spreading the word faster than a rumor in a high school cafeteria. let me give you the inside scoop on the three principles you must follow to make it happen.
Step One:
So, principle number one is that you should ask people to buy as early as possible. And this is one of the biggest mistakes people make, founders are like, "Oh, we interviewed a hundred people and they all said that they would love this so we started building it, but now we can't sell it. We need to go to market. We need a better salesperson. We need better marketing." But actually when we go and approach people and say, "Hey if we were to build this thing, would you buy it?" they don't wanna be mean, so they'll just say, "that sounds really cool." But until you ask them to buy, you won't really know if you're gonna really hit product market fit.
Here's what happens. You do a lot of user and customer surveys and discovery calls, and people don't really wanna be on those calls. They're thinking in theory, they don't have any skin in the game, they're kinda giving you their opinions, but they're not really thinking about do they actually want it or not. They're not having to swipe their credit card. So, you spend months building this product that all these people say they would love to have, and but don't wanna buy. In some cases, founders don’t even do customer surveys and user research, they just go with what they want to build and what their intuition says to be true.
The first principle is to ask people to buy as early in the process as possible. This means that if you're building your product, you need to be preparing for your go-to-market for everything single part of your product that you build. How do we go after our target market? How do we position this product? How do we get people interested in a pilot or an early trial, or just a one-year deal that you give them as a discount so they get into the product as soon as it's ready?
You can do this in parallel, to stress test the market as well as the product. First, you won't waste months building the wrong product because you'll find out early-on that people aren't willing to pay for whatever you're building, and Second, you might get to a better version of the product because it's grounded in actual people who are willing to pay for what you're building.
Step two:
Principle number two, You need to be intentional about your target market(s). This is the product and market fit. To oversimplify this, people get so caught up in all these fancy definitions. But what does it mean? It means that the market really wants that product. So it’s very important that you be intentional about who your target market is?
Which means getting clear on what market we're going after. What is the urgent and important problem you're solving? And what are the markets that exist where you could position your product?
It’s not just about building the product, but it's about building the go-to-market around the product, having a thesis around that, and testing that so that you know you're building the right product.
Write it out, like:
Who are our target markets?
How are we gonna test each of these?
Which one's better than the other?
How does that impact your product decisions and what you are building?
What are you not doing?
What are you doing?
What do you need to prioritize?
Do you need some compliance?
These are the kind of things you have to think about because that'll be part of you figuring out if you're gonna hit that product market fit or not.
So much of what we consider about product market fit sits in the product part, but the market and the go-to-market are just as important in these early stages. And if you don't do that, You could waste months building the wrong product because what happened is you had a problem, and you asked those five people who told you they would love your product. But you didn't ask them to pay, so you don't know if they're telling the truth or if the problem is important and urgent enough. Next, You are unsure of your target market. Whether those five people are part of a significant market or just five jerks who lied to you?
Step three:
Principle number three is you actually need to measure your progress as you test and iterate. When you are navigating to product market fit, you're testing and iterating, testing and iterating, you're changing the messaging, you're positioning it a little bit, and you're going after and trying different markets. We as humans and our human brains aren't very good at remembering all of the tests and permutations that we've done. And sometimes one of our tests is giving us great results, but because it happens over such a long period of time, you tend to forget about it and over-index on something that happened yesterday, resulting in recency bias.
It is important to set aside a time weekly to look at the core metrics and the key experiments you are running because it helps you understand, hey, things happen over time and when we collect enough data then we can really see what's moving and what's not.
You need to actually establish what your metrics are and measure your progress as you test and iterate on the path to product market fit. And if you don't do this, then you'll miss a very important turn, essentially.
These questions like:
What am I asking people to buy?
How many people did I ask?
How many of them said yes?
How many of them said no?
What did they say?
Why did they say no?
Am I actually being intentional about the people that I'm talking to?
What markets are they part of?
How many of them are converting?
How many of them are not?
What's the feedback we've gotten?
All those things, you need to put all down and measure them in a certain way. 'Cause if you don't measure these things over a period of time, you might just miss the PMF.
What you'll struggle to perceive are the subtle distinctions between approaches. However, these fluctuations can serve as an indicator of what's working well, prompting you to increase your efforts in that area, eliminate an ineffective approach, and concentrate on the former, as this is likely to be more successful.
Let's recap. There are three crucial principles you gotta know. Numero uno: Don't just ask people for user research, ask them to buy your product ASAP. 'Cause let's be real, half of them are lying through their teeth until they put their money where their mouth is. Principle number two: Be smart about who you're targeting. There might be more than one market that's a good fit for your product. So, take some time to think that through and be intentional about it. And last but not least, principle number three: When you're bringing your product to the market, Keep track of their feedback, and what you're learning, Track everything!
Are you making any changes to your landing page, value proposition, or product positioning? Pay close attention to what's actually working over time, so you can spot trends and make informed decisions. Don't just rely on one person's opinion and assume everyone else will feel the same. That person might be a total outlier and not representative of your ideal customer. Even if you make some sales, you won't truly hit the product-market sweet spot if you're not targeting the right folks.
And that’s what product market fit is and that’s how you can achieve it faster...