The Never Ending Road To Product Market Fit
About
- Author: Brian Balfour
Overview ATTACH
Instead of thinking about product/market fit as a definitive point on the startup path, I think about it as a series of tests and check points that increase in difficulty, but also in definitiveness.
1. The Leading Indicator Survey
1a. Product/Market Fit Survey
“How would you feel if you could no longer use [product]?” The measure of success is if 40% or more respond “Very Disappointed.”
1b. NPS (Net Promoter Score)
2. Leading Indicator Engagement Data
The leading indicator survey data tells you what people say they would do (i.e. be very disappointed if the product disappeared) so the next step is to support that with data about what they are actually doing.
This data must align with:
- Events or actions, not views
- The core purpose of the product
3. The Retention Curve
Then there a number of custom segments you will want to do depending on what type of business/product you have.
4. The Trifecta
Snapchat had the trifecta.
- Non-Trivial Top Line Growth(Snapchat - 200K downloads)
- Retention (50% of downloads were active Daily)
- Meaningful Usage (The users just weren’t coming back daily, but there were taking a meaningful action - sending 10 pictures a day on average)
It Never Ends
This process never ends primarily for one reason - your market doesn’t sit still.
As your market moves, your product needs to move with it making product/market fit a pulse that you need to constantly keep your thumb on.
Volume Of Data and Users ATTACH
As you progress through these checkpoints the volume of users and data needed increases. As Rob Go of NextView Ventures points out, it is not an either or answer between PMF or Growth. It is a progressing balance of each.
When To Go From Traction To Transition To Growth ATTACH
The exact point is different for different startups. But here are the most common points IMO:
