Finding Product-Market Fit for Consumer Products
This article talks about how to find product market fit for consumer products.
10 minute read
Key Quotes
“Savvy entrepreneurs know that finding product-market fit is essential for building a successful business. I like to think of product market fit (PMF) as the unique product solution that addresses a missing gap in the market.“
“Fanbase’s failure led to a hard pivot and our team’s search for a better way of launching products. It was a two-year journey of frustration, but the lessons we learned eventually paved the way for the successful launch of Nextdoor.“
“Key takeaway: Writing down assumptions allows for clarity with yourself, your co-founders, and teammates. It’s important to write your hypothesis with clear who, what, and why statements. What’s the benefit for your target users? Follow-up by sharing your hypothesis with others and get their feedback. The feedback you’ll get is worth way more than the risk of someone stealing the idea.”
“Key takeaways: Spending extra time refining the idea with a small group of invested users will save you months of work. It can also lead to moments of insight based on user frustrations and hard-to-articulate needs that are more easily understood face-to-face. These insights often inspire nuanced solutions that can differentiate your product from others. It will also help you identify your true diehard users who will be the foundation of your business.“
“Key takeaways: There is no substitute for real people using your product in real life scenarios. The key is to quickly prototype a MVP to validate your product assumptions and confirm user delight. Don’t throw more engineers at the problem. Instead, limit the scope to answering the 1-3 essential questions. If you have multiple questions to answer, isolate each variable and test them sequentially.“
“Key takeaways: Personas are a handy way to get everyone in the organization aligned around who the target audience is. The more specific you are with your defined personas (name, background, photo, description of usage), the more helpful they will be. Focus on a few personas and over-deliver in terms of a great product for those users.“
“Key takeaways: When users are clamoring to share your product with others, it’s time to launch into the market. Even if there are shortcomings in your product, you need to pick a date and go for it. … But don’t be foolish and rush the process if market feedback suggests you need to build something to make the most of the launch. …This process can and should be used continuously to gather feedback and hone the product.“
“The overarching mindset I encourage founders to embrace on this journey is to have “bold opinions, weakly held” at the start. Great entrepreneurs have an insight (or “opinion”) about how the world should work better and then must go out to the market to pressure test that opinion until they get it right.”
“To do that, an entrepreneur needs to be confident enough to form a new opinion, but also humble enough to know they have blind spots that they must uncover and address in order to build something valuable.”
“The beauty of this quest for product-market fit is that you can dramatically improve your chances of success with these pre-launch steps that help uncover the nuanced needs of the market. And that can make all the difference between success and failure.“
Bottom Line
“There will always be the risk of failure when launching something new to the market. The beauty of this quest for product-market fit is that you can dramatically improve your chances of success with these pre-launch steps that help uncover the nuanced needs of the market. And that can make all the difference between success and failure.“