How to find Product-Market Fit
Finding and establishing Product-market fit is one of the biggest challenges for early-stage products and companies. There are various definitions for PMF, but the exact wording is not that relevant. The intuitive understanding - a product that meets a relevant demand - is ok, or you can go with the original description
a unique product offering that people desperately want
PMF consists of three terms: Product, Market, and Fit. So in order to succeed you should have an initial idea about these. And whatever it exactly is that you call Product-market fit, here are some thoughts on how to get there, and some useful concepts that provide guidance along the way.
The RAT
or the Riskiest Assumption Test is a reasonable first step. The idea is to test your riskiest assumptions before building something. Think of it as a feasibility test, that helps you identifying flaws in your key assumptions. Also, it forces you to make your key assumptions or beliefs explicit.
The RAT is often used to identify a market opportunity for a specific idea. It assumes that you can deliver something valuable later on, and based on this assumption you want to find out whether there is an actual opportunity, a sizable market.
The PoC
Sometimes, it is helpful to have a prototype of proof of concept during the RAT phase. A clickable design dummy might be all what you need. PoCs are often helpful for getting internal support, as it is a tangible demo of your bigger idea. Never underestimate the power of personal experience, when dealing with higher-level managers (or whoever owns the budget in your org). There is this constant believe that ideas are cheap, and execution is all that matters. So you can use a well-executed prototype as a Trojan horse to get your amazing idea approved ;-)
What guides you at this stage
is domain knowledge, expert knowledge on the one hand but even more so a deep understanding of the gaps in the existing product offerings, and the user pain points. When it comes to identifying the riskiest assumptions, be honest to yourself. Also, it is critical to have an idea of the size of the market, so do your homework here and get some reliable numbers, even doing a small experiment might be recommended.
The MVP
or Minimum Viable Product is what how most products actually start. You try to define a core set of features and functionalities that are critical - without these you would not call it a product. In reality, it is very difficult to find the actual minimum of what is viable. Loads of product are shipped way before true MVP readiness, and a significant number never reaches that stage while even having some economic success. Often, time to market is used as an argument to rush the delivery, but then again, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so it's worth balancing time to market considerations with an impressive product launch. Anyway, as long as you can adapt and your organization is a learning organization, it's fine to start before MVP and improve quickly, as it is crucial to go to the market and learn from real user feedback.
On the other hand, quite a few products come to life with a set of features no user ever asked for, purely based on internal believes. This can work in rare cases, but typically it is not a good sign if you have to spend hours of explaining features to users. Not a good sign, or not a good design maybe ;-)
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What guides you at this stage
is negative user feedback. The set of core features often is not praised, or loved, by your users, but if they are missing, or not working well, you will immediately hear it. Also, negative feedback tends to be more specific than positive feedback, so it can give you great guidance. Of course, some people will say it's a complete failure, everything sucks, but most negative feedback is helpful if taken and interpreted with a learning mindset. If you are working in a corporate environment, you might not be used to the term "negative feedback" - so please read it as "constructive" or "redirecting" feedback. Redirecting sounds about right :-)
So you now have a product, and a market. Let's find the fit.
The MLP
Finally, you are building something users love - The Minimum Lovable Product.
Actually, it's no longer one product, there are different MLPs for different user groups, so the recommended approach is to learn more about your users, identify at least one relevant user segment, and build for it. The reason for building for one group first is two-fold. First, it gives you internal focus, and it limits the feedback to a degree that you can respond to. Second, MLPs do generalize to a certain extent. While building for a specific user segment, the end result will also be lovable to some extent for other users. As you cannot please everyone all the time, start with someone, and build from there.
It might be helpful to focus on one or just a few features, and try as hard as you can to make them amazing. While MVPs have to work as expected, MLPs must be better than expected. And this pays off: Our brain is wired to remember and respond positively to things that are better than expected. People will not only come back, they will start telling others about it. This is the true meaning of Product-market fit.
What guides you at this stage
is positive user feedback. At the same time, it's important not to listen to everyone, instead select consciously to whom to listen. Which is a reasonable advice in general. As it's about building something better than expected, know the expectations.
Thank you all for reading, take care and have a better-than-expected, lovable day!