Searching for Product-Market Fit
PMF isn't a destination; it's a feeling.When you have it, the market pulls the product out of you.Servers crash.Support is overwhelmed.Usage creates more usage.
The Only Thing That Matters
Marc Andreessen famously said, "The only thing that matters is getting to Product-Market Fit."
You can have a great team and fail.
You can have great technology and fail.
But if you have a market that is desperate for your solution, you can have a broken product and mediocre team, and still succeed(see: early Twitter).
Symptoms of Fit
Before Fit: You are pushing a boulder up a hill. You have to beg users to sign up. Retention is low. Sales cycles are long.
After Fit: The boulder is rolling down the hill. You are chasing it. You hire support staff just to answer tickets. You are worried about server capacity.
The 40 % Rule(Sean Ellis Test)
Measuring "feeling" is hard.Rahul Vohra(CEO of Superhuman) operationalized this with a survey question:
"How would you feel if you could no longer use [Product]?"
- A) Very disappointed
- B) Somewhat disappointed
- C) Not disappointed
The Magic Number: If>40% answer "Very disappointed," you have PMF.
The Pivot: Finding the Vein
If you don't have PMF, you must iterate. Most successful startups are pivots.
- Slack started as a video game (Glitch).
- Instagram started as a Foursquare clone (Burbn).
- Segment started as a classroom lecture tool.
They found a small feature that users loved(the chat, the photo filters, the analytics integration) and doubled down on that.
Post - PMF: The Trap
Once you have PMF, the job changes.Before PMF, the risk is "Will anyone buy this?" After PMF, the risk is "Can we survive the chaos?"
This is when you need to switch from "Pirate Mode"(break things) to "Navy Mode"(operational excellence).Many founders fail to make this switch.
Conclusion
Don't scale marketing until you have PMF. It's like pouring water into a leaky bucket.Fix the bucket first.