Product-Market Fit
Knowing whether you have product-market fit and what to do if you don't.
Tech Entrepreneur
MVP
Ship the smallest thing someone will use or pay for, and set up the company properly.
Core: start here
- Vanity MetricsNumbers that look good but don't tell you whether the business is working.
1 more mvp concepts
- AARRR MetricsAcquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue: a simple funnel for a young product.
Product-Market Fit
Get users who stay, pay and tell others; raise your first real round.
Core: start here
- Retention CurveShare of users still active over time; a curve that flattens is the clearest sign of fit.
- ActivationThe moment a new user first gets real value, and the rate at which sign-ups reach it.
- Product-Market FitWhen a product satisfies a market so well that demand starts pulling it forward.
- Sean Ellis TestA survey asking how disappointed users would be without your product, used as a fit signal.
- PivotChanging a core part of the strategy (customer, problem or solution) based on what you learned.
7 more product-market fit concepts
- WedgeA narrow first product that gets you into a market you can expand from later.
- Aha MomentThe specific experience that makes a new user understand why the product matters.
- DAU/MAUDaily and monthly active users, and their ratio as a measure of how habitual a product is.
- False Product-Market FitSignals that look like fit (a press spike, one big customer, paid growth) but aren't.
- Net Promoter ScoreA survey score for how likely customers are to recommend you, and its limits.
- Power UsersThe small group that uses the product most, and what they teach you about fit.
- Word of MouthUsers bringing other users unprompted, the cheapest and strongest growth signal.