Have you launched your product?
- No30
- Yes2
Are customers paying for it?
- No23
- Yes3
Are enough customers paying for it that, if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll achieve Product-Market Fit?
- No5
- Yes4
- Not sure20
Congrats! You're on the path to Product-Market Fit.
Keep doing what you're doing!
Why aren't you on track to acheive Product-Market Fit?
- Not enough customers6
- Customer Lifetime Value is too low16
Not sure? Go with your gut. Eventually you'll test both.
Why don't you have enough customers?
- Having trouble finding them7
- Conversion rate it too low10
- Customer segment is too small14
- Customer aren't referring enough other customers (i.e. Viral Coefficient is too low)15
Not sure? Starting at the top, pick the first answer you think could be
the reason.
Where are you looking for customers?
- Places I think my customers are.8
- Places customers have told me they are.9
Your Riskiest Assumption is: You know where your customers look
for solutions to their problems.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Finding Early Adopters for your product.
Your Next Step: Interview customers to validate where they look for solutions.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: Understand who your Early Adopters are, and where to find
them, by contrasting their behavior with your Early Majority, Late Majority, etc. Use this information
to make your interviews easier and faster to get.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 1...
Your Riskiest Assumption: Your marketing channels can reach
a sufficient number of customers for you to achieve Product-Market Fit.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Offer Testing - You can Reach your Early Adopters.
Your Next Step: Test alternative channels to determine potential customer
segment size.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This spreadsheet will show you if your segment is large
enough for you to achieve Product-Market Fit based on real-world, bottoms-up, data.
You'll also be able to estimate the size of your marketing channels, conversion rates, and price points
to determine the best approach for you to achieve Product-Market Fit.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 2...
What emotions are you evoking in your Call to Action?
- I'm not evoking emotions in my Call to Action11
- Emotions I think my customers are experiencing12
- Emotions my customers have told me they are experiencing13
Your Riskiest Assumption: You understand what your customers
are trying to accomplish in their roles.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Finding Early Adopters.
Your Next Step: Interview your customers to understand what problems they
are actively trying to solve.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This exercise will help you brainstorm specific groups
of customers you can serve by focusing on their problems.
Everything is easier when you center your attention on your customer's problems: asking for interviews,
marketing, sales, product development, etc. Take this step now, and you'll move much faster through the rest
of your journey.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 1...
Your Riskiest Assumption: You understand your customer's emotional
desires.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Finding Early Adopters.
Your Next Step: Interview your customers to understand their emotional
desires.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: Understand who your Early Adopters are, and where to find
them, by contrasting their behavior with your Early Majority, Late Majority, etc. Use this information
to make your interviews easier and faster to get.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 1...
Your Riskiest Assumption: Your marketing copy reasonates emotionally
with your customers.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Offer Testing - You can Reach your Early Adopters.
Your Next Step: Test multiple versions of your marketing copy/Call to
Action.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This exercise will help you identify the emotions your
customers' emotions.
By identifying and addressing your customers' emotional needs, you'll significantly increase your conversion
rate.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 2...
Your Riskiest Assumption: There are large enough customer segments
for you to achieve Product-Market Fit.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Scaling to Product-Market Fit.
Your Next Step: Identify, size and test related customer segments.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This exercise will show you how to transition from your
Early Adopters to your Early Majority segment.
By acquiring secondary and tertiary segments you'll be able to accelerate your path to Product-Market
Fit.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 5...
Your Riskiest Assumption: Your solution is solving your customer's
problem well enough, and they are incentivized enough, to share your product with others.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Utility Testing - You can Satisfy your Early
Adopters.
Your Next Step: Increase your Viral Coefficent (i.e. K Factor).
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This exercise will help you brainstorm and prioritize ways
to increase the virality of your product.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 4...
Why is your Customer Lifetime Value too low?
- Customer churn is too high (i.e. they cancel your service too soon)17
- Price is too low18
- Cost of customer acquisition is too high19
Not sure? Starting at the top, pick the first answer you think could be
the reason.
Your Riskiest Assumption: Your solution is solving your customer's
problem well enough that they'll continue paying for it.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Utility Testing - You can Satisfy your Early
Adopters.
Your Next Step: Test ways to increase the value your solution is providing
to customers.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This exercise will provide four different techniques to
increase your Customer Lifetime Value making it more likely you'll achieve Product-Market Fit..
Found in FOCUS Workbook 4...
Your Riskiest Assumption: Customers will pay enough to solve
their problem for you to achieve Product-Market Fit.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Currency Testing - Your Early Adopters will
Pay you.
Your Next Step: Optimize your price via price testing.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: Whether you're B2B or B2C, this exercise will show how
to optimize your price - without upsetting your customers!
Found in FOCUS Workbook 3...
Your Riskiest Assumption: You can lower your Cost of Customer
acquisition such that you can achieve Product-Market Fit.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Offer Testing: You can Reach your Early Adopters.
Your Next Step: Test alternative channels to determine your optimal acquisition
ROI.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This spreadsheet will show you what combination of marketing
channels, price point, and conversion rates you'll need to acheive in order to find Product-Market Fit.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 2...
Have you defined a metric that represents when you have acheived Product-Market Fit?
- No21
- Yes22
Your Riskiest Assumption: You know what Product-Market Fit means
for you and your team.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Finding Early Adopters for your product.
Your Next Step: Define Product-Market Fit for you and your team.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: You can't achieve Product-Market Fit until you've defined
it for you and your team.
This exercise will walk your entire team through the process of defining the most important metric of
your startup...what success looks like.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 1...
Your Riskiest Assumption: The problem you're solving will lead
you on a path to Product-Market Fit.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Currency Testing - Your Early Adopters will
Pay you.
Your Next Step: Calculate your the size of this market to determine if
Product-Market Fit is achievable.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This spreadsheet will tell you how large your segment has
the potential to be and exactly what conversion rates you'll need to achieve in order to find Product-Market
Fit.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 3...
Are customers using the product?
- No41
- Yes24
Why aren't your customers paying to use your product?
- Product isn't high enough quality to charge yet (i.e. pilot phase, trialing, etc.)25
- Going to monetize after reaching critical mass26
- Pursuing a freemium model and haven't built paid features yet25
- Tried charging but no one would pay10
Your Riskiest Assumption: Customers will pay you enough that
you'll achieve Product-Market Fit.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Currency Testing: Your Early Adopters will Pay
you.
Your Next Step: Charge customers via pre-orders or Letters of Intent for
future functionality.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: Whether you're B2B or B2C, this exercise will show you
how to pre-sell a solution to a problem - without deceiving or disappointing your customers.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 3...
Are enough customers using it that, if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll achieve Product-Market Fit?
- No28
- Yes38
- Not sure20
Why aren't enough customers using for you to achieve Product-Market Fit?
- Having trouble finding them7
- Conversion rate it too low10
- Customer segment is too small14
- Customer aren't referring enough other customers (i.e. Viral Coefficient is too low)15
Not sure? Starting at the top, pick the first answer you think could be
the reason.
Have you defined a metric that represents when you have acheived Product-Market Fit?
- No21
- Yes22
Have you generated any pre-sales or signed Letters of Intent?
- No35
- Yes31
Are enough customers pre-paying for it that, if you solve their problems, you'll achieve Product-Market Fit?
- No5
- Yes32
- Not sure20
Why haven't you launched the product yet?
- No development team33
- Solution is still under development33
- Testing the solution privately before making it available publicly34
Your Riskiest Assumption: You can solve your customers' problems.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Utility Testing - You can Satisfy your Early
Adopters.
Your Next Step: Test a manual solution.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This exercise will walk you through how to create a manual
solution in the most efficient way possible.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 4...
Your Riskiest Assumption: You can solve your customers' problems
at scale.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Scaling to Fit - You can achieve Product-Market
Fit.
Your Next Step: Test an automated solution.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This exercise will help you transition from a manual solution
to an automated one in the most efficient way possible.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 5...
Have you identified a problem at least 60% of your customers are actively trying to solve?
- No40
- Yes36
If you solve the problem, will you achieve Product-Market Fit?
- No5
- Yes37
- Not sure39
Why aren't you collecting pre-orders or Letters of Intent?
- Can't finding customers to pre-sell7
- Don't know how38
- Tried but no one bought10
Your Riskiest Assumption: Customers will pay you enough that
you'll achieve Product-Market Fit.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Currency Testing - Your Early Adopters will
Pay you.
Your Next Step: Charge customers via pre-orders or Letters of Intent for
future functionality.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This exercise will introduce you to Currency Testing so
you can confidently validate whether customers will pay you enough for you to achieve Product-Market Fit.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 3...
Have you defined a metric that represents when you have acheived Product-Market Fit?
- No21
- Yes9
Your Riskiest Assumption: Customers are actively trying to solve
a problem your product will solve for them.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Finding Early Adopters for your product.
Your Next Step: Interview customers to determine what problems they are
actively trying to solve.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: Understand who your Early Adopters are, and where to find
them, by contrasting their behavior with your Early Majority, Late Majority, etc. Use this information
to make your interviews easier and faster to get.
Found in FOCUS Workbook 1...
Why aren't customers using your product?
- I'm not sure how/where to find customers to tell about it8
- I've told them about it, but they don't really use it11
- Customers use it a little, but then they stop42
Your Riskiest Assumption: Your product solves your customers'
problems.
Product-Market Fit Phase: Utility Testing - You can Satisfy your Early
Adopters.
Your Next Step: Test ways to increase the value your solution is providing
to customers.
Recommended FOCUS Exercise...
Description: This exercise will provide four different techniques to
increase your Customer Lifetime Value making it more likely you'll achieve Product-Market Fit..