ACHIEVING
PRODUCT/MARKET FITRAMKUMAR NARAYANAN
Customer
ProductBusiness Model
Value Hypothesis
Product Market Fit
Customer
ProductBusiness Model
Are the dogs eating the dogfood?
Product Market Fit
Serendipity!
The Road To Product Market Fit Starts Earlier…
MARKET OPPORTUNITY
Outline the market you
want to play in
… Geo, Demo, Consumer, Enterprise,
Large, Small etc.
Define the bounding box
… BUT not too narrow – nor too
wide
Arrive at the addressable opportunity
… Evaluate constantly
Market situation analysis
… Porters 5 forces – the
popular framework
1 2 3 4
Is Market Big Enough To Be Interesting?
CUSTOMER DEFINITION
Get a deep view of your
customer
… Demog, Psychog, Socio-
Economic, Cultural etc.
Develop persona(s)
… NEEDS to become the lingua franca
Build a view of their life that is
material (to you)
… ILLUSTRATE the unmet
need or pain point
Understand the competitive environment
… WHAT else do they use and value
derived
Create a hypothesis on the business
model
… WHO is the decision maker?
1 2 3 4 5
Who Exactly Is Your Customer?
THE SOLUTION
Stack rank the unmet needs
• … PICK the top ones to focus on
Get in front of customers early
& often
• … Access, Simplicity, Usability, Validation etc.
Develop the value proposition (differentiation)
• … DEMONSTRATE why they need it (critically)
Understand the dependencies
• … THIS is a connected eco-system
Drive in-product insights
• … INSTRUMENT for insight and iterate
1 2 3 4 5
Is The Solution Likely To Meet
Expectations?
SUCCESS METRICS
How do you make
money?
Do they come back?
How is the first
experience?
How do they find
you?Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Revenue
SUCCESS METRICS
Define realistic goals for users and revenue
• … AVOID vanity metrics
Evaluate customer satisfaction constantly (NPS)
• … THIS is what matters
Validate a scalable business model
• … DRIVE revenue based on customer and channel
Measure against competition
• … EVEN if things appear extremely good
1 2
3 4
How Would We Know If Things Are
Working?
HERE IS A CLUE…
1. Customers are growing through word of mouth
and little marketing spend.
2. Usage of the solution is growing at a healthy
rate among the customer base.
3. Revenues are pouring in at a growing rate.
4. You need to staff up to keep with the growing
demand.
5. Press is beating on your door to learn more
about your offering.
6. Profitability is round the corner or already
achieved.
• Myth #1: Product market fit is always a
discrete, big bang event;
• Myth #2: It’s patently obvious when you
have product/market fit;
• Myth #3: Once you achieve
product/market fit, you can’t lose it;
• Myth #4: Once you have product/market
fit, you don’t have to sweat the
competition.
MYTHS OF PMF – BEN HOROWITZ
@ramnar
http://linkedin.com/in/raknar
Ramkumar Narayanan 2016 @ramnar