The Elusive Art and Science of Finding Product/Market Fit

Written by Harpal Singh

Last updated: December 11, 2022

Purpose of this guide

Product/Market Fit (P/MF) is a profound concept in the startup ecosystem that has been around for more than a decade. Yet, it is widely misunderstood and applied incorrectly even by some experienced entrepreneurs and technology leaders.

This guide aims to address confusion, remove ambiguity and provide a framework that can be applied directly or with modifications to most startups to achieve Product/Market Fit. While it may not guarantee to turn your startup into a unicorn, it's likely to save you time, money and tons of wasted effort, which could be the difference between your startup's life and death.

The guide introduces a unique process referred as P/MF Flywheel and P/MF Dashboard to systematically track and find P/MF. The process is grounded in reality and has been iterated and refined by applying it to more than a dozen startups averaging 6-8 months each.

Table of Contents

Introduction 193 words

  1. What is Product/Market Fit? 900 words

  2. The Four Pillars 600 words

  3. Where Do Startups Go Wrong? 895 words

  4. P/MF Diagnosis 1395 words

  5. Root Cause Identification 560 words

  6. Root Cause Actions 1320 words

  7. P/MF Council 600 words

  8. Product/Market Fit Process 3000 words

  9. P/MF Dashboard 780 words

  10. How to Measure P/MF? 1760 words

⩰ 12,000 words
⌚︎ 92 mins

What people are saying

“What a great bit of work: clear, structured and incredibly insightful & practical. A very enjoyable read! Lots to reflect on…”

— Matt Nicholls, Co-founder Progressive

“This is an excellent article, practical, very well illustrated with scenarios, a structured guide that is actually useful (unlike many opinion pieces) and a great platform for subsequent sections.”

— Anton Fishman, AI Educator and Startup Advisor

“Having worked in several startups, I could identify with several of those stages. Harpal has hit the nail on the head with this article. ”

— Renjith Nair, Interim CTO

Get PDF

product-market-fit-pdf-cover.png

A brief video explanation

You can also watch my recent talk at Product Tank with same content but with additional Q&A from the audience.

Slides from the video

Does Product/Market Fit still matter?

Product/Market Fit is an incomplete, misunderstood and misleading term. This causes people to sit somewhere on the spectrum between “It doesn't matter that much” to “It's the only thing that matters”. I intend to convince you with this guide that “nothing else matters more than the Product/Market Fit” in the life of a startup until you have achieved it.

Why me?

The single biggest reason is my obsession for finding ways to increase the success rate of startups in the shortest time possible. Credentials wise, I've held product leadership roles as VP Product/CPO at five organisations over the last decade and taken a number of startups through to scalability and exit over the course of my career. I also co-founded a tech startup, Chik.com — a machine learning based fashion recommendation engine, that went on to raise multiple rounds of investment and got traction but ultimately failed after two years of constant struggle. My fair share of failures drive the insatiable hunger to learn and outdo myself.

👉 I can help you achieve Product/Market Fit. The consulting fee includes a “no success, no fee” component. You pay based on the results and outcomes. Get in touch »

Contributors

Reviewers