We speak of PMF as a badge you either have/don't have. In reality, the market is dynamic, the segment you focus on changes & your product is evolving. This whitepaper explores the pitfalls of PMF & improved ways to model & execute your product strategy.
Andrea & Dave recently posted their white paper "Product Market-Fit is dead!" and I was immediately taken by how punchy it was. I've interviewed many product people on my podcast and there are varying opinions about P/MF - some people think it's the nirvana, the promised land, the one thing that matters. Others think it's a fugazi, operationally useless, a "VC pipe dream". It's hard to measure, and you only seem to know it if you have it. And what happens if you lose it again?
I was delighted to see Andrea & Dave bring some fire to the discussion and attempt to provide a way to really understand how to succeed with your product and your startup. I'd recommend checking it out now!
I also interviewed them on the topic of P/MF: https://www.oneknightinproduct.c...
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Dave and Andrea are masters of the product craft - and this white paper is a great expression of their insights. PMF is a hard, ethereal and movable thing, yet many get obsessed with it. I've seen many attempts to make it more concrete recently but maybe that is the wrong approach? Maybe we should focus on value creation instead - that's what Dave and Andrea think, and I agree. Their Value Creation Process looks like a great approach to doing that!
This comes at the exact right time.
I am tired of these endless circles of discussions that go like this:
- you don't have product market fit - do something with the product
- but we have paying customers, so we have PMF
- yes, but I can't find new ones, so you're missing PMF
Your approach might just be the right way to break that circle and align and collaborate on identifying created customer value.
Thanks for this well-thought-through work and framework.
@bernhard_hecker1 Thank you for your feedback and comments, Bernhard! It's definitely time to focus on value rather than a static point in time that means nothing to no one.
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@bernhard_hecker1 I feel your pain! It is something I often work through with my coaching clients. The Product VCP discussed in the white paper can be used to break out of this cycle and avoid a roadmap to nowhere! Thanks for your feedback! The customer value mapper might be a great place to start!
Hello everyone!
Thank you for checking out our whitepaper. Over the last few months, we've been working hard on the product VCP and making sure we are able to provide product leaders everywhere a way to focus on impacting business goals through customer value. It is so important that as we build products, we focus on those that matter the most: our customers. By focusing on impacting user behaviours, we not only build amazing products people love, but build products that provide the world with real *value.* We hope you find this helpful!
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This is such an exciting and valuable resource, and I have no doubt that product managers and entrepreneurs will love it.
I am super excited about the launch of our white paper "Product Market-Fit is dead" here on Product Hunt. It was a great experience exploring the topic with Andrea. I hope you enjoy reading it and find it thought-provoking. My personal goal is to improve how product strategy is executed across organisations, and a big killer is an enormous ambiguity that plagues product prioritisation. Executing and delivering product development with an outcome focus is more involved than simply focusing on "making more money".
I look forward to reading your comments, and please do get in touch!
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Thank you, @dreasaez and @dave_righttoleft. I enjoyed reading the whitepaper and your chat with @jasontheknight 🙂
I never saw PMF as a box-ticking exercise but something to chase continually because we should always be learning from quantitative and qualitative sources. I think your model will help create alignment through a shared vocabulary.
An idea I appreciated from Strategize was evaluating whether certain functionality is best bundled together within a hero product or should instead be unbundled and spun off to kick start another complimentary product. I think that ties in with your Product VCP approach and highlights that it's hard for Product Teams to articulate or perhaps discouraged as it would require additional commitments from the business. I guess that is why so many B2B products resemble Buckaroo or Jenga; as PMs add yet another block, cowboy hat or deal-winning feature is incorporated into an already precarious assortment of stuff.
I look forward to reading more from you both 🙂
One Knight in Product
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