How do you find Product/Market Fit?

The Startup Help Desk

In this episode we answer questions about finding product/market fit! The market has gotten harder on startups in the past 12 months, and finding product/market fit is more important than ever. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including:

• Should you keep going or give up on your startup?
• How do I guide my team without concrete goals and traction?
• How do I know if I should pivot to another idea or stick with this one?

All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit questions for us to answer on our website https://www.thestartuphelpdesk.com/ or on Twitter @thestartuphd - we'd love to hear from you!
Reminder: this is not legal advice or investment advice.
Q1: Should you keep going or give up on your startup?
If you have spoken to 200 potential customers and don’t have something they want that you can build, it is 100% fine to look at another market. But remember, finding product market fit isn’t likely to be easier in a different market.
If your customer discovery has found proof that prospective customers need a solution and you just don't know "how" to solve it yet, iterate on the “how”.
If you have not spoken to 200 potential customers - do that customer discovery.
Get people talking about their problems and, in most cases, it will become quite clear what people need along with the skillsets you need on the team to solve the problem.
Q2: How do I guide my team without concrete goals and traction?
This situation is common! People from big companies want clarity and structure, yet a startup requires thriving without clarity and structure. The only concrete plan you can have is to move quickly and test constantly.
Proving demand is the only goal. Thus, every effort should focus on that: find more prospective customers to talk to, conduct more interviews, and continue learning and adapting to bring yourself closer to product/market fit.
Pitfalls to avoid: Don't let the team (and their desires for clarity and structure) run the company. Avoid the urge to "create work" in order to provide structure.
Stay focused on the goal and work quickly towards it.

Q3: How do I know if I should pivot to another idea or stick with this one?
There are two parts to this question. The first is the concern about how to accurately size the market opportunity. There are a few ways to think about the size of a market:
1: How many potential customers exist?
2: How many potential customers can you reach?

Thinking through #2, how many potential customers you can reach, will help you better understand what's feasible with your distribution.

If you have a few customers with your current product, and they are very happy, you have a very strong foundation for your startup. Customer satisfaction is rare. Thus, it is probably worth trying pretty hard to figure out distribution.
The business is about reaching customers; the product is secondary. In fact, the major innovation is your distribution channel. Distribution is that hard!
Test: scaling your current channel, trying new channels, and trying adjacent customer profiles.
Experiment more! Push yourself to improve distribution.