Product Market Fit (PMF) Explained To A Layman
I too always wondered what exactly the startup term PMF means. I read a lot of articles with the buzz word always popping. I somehow got over this but I know I wasn’t alone so I thought about writing this short thread to explain PMF in a way almost anyone, even a non-business person, will understand. So, here we go.
Imagine starting a food canteen. Your food tastes awful. Too much salt, too much pepper (probably because you’re a raised Yoruba and you believe it’s pepper or nothing). Unfortunately for you, you start to feel yourself and even proclaim your food to be the best in town so, a plate cost N2000.
Well, despite all this, it doesn’t mean you won’t sell. In fact, few who can afford your N2000 will flood to your new canteen to try it out. But guess what… and you guessed right. They’ll never come back. Luckily for you, you may still have some rich, hungry, tasteless dudes who will keep coming back. These ones are called your early adopters. They just want to eat and care less about anything else.
You know you aren’t going to make it with this set of people alone. Leftovers are wasting and you’re losing money. So, a crazy thought came to you… I’m going to start opening different canteens in different cities nationwide. Wow! Nice one, but your graveyard is already 10ft.
To attain PMF, here is what you should do: Ask everyone who came to your canteen the first time for some feedback. Anonymous feedback will make sense in this case. This will help bring you back to earth, to reality about your food.
Adjust the spices and seek feedbacks again from your rich, hungry, tasteless customers. After all, it’s really not that they’re tasteless, they just don’t care. Don’t run after those that ran off after the first meal almost dissected their tummy because if you do, you’ll be spending more only to disappoint them again.
Study how your rich, hungry, tasteless customer reacts to your food. Maybe before, they only buy a plate and rarely even finish it before flying off. Keep tracking the day they’ll start ordering for 2 plates and even a takeaway.
At this point, you can smile knowing you’ve hit the nail. You’ve attained a ProductMarketFit. Congratulations.
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