(2023-08-02) Maurya Do You Really Have Product/Market Fit

Ash Maurya: Do You Really Have Product/Market Fit? The reason it’s critical to determine whether a given product is pre-PMF or post-PMF is because there is a marked flip in 80/20 focus after this transition — from getting the product right to growing the product.

assuming they are aiming for a VC-backable business model, they roughy need to hit one of the following marks: Have 10 customers paying them $1m/year (or various other splits that all make $10M ARR).

they also need to pass the following additional criteria:

Most founders don’t readily pass or have all the data on hand to pass all tests, so I prefer a gentler approach. One that starts with business modeling.

Getting them to slow down to rework their business model without the proper framing is hard.

This is a perfect scenario for practicing Judo versus Sumo.

The Innovator’s Bias is immune to lecture

On the other hand, the Judo approach plays on their current momentum to test their balance by focusing the conversation around something they want (growth), not something they need (stress-test their metrics). When done well, this leads to some light modeling or discovery work, which intrinsically triggers them to reprioritize some harsh realities.

Here are some recipes I use for doing this:
The 90-Day Goal Recipe
The Phantom Customer Recipe
The 80/20 Recipe
The Next X Customers Recipe