What's today's definition of Product-Market Fit (PMF)? Here's my take using 10 simple milestones to measure progress towards PMF.
- 10 unique visitors - Ok. Starting slow. Let's see if 10 unique people can find your site. Unaided. Through organic search.
- 10 non-branded keywords with at least 10 monthly searches are ranked on the first page (top 10) search results. Building on your first 10 organic visitors.
- 10 followers - Real people (not family members and friends) who have given you permission to “follow them home.”. They’ve provided their email or phone. Or subscribed to your blog, video channel or podcast. Ideally you measure # of subscribers that ideally fit your ICP.
- 10 hand-raisers who've asked for a demo or a conversation about their needs. They filled out a form and asked to be contacted. Think of them as prospects or MQLs.
- 10 users. People who have voted with their time and have used your product/service at least once. An easy metric to track are successful logins to your service.
- 10 repeat users. People who have come back and used your service at least one more time a week after they signed up.
- 10 sharers. People who have shared your service with someone else (unaided). It’s OK to make sharing easy through the mechanics of your user experience.
- 10 customers. Users who are now paying for your service. The best way to measure Product Market Fit and Customer Satisfaction with the value you create is measuring who is willing to pay (and stay).
- 10 testimonials - paying users who are willing to say so publicly (a video testimonial or a quote).
- 10 new customers from referrals. People who have signed up after being referred by one of your existing customers. Consider implementing a formal referral program with tracking codes to establish this KPI.
Reach these milestones and you’ve got product-market fit. Do this and you're ready to scale.
