How can you overcome common pitfalls in achieving product-market fit?

A good example of a mistake is the tracker from BMW for motorcyclists which sends an alarm in the event of an accident. Anyone who rides a motorbike is aware of the danger. The danger is ignored and the accident alarm is ignored. It was a flop. Another flop was the data recorder for recording away and reducing the tax. Sales via Daimler did not work because the product was too difficult to explain. The car salesman preferred to sell other accessories and earn commission faster. IoT buttons. A great exaggeration. The best known is the Amazon. We developed the Gillette order button. 22,000 per year. The plan was 100k. We were the most successful with a cellular button. Just because everyone is making buttons doesn't mean there's a market.

A etapa de validação do produto no processo de desenvolvimento nos permite compreender se aquela ideia "maravilhosa" realmente funciona para nossos clientes. Durante a validação do produto, será possível homologar ou descartar as suposições sobre a utilidade dele, o que nos permite corrigir quaisquer problemas encontrados na rota. Em última análise, validar o produto a partir das dores do público-alvo nos levará aos importantes ajustes que o posicionarão com sucesso no mercado.

To achieve product-market fit and long-term success, follow these strategic steps: Market Understanding: Deep market research uncovers customer needs and pain points. Flexible Development: Continuously iterate your product based on feedback and market changes. MVP Approach: Avoid overengineering; start with an MVP to gather initial user data. KPIs and Metrics: Establish clear metrics for data-driven decisions, tracking progress and satisfaction. Resist Premature Scaling: Focus on refining your fit within a smaller market segment before expanding. Customer Relationships: Nurture strong customer relationships and prioritize support for advocacy. Addressing these pitfalls enhances your product's fit and long-term prospects.

Building without validating is one of the biggest differences between an outcome focused product team & a feature factory. Outcome focused teams try to mitigate the "value risk" as much as possible before committing to build a scalable product/feature. One of the most common reasons a team becomes a feature factory is because they are not empowered to raise the million dollar question "what problem are we trying to solve?" Instead they're prescribed to build a solution (eg. Add another payment gateway or our competitor launched a browser extension, let's build one) & btw, these teams do try to figure out what problem this product/feature would solve because they need to fill their lean canvas template but they've missed the whole point

While collecting feedback for an MVP is valuable, another powerful validation method is analyzing existing customer reviews and Q&A section of similar products in the market. These reviews can highlight what real users like or dislike, missing features, specific pain points in a competitor's product and popular features to consider. Existing reviews can be used as a readily available focus group. Incorporating them with direct feedback can lead to a more comprehensive validation process.

In product development, success is about aligning product outcomes with business goals. A product outcome effectively measures how well it supports a business outcome, like customer retention or market expansion. This approach ensures that product innovations contribute directly to the business's strategic objectives, making them not just technically impressive but also commercially impactful.

O valor do produto não está necessariamente ligado ao negócio da empresa, mas na dor do cliente. Há produtos de nicho, como há produtos de massa. Métricas são específicas de um produto, e não devem ser atreladas ao negócio. Um exemplo claro, se a empresa oferece serviços de conexão de internet, é equivocado usar o número de clientes, por outro lado, é válido medir a velocidade de download e upload, e, a satisfação do cliente com o serviço.

It is crucial to focus on the right metrics depending on the stage of your company. What helped me a lot was to focus on the North Star metric. Only one metric that you must be obsessed with. Find that NS metric that paves the way for success (or survival, at least).

For a major part of my career, I was looking at differentiation the wrong way. I was easily distracted by competitors having (some of) the features that my product has. It pushed me to seek new features I could add. And we all know that “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The right question to ask is - How are customers buying my product different from customers buying the competitors’ products? What do they have in common? How can I serve them in a differentiated way? It may be new features, but it may also be a different way to distribute the product, a different price, or different values that your brand communicates.

Benchmarking é o processo de comparar o desempenho do nosso negócio com o de outros no mesmo seu setor/tema de atuação. Este processo nos permite identificar áreas em que nos destacamos perante a concorrência, bem como áreas em que temos fragilidades. O benchmarking traz benefícios, sendo alguns deles a melhoria da produtividade, aumento da eficácia do produto e obtenção de vantagem competitiva no mercado.

Much like in chess, where anticipating an opponent's moves is key to victory, by understanding our competitors' strategies, we can better forecast market shifts and refine our game plan. Achieving product-market fit isn't just about moving our pieces in isolation; it's about understanding the entire board and the positions of all players. Keeping an eye on competitors is akin to protecting our king - it ensures we're able to pivot and strategize effectively

From my personal experience something it works always is to understand (& draw) value & consumption chain and describe in each step the job to be done and the potential unmetneeds. The customers are buying solutions to their problem, not products The competition kicks in to evaluate who solves the problem in the most efficient way

The critical measure is: How does your new offering compare to the next best alternative in the eyes of the customer/user (in terms of helping them do the job they are trying to do)? That seems to be the key to creating value.

O MVP é, normalmente, o desejado para o mercado, o que vai resolver as dores. Ir (muito) além do MVP é algo complexo de ser realizado. É preciso um cuidado especial ao determinar quais funcionalidades entrarão no produto, em suas futuras versões, atendo-se sempre na usabilidade do produto e no atendimento ao cliente e suas necessidades. O simples bem feito é melhor que o complexo disponível. Mais funcionalidades, mais possibilidades de erros, mais difícil manter o roadmap, mais fácil de o cliente final se perder.

In my 20+ years of medical devices development career, I found it is challenging to draw a clear line of over complication of product, especially when it comes to safety features. Of course you need to run risk analysis like FMEA, but you and your team always tend to add in one more layer of safety function. My approach will be that simplicity is applied when it comes to user’s experience and human factors, which is backed by robust engineering prudent and endeavors.

O produto é feito para o cliente (externo), não para a empresa. Na "fase alpha" é boa prática ter "dentro de casa" profissionais que possam testar a usabilidade do produto, na "fase beta", selecionar clientes que possam testar o produto, e usar ferramentas de UX para analisar o comportamento do cliente externo. Um produto deve ser fácil o suficiente para, de preferência, dispensar a leitura de um guia ou manual de uso.

Not every Amazon product is popular with customers. Dash Button (2015-2018): The device could trigger an order on Amazon with a single press of a button. It was too expensive, inflexible and unnecessary. Products from imitators suffered the same fate. Fire Phone (2014-2015): The smartphone had a proprietary OS and innovative features, such as a 3D display and gesture control. It was too expensive and the functions were not as well received as expected. Fire TV Cube (2018-2020): The streaming device was equipped with voice control. It was too expensive and the voice control was not as well received as expected. In addition to market research, an external consultant should be brought on board to independently analyse the market.

Vamos concordar que equipes de P&D não são bons comerciantes. Então, é preciso pensar em como comunicar ao mercado, o valor do produto. Pense simples, vá direto ao ponto que o produto atende, e resolve a dor para o qual foi criado. O restante é floreio, ou, distrator, cuidado com as divagações sobre as possibilidades do produto e acabar tirando o foco do principal: O que ele resolve.

Valueprop of the same product might be different to different customers, and even to different people at your buyer organization (if its B2B). Communicating the value proposition is an art, and should be treated accordingly.

I noticed some great examples and arguments here already so instead of adding to a long list, I’ll want to pivot a little and point out the key metrics one should have for a product-market fit measurement scenario - 1. Conversion Ratio 2. Customer lifetime value 3. Customer retention rate 4. Churn rate 5. Use Net Promoter Score 6. Growth rate 7. Bounce rate 8. Market share 9. Referrals or word of mouth 10. Media coverage Hope this helps! If you wish me to elaborate on these pointers, let me know.

Even if the product has the right price and offers added value, there are many technical reasons for failure. Wireless IoT devices need an antenna that fits the housing. The antenna concept must fit the housing or large housing. We are regularly contacted to resolve problems with antennas. Sometimes we eliminate entire start-ups by analysing them. The investor turned off the money tap after realising that the device could never work on the wristband. Please start with the antenna concept. Simulate it and build a prototype on an empty antenna in the housing. Only when this works do you fill the circuit board with further components. A consultation is inexpensive and quickly saves hundreds of thousands of USD.

Figure out founder-market fit before working on the product that fits the market. There’s a strong connection between the founders/founding team personality, their personal anchors and values, on the one hand and the market and it’s requirements, on the other hand. Some times the former does not suit the latter. Or the markets evolves beyond what the founders could support for the market. Identity is a crucial pillar of strategy that almost everyone misses and this has consequences on everything down the road. Decomposing identity requires high degree of self awareness on part of the founders.

Lack of User Understanding: One classic example is the case of Juicero, a startup that developed a high-priced juicer. They failed to understand that consumers were not willing to pay a premium for a device that essentially squeezed pre-packaged juice packs, which they could easily do by hand. Juicero's lack of understanding of their users' needs led to their downfall. Poor Timing: Quibi, a short-form mobile video platform, launched in 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in demand for longer-form content on established streaming platforms. The timing for a new short-form content platform proved unfortunate, and Quibi quickly shut down.