(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