(2023-09-24) Maurya Traction Is The Goal Everything Else Is Distraction

Ash Maurya: Traction is the Goal. Everything Else is Distraction.

The problem is that traction means different things to different people

How do you measure traction?

While it is tempting to measure traction in terms of revenue or, better yet, profit, the problem with both of these metrics is that they are trailing indicators.

Future business model growth comes from past customer actions.

We can model these past customer actions as macro steps in a Customer Factory:

Traction, then, is the output (or throughput) of your Customer Factory

customers and their actions that lead to traction.

For example, traction in a coffee shop is better measured by the weekly coffee cups sold.

leading metrics like traffic per week, repeat visits per week, and referrals per week, which will do a lot more to understanding how to grow this business than just watching weekly revenue metrics.

The Customer Factory isn’t just a cute metaphor. The reference to a factory is intentional because it opens the door to systems thinking.

The slowest machine on a factory floor always constrains throughput (bottleneck). Identify and improve that step, and you improve throughput (theory of constraints).

In the following sections, I’ll highlight how to use the Customer Factory metaphor to define your go-to-market strategy by product stage.

1. Business Model Fit

Starting with a minimum success criteria goal and target pricing and customer assumptions, you can test the feasibility and viability of your Customer Factory.

2. Problem/Solution Fit (Demand Validation) (Customer Validation)

Validate demand through repeatable sales.

More specifically, you acquire “qualified” early adopters (raw materials or leads) into your customer factory.

Contrary to conventional belief, you almost never need a working product to acquire users (and customers).

3. Solution/Customer Fit (Value Delivery)

you turn your attention to converting your newly acquired users into happy customers by moving them through the steps: activation, retention, realizing (keeping) revenue, and asking for referrals, in that order.