Founders are their own worst enemies when trying to find product market fit (PMF).
Here are the five worst mistakes:
Here are the five worst mistakes:
1/Not being clear on the metrics for PMF.
It's not rocket science but you need to be clear.
It's not rocket science but you need to be clear.
2/Focusing on more than one metric at once.
Moving metrics through experiments requires creative thinking to try new things. Trying to move two at once kills this. Take a few weeks focusing on your top priority, then focus on another even if you haven't hit your goal.
Moving metrics through experiments requires creative thinking to try new things. Trying to move two at once kills this. Take a few weeks focusing on your top priority, then focus on another even if you haven't hit your goal.
3/Believing that experiments are optional.
Many founders think they know the answer and just need to execute on their vision. But even the best experimenters are wrong 80% of the time. My best teams run 5 experiments per week every week all the way through Series A and beyond.
Many founders think they know the answer and just need to execute on their vision. But even the best experimenters are wrong 80% of the time. My best teams run 5 experiments per week every week all the way through Series A and beyond.
4/Being too lazy to measure.
When you are trying to understand your user's behavior and emotions, it just doesn't work if you don't measure correctly. Use mixpanel and get your attribution on new users right early.
When you are trying to understand your user's behavior and emotions, it just doesn't work if you don't measure correctly. Use mixpanel and get your attribution on new users right early.
5/Interviewing users to decide what to experiment on.
Users are great at explaining why they did something very specific, like abandoning a sign up page. Use your quantitative data to understand what people want, talk to users to understand why.
Users are great at explaining why they did something very specific, like abandoning a sign up page. Use your quantitative data to understand what people want, talk to users to understand why.
I hope you liked this thread. Please follow me for more thoughts from my time working with dozens of early stage startups on PMF.
Here is my longer medium post on this - johnwdanner.medium.com/the-five-most-…
If you really want the gory detail, here is the working doc I use with my founders - docs.google.com/document/d/1ya…
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