Is this holding you back from Product Market Fit?

Today I’m sharing how a list of questions I use to guide my conversation with founders and growth teams who are struggling to find product-market fit (PMF).

I recently had a conversation with a founder who’s struggling to find PMF, 24 months after his initial product launch. It's a common and familiar story—one that resonates deeply with many founders, myself included. The pressure, the frustration, and the looming sense of hopelessness can be overwhelming when you’re unsure if your product will ever truly resonate with the market.
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It turns out, the founder I mentioned at the beginning of this post hasn’t spend any time thinking about his startup’s demand model. His team is too focused on the ‘supply side’ - What they think their customers need.

Reflecting on my own journey as a founder in 2020 and on my day-to-day advising founders, one of the most critical lessons I learned is the importance of clarity in the PMF journey. This clarity isn't just about understanding your product and market; it's about being able to communicate that understanding clearly to your team, specially anyone who has a direct impact in the Growth of your startup.

I’ve recently found myself in situations where the lack of clarity on this front created significant roadblocks and therefore, crafting effective growth strategies becomes nearly impossible.

I should've asked for more clarity. Lesson learned.

So, here’s a list of five (okay six) key questions Founders and their Growth teams should have a conversation around:

𝟭. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁(𝘀) 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆?
Understanding your current go-to-market strategy helps you start thinking about every part of your sales motion(s).

𝟮. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗠𝗙 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲? 𝗗𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝘆?
Pinpointing your exact position on the PMF journey allows you to focus our efforts on the right areas.

𝟯. 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻?
A predictable selling motion means you have a replicable process for converting leads into customers, which is crucial for scaling the business. If you don’t have one. Start here.

𝟰. 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽'𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹?
Clarity in your demand model means that every team member understand exactly what it is your customers are trying to achieve - Where the demand is.

𝟱. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲?
Identifying barriers to sales is essential for removing obstacles that might be holding back our growth potential. This is directly linked to questions 2 and 3.

As you can probably tell, all questions are interconnected. These questions are not just checklist items—they're conversation starters. You wouldn't believe the quality of conversations I've had based on these questions—absolute gold!

I know, there's a lot to unpack here so I’ll be going deeper on each of these questions throughout August and September. Stay tuned.

I sincerely hope this helps!

G

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