vector research partners ( aka V4RP )
How to Measure Product-Market Fit
Ready to nail product-market fit? Here’s expert advice on creating a product with real, widespread demand.
What Is Product-Market Fit?
Founders dream of building products that customers truly want — not just “nice-to-have” solutions. Whether it’s a consumer product or a SaaS tool, missing product-market fit (PMF) is a common reason startups struggle: sales cycles drag, deals stall, growth stagnates, and word-of-mouth fizzles.
Product-market fit is the point at which your product satisfies a critical need for a large enough audience and can be delivered efficiently and repeatably.
Two common pitfalls:
- Building a product that doesn’t solve the problem you intended.
- Building the perfect solution, but for a problem that’s too niche to scale.
V4RP has broken PMF down to a granular, actionable framework that founders can use to evaluate whether they’re on the right track.
Why Product-Market Fit Matters
The path to PMF is never linear. Some products explode quickly; others require pivots to reach customers’ hearts. Examples:
- Slack pivoted from a video game to a messaging platform based on technology built for the game.
- Notion iterated on the same core idea until it captured the fervor of its audience.
Showing PMF is crucial whether you’re fundraising or bootstrapping. Investors look for evidence of customer love, while bootstrapped growth depends on meeting a unique need for an underserved group.
How to Find Product-Market Fit
1. Start With a Thesis
Before building anything, you need a clear hypothesis. Ask:
- What are the biggest problems in the world?
- What skills or insights do I have to solve them?
- How can I turn this into a viable business?
Bob Moore puts it simply: “Here’s what we’re here to do, here’s why we’ll be the best at it, and here’s why now is the right time.” Without this, even the best team in a strong market will hit a ceiling.
2. Validate Your Idea
Talk to your target customers before building. Michael Sippey recommends lining up around 30 conversations with the people who will actually use your product. Key questions:
- Do they face the problem you think they do?
- How acute is the problem?
- How are they solving it today?
- How much are they spending to solve it?
- What’s the business impact?
Only after deeply understanding the problem should you introduce your solution. If people aren’t willing to talk to you about it, the problem probably isn’t critical.
3. Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Once you validate the problem, focus on a minimal feature set that tests your core value proposition. Don’t try to solve everything at once — Jiaona Zhang calls this the “Peanut Butter Principle”: spread too thin, and it loses impact. Start with the feature that will make your product indispensable, then iterate.
How to Measure Product-Market Fit
1. Use a Product-Market Fit Survey
Sean Ellis popularized a simple test: ask users “How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?” and measure the percent who answer “very disappointed.”
- 40% or higher is the benchmark for strong traction.
- Below 40%? Study your most passionate users and find more like them.
Superhuman founder Rahul Vohra used this approach successfully with just 100–200 users, focusing on those who had used the product at least twice in the past two weeks. Questions included:
- How would you feel if you could no longer use the product? (Very disappointed / Somewhat disappointed / Not disappointed)
- Who would benefit most from the product?
- What’s the main benefit you get?
- How can we improve it?
2. Pick One North Star Metric
Ignore vanity metrics. Focus on a single clarity metric that captures real engagement and growth. Examples:
- ClassPass: reservations per person.
- Looker: actual product usage minutes vs. downloads.
The North Star metric should connect directly to your value proposition and indicate whether your product is resonating with customers.
PMF isn’t magic; it’s measurable, repeatable, and iterative. Start with the right problem, validate rigorously, build minimally, and track the right signals — that’s how you know you’re building something people actually want.
