Product-Market Fit – adapt your product to the market

When developing a product, don’t forget about adjusting it to the market. Why is it such an essential element? How can you adapt your product to the target market?

What is product-market fit?

Product-market fit is one of the most important assumptions of the Lean Startup methodology. Product-market fit means being present on the market with a good product that fits the market and meets the target group’s needs. There is enough demand for a well-matched product to make it profitable to sell. In other words, to be adapted to the market, you need to meet the needs and expectations of a group of people, of whom there are so many that the investment in the product pays off.

If customers do not appreciate or do not notice the value of a product, people do not talk about it, and sales do not grow – it means that the product does not work and does not meet expectations. If we manage to adjust the product to the market, you can immediately see an increase in sales, your company grows with new people, your product is spoken of loudly, and customers recommend it to others.

Product-market fit in product development

Adapting the product to the market is one of the components of the product development process. This process usually consists of the following steps:

1. 1. Prototyping
2. 2. Building MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
3. 3. Product-market fit
4. 4. Scaling

The most important thing is the iterative nature of the entire product development process. Product-market fit and scaling are the culmination of this process and can start it anew if, after the market research phase and measuring the results, some modifications to the project need to be implemented.

Why is the product-market fit important?

The answer to this question is simple – without careful observation and understanding of the market, it is challenging to create a product that will be successful and bring reasonable profit. A tailored product provides a solution to the target audience’s problem, and therefore your product becomes valuable and desirable.

The product-market fit allows you to optimize the budget for product development. We focus on investing in such functionalities that our potential clients need. It is essential in the initial stages of product development to focus on who we are targeting our product to and whether it meets the real needs of users.

Product-market fit is a part of the software development process, thanks to which we can research customers’ reactions to our product and see what their attitude towards it is and whether they understand our offer. During the testing phase, we can determine what customers think and say about our product, whether it is attractive to them and whether they appreciate the solution we propose.

The benefits of product-market fit

Practical application

Everything we learn in the product-market fit phase translates directly into our other business decisions. We know more about the target group’s needs, and we can better adapt our product to their expectations.

Growing profits

A well-matched product that meets the needs of potential customers gives us a guarantee of success. Customers talk about our product, recommend it further, and thanks to this, the demand and profit start to increase.

Business sustainability

The moment your product fits the market and begins to be successful, your business begins to grow.

The success of the entire team

When the team works on product development and sees with their own eyes how successful they are starting to be in the market, they are more motivated to work and improve the product in the future.

Do you know the term validated learning? It will help you tailor the software development process to the client’s needs.

How to adapt your product to the market?

Above all, it is vital to understand who we are targeting our product to. Defining the target group, its needs, and problems should directly influence the creation of the so-called value proposition, i.e., the benefits of the created product that will meet customers’ needs.

To get started with measuring product development, there are a few necessary steps:

1. 1. Test your product
2. 2. Observe user’s behavior
3. 3. Talk to the user
4. 4. Analyze and learn
5. 5. Improve the product

Feedback from your target audience is crucial. It gives us the basis for product development based on actual data. The iterative nature of the process allows for the revision of assumptions and modification of the product concept to better adapt it to the real needs of the target group.

Thanks to the feedback, we will pay attention to the aspects that need improvement, e.g., better UX design or a better user interface. It may be necessary to expand the functions that we thought were an addition, but they are practical and crucial for our users.

How to measure product-market fit?

Dropout and retention rate

The above indicators make it possible to determine whether the product has been adjusted to the market. The churn rate shows when a customer has stopped using your product. The opt-out can even happen the first time you use the product. This gives you precious information regarding the product’s weaknesses that need to be worked on. The churn rate also helps you understand where you need to improve your UX to quit using your product.

Net promoter score

To measure the suitability of a product to the market, ask the target group what they think about your product. The survey can be carried out, for example, using an NPS questionnaire. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the simplest and most popular type of survey, where the respondent rates one question on a scale from 1 to 10. Usually, it is a question “How likely is it that you would recommend our product to your friends?” On this scale, 1 means “would definitely not recommend,” and 2 means “would definitely recommend.”

Product-market fit – data analysis

After you have found the information you need to fit your product with the market, consider the following:

1. 1. How can you improve the UI of your product?
2. 2. What features can you add to meet customer expectations?
3. 3. How is your product rated against the competition?
4. 4. Should the security system in your product be improved?

appjet.io will help you achieve product-market fit

Our team will go with you through all stages of product development and help create a product that will be tailored to the market. Our job is to carefully understand the target group’s needs, build a prototype, test solutions, and validate assumptions. Thanks to this, we will create a digital product that will be successful.

Contact us and describe your product vision!