A Smart Bear » The roadmap to Product/Market Fit… maybe by Jason Cohen

Customers can tell you what they won’t buy, which has happened to me repeatedly. You can discover that the average customer doesn’t know the problem exists, or doesn’t have a budget for it, or isn’t prioritizing it. When they say “yes,” it’s a “maybe,” but when they say “no,” it’s a “no,” and you just saved yourself months or years of wasted time. (View Highlight)

You can find out what language they use to talk about the problem or solution, so you can copy that language in your advertising and social media home page and capture their attention. (View Highlight)

Building the product first won’t make it easier to find or talk to customers. Building the product first will, however, ensure that you haven’t actually built what people want, because you never found out what people want. (View Highlight)

Your goal is not only to validate your theory of the market, but to discover your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). This is your “perfect customer”—a segment almost comically over-specified to be so perfect for your product that you are truly the best choice in the market, and they would be crazy not to buy. You will then aim all of your marketing messaging at this person: Website, advertisement, terminology, writing style, pricing. When the ICP lands on the home page, it should be obvious in three seconds that this is perfect for them, that you “get” them, and they will be pulled through the process until they’re a customer. (View Highlight)

You are scared that targeting only the ICP limits your potential market, but this is not what happens. (View Highlight)

If you’re building for six months and a customer hasn’t used it, you’re not on the road to Product/Market Fit; indeed you’re not making progress on the business at all. What you’ve done is proved what you already knew—you can build software. (View Highlight)