How to Find Product Market Fit
How do you know if your product is something people actually want? It’s a simple question, but defining your product market fit as soon as possible, it’s one of the most important things you can do when starting a new business or launching your next big product.
An e-commerce apparel brand built right here on Shopify. In this blog, write my cv is going to talk about product market fit, what it is, how do identify your business’s unique niche to help you stand out from your competitors, and get traction for your first or 50th product that will help you connect more deeply with your customers and ultimately help you sell more.
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For simpler, actionable tips to help you grow your online business, make sure to subscribe, to learn the Shopify. So you don’t miss out on future releases. What is product market fit? The term product market fit was originally coined by the entrepreneur, investor and co-founder of one of the first internet browsers, Marc Andreessen. Remember NetScape.
Basically Andreessen defines product market fit as being in the right market with a product that can satisfy that market. Again, this sounds pretty simple, but the devil’s in the details when it comes to determining if your new product idea is a good fit for an existing or a better yet an emerging market, because it’s harder than you think to properly identify a market for your product.
Early Days Of Unbound Merino
I’ll share an example from the early days of Unbound Merino to show exactly how we identified a product market fit for our first product, the hundred percent Merino wool t-shirt and how you can find a perfect niche for your product. How to find your product market fit. I discovered the need for Unbound Merino’s particular line of stylish and functional traveling clothing, when I tried to travel with just a carry on bag.
You see, before that I used to travel with traditional luggage, you know, a big overstuffed suitcase. And I, I hit a boiling point when it went to Hydra, Greece. As a climbed yet another set of stairs in the mid-day heat, I realized 80% of what I was packing. I wasn’t even wearing, I was lugging run gear and clothing I just didn’t need. And it was making my dream vacation feel kind of like a nightmare. I decided then and there that I’d only travel with a carry on bag from that moment on, no matter where I was traveling to, or for however long.
Determining The Product Market
This was the first step in determining the product market fit of Unbound Merino’s future product line, even though I didn’t really know it at the time. By realizing that carry on travel was the only way to go, I began to establish who our target market was and that’s people who wanted to travel lighter. Identifying a market opportunity. The next piece of the puzzle came together when I learned about Merino wool. Actually in a Reddit thread.
Someone, their claim that Merino wool can be worn for multiple days without needing to be washed. Now, this obviously meant you didn’t need to pack as much clothing as you traveled, and you could pack with a much smaller bag. I love the idea of packing fewer pieces of clothing, but as I did my online searching, I couldn’t find any clothing that I liked at all.
Business Meetings
Everything was either too casual for a business meeting or too dorky to go out for a night in the town. It all just felt too sporty or outdoorsy for my personal tastes. I felt like there was a gap in the market of existing Merino wool clothing makers, which was step two in determining product market fit.
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Identifying an opportunity in an existing market. Now had a brand like Unbound Merino existed back then, I would not have felt we had a chance of succeeding in the niche of stylish travel clothing, but the lack of travel clothing that I wanted to buy led me to asking a simple question, which launched our entire business.
Why Was Nobody Making Travel Cloths
Why was nobody making travel clothing out of this awesome material for people like me? I quickly realized that no one was making clothing for digital nomads and frequent travelers who don’t like to go camping every weekend or competed in Ironman. But I’d seen firsthand on those steps in Greece, that there was at least from my vantage point, a growing demand for stylish performance travel clothing that fit into the one bag lifestyle.
This was our product market fit. If you don’t want to store any inventory or ship packages and love the idea of writing a semi-automated business from anywhere, then register for this free webinar, that’s already inspired over 5,000 entrepreneurs. You’re going to learn the basics of selling t-shirts online. It’s going to teach you how to build your first store, where to find designs and how to connect with suppliers who will print and ship your products on demand. Click the link right here or in the description below to register now. Why Product market fit matters.
Why Startups Fail
Most startups fail because they waste time and money building a product that nobody wants to buy. Now, this sounds like an avoidable mistake, but the truth is many companies fail because they just didn’t determine if their product was a good fit for the market, before they launched. So before we spent countless hours trying to build the wrong product, ask yourself a few simple questions.
Is there an existing need for your product? Are there people that want to buy your product and who are they? If somebody’s already making a better version of your product? And is there room for a new company in the market? Spend time determining the product market fit for your idea and create a streamline minimal viable product or MVP as soon as possible.
Test It In The Real World
Because there’s no better way to determine the product market fit that by seeing if people actually want to buy your product. How to measure a product market fit. When we built our Shopify store, we accidentally launched it publicly weeks before we were really ready to launch. Before we knew what was happening, we had dozens of orders from real people who wanted to Unbound Merino clothing.
In a flash, we had this undeniable feedback that our product had a great product market fit. When you do eventually launch your first product, listen to the customer feedback because you can’t scale until you’ve nailed the product market fit for your business. Pivot if your product isn’t a great fit or go back to the drawing board, but work and rework your idea until you discover what your market is. You can’t be everything to everyone, but if you can find the right market for your product, you’ll do great.
