Product User Fit (the strength training for Fit)

You have built a product and have a raving group of users. They love every aspect, tell their friends to try your product, and leave glowing reviews. Many builders would now proclaim, “we have product market fit!” But in reality you have found the right users for your product and have product user fit.

This is a good step along the way to product market fit and definitely helps you be ready for a wider adoption of the product. In the way strength training improves endurance for other activities, product user fit sets you up with a core group of power users that will help you identify what will take your product to the next level. They will tell you what they love about the product, what they wish it would do, and how they think you might add or adapt features so their friends would use it.

Hitting this milestone is great however some product people feel like it can be speed bump. In the world of going viral, the move from product user fit to product market fit at a rapid pace is rare; most products take their time between product user fit to achieving product market fit. Your job is to listen well to the power users and early adoption fans to focus your roadmap to both keep them using the product and expand to capture new product users that turn into power users.

I really like this article about product user fit from Andreessen Horowitz for the list of three things to pay attention to during the journey from product user fit to product market fit. In summary they are:

1.) Knowing what is retaining the users. Why are the early adopters sticking around? Why are some leaving you?

2.) How well does the product fit the expected user behavior. Is the user only in your product for minutes when the task should take longer? Is the user focused only one one facet of the product and ignoring other features?

3.) What would your users say if they didn’t have the product. Would they be very upset, or do they easily identify an alternative.

Product user fit is a great step in the right direction. You should definitely celebrate that raving set of fans, but most importantly, use their inputs and track their product usage to help you guide toward product market fit.