Unlocking Product-Market Fit: Key Steps to Validate Your Business Idea

Working with clients as a fractional CTO a common problem I encounter is clients wanting to move forward with a product before they’ve validated product market fit. In this article I’m going to cover why it’s important to validate your product market fit before you build and the type of questions you should be asking customers. Let’s begin with the why…

Why Validate Product Market Fit?

Determining your product market fit is crucial for a few reasons:

• Minimizes the risk of failure
• Identifies market demand
• Tailors the product to customer needs
• Makes your product more competitive
• Guides product roadmap and iterations
• Influences your investment and funding decisions

According to this CB Insights Report which breaks down the Top 12 Reasons Startups Fail, 35% of startups fail due to “No market need.” Validating your product market fit is necessary for mitigating risks, ensuring you’re addressing customer pain points, and increasing the likelihood of success in your marketplace.

Asking The Right Questions

To validate product market fit you can ask your current or would-be customers a series of questions designed to understand their needs and pain points.

Problem and pain points:

• What challenges or problems are you currently facing in your [specific area related to your product]?
• How have you tried to solve these problems in the past and how did that turn out?
• What are the biggest pain points you experience when [engaging in a specific activity related to your product]?

Product validation:

• What are your feelings about [describe your product or solution]?
• How would you like to see our product address your challenges or pain points?
• Would you find value in a product that [describe the unique value proposition of your product]?
• Where does our product fail to address your challenges or pain points?

Differentiation and competition:

• Are you currently using any similar products or services? If yes, which ones?
• How does our product compare to the alternatives you’ve tried or are currently trying?
• What do you think sets our product apart from the competition?

User experience and usability:

• What features or functionalities do you think are essential in a product like ours?
• Is there anything missing or lacking in our product that you would like to see?
• How intuitive and user-friendly do you find our product?
• Where is our product confusing or unintuitive?

Pricing and willingness to pay:

• Based on what you know about our product, how much would you be willing to pay for it?
• What pricing model or payment options would be most convenient for you?
• Are there any specific features or benefits that would make the product more valuable to you?

Purchase intent and decision-making process:

• If our product were available today, would you consider purchasing it? Why or why not?
• What factors would influence your decision to buy our product?
• Are there any barriers or concerns that would prevent you from adopting our product?

Feedback and improvement opportunities:

• What suggestions or improvements do you have for our product?
• How can we make our product better meet your needs?
• Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your experience or expectations?

You’ll want to adapt these questions to the niche your product serves. Think of this as a general framework for the type of questions you’ll be asking current and prospective clients.

I’ve Validated My Product. Now What?

Great, so you’ve worked through these questions with your current or would-be customers to understand their pain points and validate product market fit. Now what? It’s time to talk about getting to market quickly to gather user feedback with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Check out this video I put together on how to get to market fast by leveraging an MVP.

Conclusion

One last note on the importance of asking the right questions. It’s critical to ask our clients not only about their pain points but how they’ve attempted to solve these problems in the past. The last thing we want is to look out of touch by offering the same solutions they’ve already tried and failed with. We’ve covered why it’s important to validate product market fit and some general questions you can adapt to your customers and products. Comment below with any questions you like to use to validate product market fit!