Product-Market Fit — it’s the yearning of every founder and the mission of every product team. Why? Well, first in terms of securing funding, most investors and enterprise leaders demand that a team knows how to achieve it before they ever invest a dime into a new company or product idea. https://www.rocketsource.co/blog/product-market-fit/

1. Leveraging StoryVesting to Find Product-
Market Fit

2. Product-Market Fit (or PM Fit) is the starting point at which your core value
proposition — embodied in a product or service — aligns with the core
needs/wants of your target audience and is organically growing exponentially
via word-of-mouth marketing.
In other words...
“Product-Market fit means being in a good market with a product that
can satisfy that market.” – Marc Andreesen
What is Product-Market Fit?

3. Best way to learn is by doing. And we
learned what we know about
Product-Market Fit through our own
efforts to measure it for our product,
Platstack.
Platstack is an online, social, content
curation platform — in this
presentation we’ll share what we
learned about PM Fit through its
development.
Platstack & Finding PM Fit.

4. Determining Product-Market Fit before &
throughout a product journey is crucial.
Diverting capital from engineering, or
using perceived viral loops on a product
before securing PM Fit could mean
disaster in the social sphere. Pushing a
glitchy product and sending your
reputation into a tailspin.
Determining Product-
Market Fit. NPS AND THE POWER OF WORD OF
MOUTH MARKETING

5. Net Promoter Score: NPS can be used to
determine a customer’s devotion to a
brand, product or service. Because it’s
rooted in the word-of-mouth concept, it’s
considered the gold standard of early
traction and scale.
However NPS isn’t an accurate predictor
of future behavior, and it’s data is often
skewed due to collection methods.
Frameworks to Determine
Product-Market Fit.
LOW NPS DOESN’T EQUATE TO FAILED
BUSINESS
Despite low NPS
benchmarks,
JPMorgan Chase
and Citigroup
revenues and
annual EPS are
expected to grown
in 2020
Citigroup Annual
Revenue
JP Morgan Chase
Annual Revenue
JP Morgan Chase
Annual EPS
Citigroup Annual
EPS

6. Brian Balfour’s 4-Stage Model:
Product-Market Fit isn’t the sole
indicator of success in this model, but
one of 4 elements:
● Market/Product Fit
● Product/Channel Fit
● Channel/Model Fit
● Model/Market Fit
There’s a lot happening within each
of these 4 elements and it takes more
than tweaking one or two of them to
make real change.
Product-Market Fit
Framework Options.
MODEL/PRODUCT FIT
PRODUCT/MARKET FIT
PRODUCT/CHANNEL FIT
CHANNEL/MARKET FIT
MARKET PRODUCT
CHANNELMODEL

7. Hoshin Model: This model’s purpose
is to help teams extract priorities,
plan next steps and keep everyone on
a course toward an actionable goal.
Hoshin exercises are done in
complete silence to allow all
members the chance and obligation
to take part in curating, sorting, and
labeling ideas.
Product-Market Fit
Framework Options.

8. The “How Disappointed” Measurement:
Means asking early users “How disappointed
would you be if you could no longer use this
product/service?”. If you don’t have at least
40% saying they’d be “very disappointed,”
you haven’t achieved PM Fit yet.
This question can be part of a larger survey
to gauge Pre-Traction Product-Market Fit, a
lead indicator of potential for Brand
Ambassadors.
Product-Market Fit
Framework Options.
HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOU COULD
NO LONGER USE PLATSTACK?
Very Disappointed
Somewhat
Disappointed
Not Very Disappointed
52%
19%
29%

9. 1. Where did you hear about X?
2. How would you feel if you could no longer use X?
a. Why?
3. What would you use if X was no longer available?
4. What is the foremost benefit you get from X?
5. Have you recommended X to anyone?
6. What type of person do you think would most benefit
from X?
7. How could we improve X to suit your needs?
8. Would it be okay if we contact you via email for more
feedback on your answers above?
8 Simple Questions to Ask
Users.

10. On The Other Hand…
This survey acts as a leading indicator to
whether early customers consider your
product a must-have, and if they’re likely
to become brand ambassadors on your
bowtie funnel.
Where this model falls down is that it
only showcases the quality (or lack
thereof) of the product itself, rather than
the entire experience. Relying on the
“how disappointed” metric alone won’t
always give you the full picture of your
brand experience.
BRAND AMBASSADORS ON THE
BOWTIE FUNNEL

11. When done right, questioning
users is one of the best ways to
understand whether you’re on
the right path.
Always structure the survey and
the resulting data with cohort in
mind to identify the power
cohort using your product.
Determining PM Fit Starts
With the Right Questions.
Very Disappointed: 19%
Not Very Disappointed : 29%
COHORT:
COHORT:
Somewhat Disappointed : 52%
COHORT:
Not Very Disappointed : 29%
COHORT:
Junior High Students
New Corporate Professionals
Mid Level Professional
Active Learner
Part-Timer
Influencer
Stay at Home Mom
Junior High Students
High School Student
New Corporate Professionals
Corporate Manager
Corporate Executive
Pert-Timer
Influencer
Stay at Home Mom
InvestorNew Corporate Professionals
Mid Corporate Professionals
Founder/Entrepreneur
Independent Professionals
Stay at Home Mom
Inventor
Retired
Author/Speaker

12. A problem solving framework like
StoryVesting allows a format to keep
things simple when working through
Product-Market Fit.
Starting out with this framework
involves looking internally first. In
other words, begin measuring PM Fit
within your own project team first.
StoryVesting Guiding the
PM Fit Discussion.
No Man’s
Land
Excellent Brand Euphoria
Identify & Remove Roadblocks,
Take Actionable Steps to
Achieve Alignment
Limited Brand Equity
Disconnected Experiences
Company First
Brand Experience
Framework
Customer Experience
Framework
High Brand Equity
Connected Experiences
Customer First
Deep Cognitive Association
Brand & Immersive Experiences
Customer - Centric

13. The ultimate brand experience must
sync with the user’s expectations at
the cognitive and emotional levels.
Early team members are crucial to
the success of your ultimate brand
experience, so whether you’re a
startup or an enterprise, it’s
important that you’re selective about
your initial team members. Often this
means collecting V-shaped team
members.
StoryVesting Guiding the
P-M Fit Discussion.

14. T-Shaped employees are hyper-specialized in their area which makes it
difficult to share knowledge from one department to the other creating a
insights gaps between departments. V-Shaped employees are highly skilled
in one area with knowledge about other roles related to theirs.
T-shaped Teams vs. V-Shaped Teams.
Client support
● Pains
● Motivations
● Solutions
First-time buyer
● Pains
● Motivations
● Solutions
V-Shaped TeamsT-Shaped Teams

15. StoryVesting is rooted in user
emotion, so when applying it to PM
Fit, start with understanding how a
user feels about the product.
Logical considerations around the
experience come secondary to strong
emotional triggers that are impactful
enough to encourage users to share
the product with others. Keep that in
mind when choosing what to ask.
StoryVesting And Product -
Market Fit Research.
1. The Why (Main
Emotional Driver)
2. Logical Reasoning
3. Emotional / Logical
Reinforcement
4. Comparative Logic
5. What, Where,
When, Why How
6. Experience
PAST
PRESENTFUTURE

16. More Poignant Questions = More Insightful Data.
The core of the problem they try
to solve with your product
● Can you tell me about the
problem you were trying to
solve?
● What’s the hardest part about
[the process you’re improving]?
● What solutions have you tried?
● What didn’t you love about
them?
● What reservations did you
have about the product before
trying it?
What are the key features of your product (and
how your users talk about them)
● Tell me about your first impression with the
product
● What motivates you to continue using our
product?
● What’s most appealing about our product?
● What convinced you that this product is for
you?
● Who would you recommend our product to?
● What can you do now that wasn’t possible
before you started using our product?
● How did it influence your life/work?

17. More Poignant Questions = More Insightful Data.
Main priorities for new features or
functionality
● What would make you
recommend our product to
other [persona type/job title]?
● What features do you wish our
product had?
● What would improve your
experience with our product?
Main problems and pain points
connected to your product (and
how your users talk about them)
● What’s the hardest part about
using the product?
● What would make using the
product significantly
easier/more pleasant?

18. Understanding the users’ emotions is
critical as you set up every design,
data loop or concept, to the point
that I always include qualitative data
in my data collection process.
As the person answers my questions
about how they’d feel if they could no
longer a product, I note their physical
reaction. Are they visually disturbed?
Are their brows furrowed? Are they
relieved?
Emotion + Qualitative Data.

19. My questioning progressed from
trying to understand the emotions
behind the product to understanding
the perceived benefits.
When I asked our users the main
benefit they received from Platstack,
there was a clear response —
organization and being able to recall
their saved info with the help of
meaningful context.
Gathering Usage and
Experience Data.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN BENEFITS?

20. Next step is defining cohort, or who is
using the product, and who would
benefit most from the product?
Oftentimes, businesses only focus on
who is currently using the product. It’s
important to also account for groups
who could potentially benefit from
using the product, but haven’t
discovered it yet.
Honing In On Your Target
Market.
WHAT TYPE OF PERSON WOULD BENEFIT?

21. WHAT FEATURES IMPACT EXPERIENCE?
You’ve got the data on the main
benefits and main cohort. Now what?
It’s time to plan upcoming features to
maintain Product-Market Fit.
It’s important not to chase down just
any feature idea, though. Sporadic
ideas that enter the agile cycle can
drive the product further from PM Fit.
Instead, I focus on improving the
ultimate experience.
Improving Your Platform to
Achieve Product-Market Fit.

22. The magic happens when the data
you collect can be leveraged to
achieve Product-Market Fit,
effectively getting products out into
the wild.
In order not to fall into the dangerous
traps of letting data go stale or using
it in the wrong way, our team leans
on a variety of methods to stay on
track.
Leveraging the PM-Fit Data
You Collect Into UI.
It should be clear what to
do
10 Feet Test
Cross out everything until it
becomes confusing
Cross Out Test
UX Score Comparison vs.
Competition
Comparative Test

23. The Ten-Foot Test is helpful when
gauging the UI of a digital product
(with the potential to be adapted for
other products / services).
To do this test, view your product UI at
a distance of at least ten feet. Viewed
from a distance, it should still be
immediately clear what your user
should do when engaging with the
product.
The Ten-Foot Test.

24. WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO AS A TEAM TO GET
PM FIT BASED ON DATA?
The Crossout Test is an exercise to
eliminate unnecessary elements and
fluff from your UI.
When viewing your current / potential
UI structure, start crossing out
anything that’s unnecessary until
you’ve either cleared up the page or
the UI has become more confusing.
At this stage you can slowly add
elements back based on the data
you’ve collected.
The Crossout Test.
Make the UX/UI Intuitive
& Self Explanatory
Add Notifications,
Link Notifications
Nuanced Features to
Ensure Stickiness,
Polls, Notes,
Reminders
Add Social, Explore Topics,
People Discovery,
Collaboration
Make Onboarding
Effortless From Day One
Drag and Drop Must be
Exceptional, Stable, and
Simple
Add Amazing Search,
Rank, Display,
Recommendation
Make Application
Available on All Devices,
Mobile & Tablet

25. The Comparative Test is when we
compare how our product looks to
others in the same competitive space.
Asking users what they like about
your competitors can lead to
discovering their behavioral,
emotional, and cognitive triggers for
using a product like yours, and
defining the competitive cognitive &
emotional association of your brand.
The Comparative Test.
Brand Experience
Framework
Customer Experience
Framework
THE COMPETITION THE USER’S DRIVERS
THE COMPARATIVE TEST AND PRODUCT
MARKET FIT

26. Our Proprietary Experience Test uses
a prototype to allow you be more
specific with user questioning.
This test takes into account the
energy users deplete or gain when
interacting with your product. The
way we gather this score is similar to
that of an NPS, except we score it on
+/-5 point intervals between 0 to 100
and we take into account a different
set of variables.
How Likely Are You to Recommend Our
App to a Friend or Co-Worker?
Our Proprietary Experience
Test.

27. The channels where you reach your
audience are determined by your
model. If your product yields low
ARPU, you typically need to use low
cost channels.
Taking this a step further, it’s wise to
strategically tailor your messaging
based on the channel it’s presented
on, and the user accessing it there.
Using Data to Support
Channel Model Fit.
FACEBOOK
YOUTUBE

28. It’s important to have your design
well articulated before moving your
project into development.
Having a prototype shows your
developers how users will navigate
your product, and how you compare
to the current competitive landscape.
This knowledge can guide important
decisions throughout the
development process.
Decisions in the
Development Process.
THE PLATSTACK PROTOTYPE USER FLOW
User Sign Up User Creates Stack User Creates a Section
User Adds 5+ Links User Shares Stacks

29. As you start building out your
development process, it’s important
to know what to expect in terms of
user retention.
A good way to predict user retention
is to ask users “Would you continue
to use X?
100xing Your First 10 Users
With Product-Market Fit. DO YOU PLAN TO CONTINUE USING
PLATSTACK?
Yes
Maybe
No
14%
47%
37%

30. Even if users tell you that everything
with your product is working, it’s
important to know if that holds true
in their actions as well.
You need a system to track usage to
be sure that users are just as
engaged as they may say they are.
Relevancy & The Cohort
Analytics Smile.
An Experiment Worked!
What Could It Be?
Serious Need for
Improvement
Where do we start?

31. You don’t always hear about points of
friction from your users.
When Platstack was showing poor
retention rates, we discovered log-in
issue that hadn’t been mentioned in
any user survey responses.
Relevancy & The Cohort
Analytics Smile.
Zero Product/Market Fit except for
founders, employees and family
members

32. When able to solve friction points and
boost user retention, we were able to
achieve the Retention Smile.
This smile tells us that more and
more users are coming back and
using the product more frequently
and that many are Monthly Active
Users (MAU).
Relevancy & The Cohort
Analytics Smile.
We Achieve the “Smile”

33. Relevancy & The Cohort Analytics Smile.
Best
Better
Broken

34. When you use the data collection
methods we’ve discussed it’s easier to
prioritize features and structure them
into a roadmap.
By understanding user’s past, present
and future emotional and logical
drivers, and organizing them into
sprint cycles, you’re able to achieve
early traction Product-Market Fit
faster than your competitors, and
with far less capital deployed.
Data Supporting the
Development Process. Apply Demographic
Segmentation
The Impact of Additional
Qualitative Segmentation
Very Disappointed
COHORT:
COHORT:
Very DisappointedJunior High Students
High School Student
Active Learner
Influencer
Govt Employee
New Corporate Professional
Mid Corporate Professional
New Corporate Professional
Mid Corporate Professional
High School Student
Influencer

35. Many people have asked why
obtaining PM Fit is so difficult and
time-consuming.
The truth is, if you’re serious about
successfully finding the early traction
stages of Product-Market Fit quickly,
it’s not for the faint of heart. It takes a
lot of dedication to see a product get
to exponential retained growth, and
the Product Leader has to lean hard
into the process.
Data Looping is a Time-
Consuming Process.
THE MAKEUP OF A GREAT PRODUCT LEADER
Reasonable Analytical Articulate Balanced
Discussion
Empathetic
Joie de
Vivre
Humble
ExpertAdaptive
Encouragin
g
Forward-Thinking
Foundational
Strategic
Articulate
Proactive
Communication
Speculative
Focused
OrganizedIntuitive
Curious
Nuanced
Dedicated
Passionate

36. Maintaining momentum starts with a
mindset; not a mathematical
formula.
Growth is only good right up until it
stops happening. Markets fluctuate.
Competitors make adjustments to
stay relevant. Groundbreaking
products don’t impressive like they
used to. Dedication and willpower is
what’s needed most to navigate
whatever the world throws your way.
Building the Traction of
Product-Market Fit to Scale.
Strategic
Inflection
Point
Inflection Points
Vary
If You’re
Growing You’re
Shifting
Sustain Forward
Momentum
Scale
Growth
Start
The S Curve of Business Growth

37. Insulate your business
from disruption.
Learn more at
RocketSource.co