A Simple Framework for Calculating Product-Market Fit
I’m often asked, “Do you think this is a good idea for a product or startup?”
I’ll answer with a polite “Yes, it could work,” or diplomatic “It depends.” At times I will think to myself “This really won’t work,” or “Yes, that could actually take off.”
The truth is I don’t know.
My answers are always based on a gut-feeling or my hunch. But I’ve always wondered, is there some way of being more objective and scientific? Can I calculate or quantify the chances of an idea or product taking off?
I’ve been in technology and innovation for a long time — more than 20 years. Since I was 16 year old I’ve been creating and developing some sort of tech-based product or solution. Some have solved real problems and gone on to be relatively successful and some have been nothing more than good learning experiences.
Looking back, I sometimes wonder if I could have predicted the ones that would have been successful.
Introducing Strathpath’s Product-Market Fit Calculator
Strathpath’s Product-Market Fit Calculator is a framework (method/process) of measuring whether or not customers will want and adopt your product.
Based on my years of experience, I have broken down the key factors that I believe go into making a customer decide to buy and use a product. These are:
- Starting Point — The customer’s situation prior to using your product.
- End Point — The customer’s target situation after using your product.
- Features & Benefits — The extra features and benefits your product gives the customer.
- Effort — This is an average score of your product’s affordability, accessibility, awareness, ease of use and desirability to the customer.
- Speed of Results — The amount of time it takes the customer to start enjoying the benefits of using your product.
How it works
You rate each metric on a scale of 1 to 5.
The Start Point and End Point metrics are rated based on a scale between Pain and Joy. Each point describes the customer’s situation prior to or after using the product.
The Effort metric is an average score of 5 sub-metrics, each rated on a scale of 1–5. The sub-metrics are:
- Affordability — Are the customers able to pay the price of the product
- Accessibility — How available and accessible is the product for the customer to buy?
- Awareness — If and how much the customer knows about the product.
- Ease of use — How easy is it for the customer to use the product?
- Desirability — How much does the customer prefer your product compared to other products or solutions?
The scores for each of the 5 key metrics are then added to arrive at a Total Score.
The minimum Total Score is 5 and the maximum Total Score is 25. A Total Score of 5 indicates that your product is extremely unlikely to be adopted by customers. A Total Score of 25 indicates that it is almost guaranteed to be adopted by customers.
Score guides
A guide on how to rate each metric is provided. The guide explains what each score means and its implications for your product.
A score guide for what the total scores mean is also provided.
Download the white paper
You can use this framework to help you compare and decide which ideas to pursue or help you improve the ideas you are already developing.
Complete the score cards with your team or with potential customers as a guided survey. It will help you reduce the cost, effort, time and risk of product development.
Grab the white paper with score guides and template scoresheets here.
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Read a case study on iPhone’s product-market fit based on this framework here.
Follow me and subscribe to the Strathpath YouTube channel for case studies of the framework in practice.
Strathpath is my personal playground for ideas, technology, solutions and innovation. Visit www.strathpath.com to see other projects I’m working on.
