Product/market fit starts with your high-expectation customers

Finding early adopters is a big deal when you start a business. It really shouldn’t be.

Push or pull: where to find your early adopters

David Bland shares a simple method, push versus pull customer acquisition, summed up in the diagram above.

• Pull. Some people are actively looking for a solution. They search for it, so search ads (Google, Bing) are where you meet them.
• Push. Others have the problem, and may even be aware of it, but are not looking for a solution. You have to bring your offer to them, with ads on social networks (Facebook, Twitter).

Search or social ads, a good landing page, a little bit of resilience, and you should catch your early adopters.

Then go offline and interview them.

Superhuman’s engine for product/market fit

Achieving product/market fit is the holy grail for most startups. Rahul Vohra, the founder of Superhuman, turned it into a process he could run again and again:

1. Measure. Ask your users one question: “How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?” Very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, or not disappointed. The benchmark comes from Sean Ellis: when at least 40% of users would be very disappointed, you have product/market fit. Superhuman started at 22%.
2. Segment. Find your supporters, the users who would be very disappointed, and focus on your high-expectation customers. Politely disregard those who would not be disappointed without your product.
3. Analyze the feedback. Understand what your fans love, and what holds back the users who are on the fence.
4. Rework the roadmap. Split it between doubling down on what users love and fixing what holds the others back.
5. Repeat, and keep tracking the score. Superhuman went from 22% to 58%.

The high-expectation customer

A sure way to please no one is to try to please everyone.

Julie Supan helped Airbnb, Dropbox and Thumbtack craft their positioning before they launched. Her advice: don’t go after every possible user. Focus on your high-expectation customer (HXC), the most discerning person in your target market, the one who will recognize and enjoy the greatest benefit of your product. With limited resources, a lack of focus drains your processes and your team’s morale.

For Dropbox, the HXC was organized and tech-savvy, and wanted to simplify their life and save time. For Airbnb, it was the traveler who wanted to live like a local.

It is no coincidence that Superhuman’s engine relies on the same idea: Rahul Vohra credits Julie Supan’s high-expectation customer.

Do you know who your ideal users are, the ones who really care?

Sources: David Bland, How Do I Find My Early Adopters? (Precoil, 2020), where the diagram comes from; Rahul Vohra, How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit (First Round Review, 2018); Julie Supan, What I Learned From Developing Branding for Airbnb, Dropbox and Thumbtack (First Round Review, 2016).

See also: Finding your early adopters: how to fall in love, and my test of the Superhuman app, J’ai testé Superhuman (in French).