Business
Why You Want to be Market-Driven Rather Than Marketing-Driven By Isabelle Perreault
PRODUCT-MARKET FIT (PMF) is the outcome of an excellent go-to-market strategy. For most businesses, understanding PMF is essential to building what your customers want and creating a company with staying power. If you're a marketer, you are responsible for the go-to-market strategy. If you're a business owner, your primary responsibility is go-to-market. And if you're a startup pitching for funding, you will most certainly be asked “what’s your go-tomarket strategy?" What they really want to know is whether or not you have achieved, or are on your way to achieve, PMF. Dan Olsen, the author of "The Lean Product Playbook," defines this as the outcome of creating significant customer value. In other words, “your product meets real customer needs and does so in a way that is better than the alternatives,” Olsen 28
September-October 2021
explains. Conversely, if this fit has not yet been achieved, it might feel like you're pushing sand uphill. There’s no momentum, customers aren’t talking about it, and buyers aren’t excited about it. The term product-market fit originated with Andy Rachleff, president and CEO of Wealthfront, a lecturer at Stanford Business School, and the co-founder of Benchmark Capital, who said: “The #1 company-killer is lack of market. When a great team meets a lousy market, the market wins. When a lousy team meets a great market, the market wins. When a great team meets a great market, something special happens.”
3 Questions to Clarify Your Go-toMarket Strategy 1. What’s it for? DAWN
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