If you hope to establish your startup in your industry, you must find a product-market fit.

Product-market fit is the point where a product seamlessly aligns with the needs and desires of its target audience. Identifying, measuring, and adapting to achieve this fit in highly competitive markets can be the difference between thriving and barely surviving — especially if you hope to raise capital from investors.

I can’t stress enough how essential of a foundation this is for long-term success. Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many companies with highly functional, well-designed products or services fail because they never paid attention to their customer’s needs. So many startups with meteoric potential die because they tell customers what they need rather than solve the problem.

As a founder of numerous startups and a venture capitalist who invests in them, I’ll explain the complexities of product-market fit, providing you with a handy blueprint for navigating this crucial aspect of business development.

Related: You’ve Got to Rethink Product-Market Fit to Stand Out

Understanding product-market fit

Product-market fit is more than having a market for a product; it’s creating a product or service that resonates so deeply with your audience that it becomes an indispensable solution for them.

Achieving this pivotal milestone for startups marks a transition from uncertainty to a sustainable growth trajectory. It’s the moment when a product’s value proposition is so compelling that it captures the market’s attention and generates widespread customer satisfaction. I typically see this result in a positive step forward in a company’s valuation.

Without product-market fit, even the most innovative and well-designed products may struggle to gain traction in the market.

Too often, I see founders try to build an ecommerce company by making minor changes to an existing product and charging a premium because it’s “innovative.” In reality, no one values the innovation vs. the baseline product, and they don’t sell. Early in-market sales testing with actual consumers is the easiest way to avoid this.

Identifying your target market

Defining your target market is the first step toward product-market fit.

You risk casting too wide a net without clearly understanding your target market. This dilutes your brand’s message and fails to resonate with potential customers. Conducting thorough market research helps you gain insights into customer needs and preferences. Understanding their demographic data, psychographic information and behavioral patterns allows you to create a comprehensive profile of your ideal customer.

At the same time, you want to conduct market testing. Develop a thesis on your target market during market research, test it at a bench scale (marketing, client acquisition, client feedback), revisit the thesis and adjust accordingly.

Surveys, interviews and focus groups can collect valuable qualitative data, providing more specific perspectives on what drives consumer decisions. Leveraging quantitative methods such as online surveys and data analytics allows for a more systematic analysis of trends and preferences within the target market.

Recently, one of our SaaS companies launched a comprehensive marketing campaign across many outlets and sectors to see what would come back to them. They thought clients would use the platform to generate new sales directly, but the feedback showed customers were using it as a client retention tool. This exercise helped them realize their target market’s pain points rather than forcing a problem onto them.

Related: 10 Questions to Ask Before Determining Your Target Market

Ways to determine target market

Our most successful ventures have one thing in common — they take a data-driven approach to pursuing and refining their target markets. They constantly collect data and tweak their marketing strategies accordingly.

One of the best ways to quantitatively measure the value of your target market fit is to compare the customers’ lifetime value to the average cost to acquire a customer. While this ratio varies by industry, the higher, the better. It’s a leading indicator of product market fit.

In the startup phase, you’ll have to guess lifetime value by looking at competitors in the industry or peripheral markets. Customer acquisition cost is more straightforward, as it involves how much marketing money is required to get a client signed and generate revenue.

Developing your product

Creating a product or service that resonates with the needs of your target market involves a strategic approach that goes beyond the initial concept.

By actively listening to your target market, you can gain valuable insights to help you develop and deploy a product that meets their expectations. Iteration allows for constant refinement based on real-world usage and user feedback.

This agile approach ensures that the product evolves organically, addressing shortcomings and adapting to changing market dynamics. Early releases, prototypes and beta testing phases are invaluable, allowing users to provide feedback that directly informs your next iterations.

Staying agile and responsive to market changes is essential during product development. One of our most successful property tech ventures began as a platform addressing a different issue in the same industry. Over time, they noticed an emerging opportunity in a peripheral part of the real estate industry and pivoted accordingly. They remained flexible and nimble and, most importantly, listened to what the market was telling them.

Regularly reassessing market dynamics, staying attuned to customer feedback and swiftly adjusting the product roadmap helps you maintain relevance and competitiveness in the market.

Related: This Is the Framework to Make Your Product a Smash Success

Testing and validation

Once your target market is established and you have a minimum viable product, it’s time to test your product on a larger scale and with a bigger budget.

This is the pivotal step in product-market fit, as it provides valuable feedback that will help you refine your product and ensure that it meets the needs and expectations of your target audience. Startups should use both internal assessments and real-world user feedback. Early testing helps identify issues, understand user reactions and validate the product concept.

Some of our most successful ventures prioritize client relationships and internal communication, allowing them to spot and address issues proactively. By improving these relationships, companies can avoid losing productive time.

Evaluating customer satisfaction

Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches helps your startup develop a holistic understanding of how your product is perceived in the market, shining a new light on areas for improvement and optimization.

Surveys, user interviews and usability testing are practical tools for gaining qualitative insights. Additionally, quantitative metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer satisfaction surveys provide measurable data to gauge overall satisfaction levels.

With this data, you can adopt an agile development approach to respond immediately to user insights and implement necessary changes. You should consistently:

• Analyze user feedback
• Identify recurring themes or pain points
• Prioritize product or service updates accordingly

This iterative cycle fine-tunes the product and fosters a responsive and customer-centric culture. Embracing a continuous improvement mindset ensures your product remains aligned with evolving customer expectations, increasing the likelihood of achieving and sustaining product-market fit.

Related: How to Easily Measure Customer Satisfaction

Scaling your business

Let’s say you’ve finally achieved your goal of product-market fit where customers are delighted and advocating for your company. What’s next?

Now, your focus naturally shifts to scaling your business for sustained growth. Expanding into new markets or verticals is usually the next step in scaling your businesses. However, this requires careful consideration of market nuances, cultural differences and unique challenges.

Some of our successful companies have run pilot campaigns in new markets. Even if they lose money, they gain confidence in the consumer fit for their product in the new market.

But we’ve also seen some catastrophic failures of companies scaling before they’re ready. It’s common for businesses to expand into adjacent countries, thinking they are similar and that what worked in their home country will work in another Competition, marketing spending and set-up costs are often underestimated, leading to companies missing expectations.

Again, conducting extensive market research, adapting your strategies based on these insights and quickly responding to feedback are crucial aspects of successful expansion. Approach new markets with the same due diligence and customer focus that led to your initial product-market fit.

Maintaining product-market fit as your business grows demands a careful balance between innovation and preservation. While evolving and adapting to market changes is necessary, staying true to your audience, your business and the core elements contributing to the initial success is equally important.