Does your landing page pass the five-second rule?
One quick test to see if customers “get it.”
Doctor Market Fit? 🦄 👨⚕️ Yes, that’s what this Substack is called now. I’ve rebranded it because ‘I Want Product-Market Fit’ always felt like a tongue twister. Plus, I like the doctor analogy. Something PhD related. More on that later this year.
Most startup founders obsess over landing page design. They want the fonts perfect, the colours on-brand, the hero image striking.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: none of that matters if your visitors can’t figure out what you do in the first few seconds.
Your page’s job isn’t to win a beauty contest. It’s to make people say:
“I get it. This is for me.”
The fastest way I know to test that? A five-second test.
The five-second test, step-by-step
Find someone similar to your target audience.
A colleague, a friend in your industry, someone from your network.Show them your landing page for five seconds.
Literally—five seconds. Use a timer.Close it.
Don’t let them peek again.Ask one question:
“What do you think we do?”
How to read the answers
They nail it.
Congratulations—you’re rare. Your copy is crystal clear.They mostly get it, but use different words.
That’s gold. Use their words. They’re telling you how your market talks about your product.They hesitate, guess, or say nothing.
That’s your copy failing. Go back, simplify, and try again.
Drop the buzzwords, focus on clarity
Founders often bury their value in buzzwords. “Reimagining,” “empowering,” “revolutionising.” It sounds impressive in a pitch deck — also ineffective, by the way.
On a landing page, it leaves visitors confused.
Confusion is fatal. If a visitor doesn’t understand what you do in seconds, they bounce, maybe forever.
Iterate quickly
This isn’t a one-time exercise. Do it with a handful of people. Adjust after each round.
In 30 minutes, you can turn vague, founder-centric jargon into sharp, customer-friendly messaging.
If you want to speed up, you can even paste your copy into ChatGPT with the test responses and ask for simplified rewrites—just make sure a human (you) decides what fits.
Bonus cheatsheet
🔥 Jeroen’s Hot Take 🔥
How your landing page or website can be a risk
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