Measure Product-Market Fit with The PMF Scale
You might be further away from it than you think!
Many founders ask me: how do I validate PMF before going all in on a segment?
You don’t. It’s the other way around.
You validate PMF by going all in on a segment and getting easy, repeatable sales as a result, with happy customers.
Most founders are further separated from PMF than they think. Use my PMF Scale to see where you stand.
The PMF Scale
To figure out where you are in your PMF journey, you need to watch the signals
They come twofold
The nature of the signal
The currency the customer is paying you with
Using the scale below, you can identify where you are!
Key pointers
Attention = Vanity signal
Time & Effort = Weak signal
Money = The only signal that truly counts
Free Worksheets for workshops
Tally where you stand using this worksheet.
The part about founders being further from PMF than they think maps almost exactly onto what I see with AI tool adoption right now. Teams ship a wrapper around GPT-4, get a few enthusiastic beta users, and call it traction. But enthusiasm from 20 people who feel flattered to be asked is not the same as a segment that keeps paying without you chasing them. Where on your scale would you put 'users love the demo but churn after month one'?