Fit For Purpose

Thanks to Eric Ries, Steve Blank and the whole lean startup movement, increasing numbers of founders and investors are more aware of the need for validating ASAP that a new business has a "Product - Market Fit".

Today, thanks to some mental prods from reading @RobFitz, I'm reminded that there are 3 words in that phrase and that each word matters.

Product Fit, Market Fit and Product Market Fit are worth each understanding in their own right.  As a founder or investor, it's worth knowing the difference and which matter to your business.

An emphasis on Product Fit is most important when the market is already understood.  For example, when we know that people want to play games online, the important thing is to work on building a great game. Product Fit.

An emphasis on Market Fit is important when the customers' needs are not yet fully understood.  For example, if a startup was to focus on improving tools for events and event organisers, they would need to understand the current pain points and identify something real and tangible that they can improve and which people are willing to pay for it.  Understanding that is first of all understanding your market.  Market fit.

Product Market Fit brings the two together.

In some startups, deep research both is required to validate the business model.  In others, more emphasis on product or market may be more relevant.

The most relevant word of all is "fit".  Any business that succeeds needs to be fit for purpose.  This "fitness" relates being adapted to the current and future environment.  It's precisely the fact that the environment in which we find ourselves is constantly changing (technological trends, social trends, legislative changes etc.) that gives businesses new opportunities to exploit.

Just as an athlete can train to be fit for a certain event, a startup needs to be fit to exploit their opportunity.  Usually a training schedule for boxing won't help win a swimming race.  Training to run a marathon won't win the 100m sprint.

In the earliest phase of a business, research therefore needs to focus on defining the opportunity and figuring out what's needed to win that opportunity.  Then it's time to get fit.

How Long Does It Take To Create An Account On WhatsApp?

It takes 2 minutes and 5 seconds to create an account on WhatsApp.

Here's a slidedeck on the site useronboard.com which shows step by step the user journey.

Useronboard have a series of "teardowns" that show you step by step the onboarding process for new customers for a whole raft of well known sites from Vimeo to Netflix to Trello.

What I like about these "teardowns" is that they not only show the whole journey, screenshot by screenshot, but they also have running commentary about what is good or confusing.

If you're a product manager thinking about how to improve your onboarding experience, going through these teardowns will give you plenty of ideas of what you could test or improve.

Thanks to James Brooke for highlighting this excellent resource on user onboarding.

One Simple Question to Ask Yourself After Interviewing a Candidate

When you come out of a room from a meeting with a colleague, do you feel

a) energised?
b) sapped of energy?
c) just the same?

Guess what? Organisations that can scale excellence have a large number of energisers in the team.

This is borne out by a study conducted by University of Virginia's Rob Cross. As referenced in the book "Scaling Up Excellence" by Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao, they say Cross' team found that "successful and innovative organizations have networks that are swarming with interconnected energizers".

I often use this as a rule of thumb when conducting interviews for new hires. If I come out of the room more energised than when I went it it's a very positive indicator. If that candidate can make me buzz with positivity, the thought is that they can do the same inside a team. It's not a given, but it's a useful indicator.

Bear in mind that some people take time to warm up and will give out energy in a different way as you get to know them and as they get to know the team.

It's a useful mental shortcut though when evaluating new hires, especially in a startup teams where positivity is needed to walk through walls and make change happen.

I've blogged before about thinking about whether someone is a "multiplier, adder, subtractor or divider". The energiser is a marker for a good multiplier.

This is a two part equation though... you need energisers but you also need them to interconnect on a regular basis, across teams and functions to spread the positivity. Having an isolated energiser is like stopping the sun shining on a solar panel.