Can you grow your startup without Product-Market Fit?

Under Pressure 🎵🎵🎵

Hi there 👋,

If growing a startup had a theme song, it would be “Under Pressure” by Queen. 

Aside from being just about the best karaoke song, it captures the never-ending pressure to grow and perform in a startup environment.

This pressure leads us to skip Product-Market Fit, as it feels like a waste of time.

But what people don’t realise is that progress toward growth is progress toward Product-Market fit.

You won’t see that high growth if you don’t find Product-Market Fit first. You won’t find Product-Market Fit if you continue to put all your efforts into growth.

So, can you grow your startup without Product-Market Fit?

The brutal answer is no, you won’t grow exponentially and sustainably without it.

That being said, let’s break another myth around PMF: You can’t focus at all on growth.

Selling it as a black-and-white option makes startups scared to switch that focus.

Your goal of growing is to help you find Product-Market Fit rather than for growth. 

So, how can we balance PMF with growth? How can we prioritise PMF without abandoning our growth? Let’s dive in.

Find time for PMF and use growth for research

As a company, you need to agree to carve out time for PMF and use growth to see whether you’re getting closer. 

It needs to be a group decision, so you don’t feel pressured to immediately present results.

But the real snag is that you’ll need to set far lower growth targets.

WHAT?

Yep. Hear me out: Too high monthly growth targets will lead to a focus only on short-term growth rather than using your main channels to test for PMF.

For example, if you use Meta ads to drive customers, you can test depending on why you don’t have Product-Market Fit:

• Product. Present different solutions to your market to see what gets the higher CTR and engagement.

• Market. Test the same offering to different markets to see what sticks.

• Language. Test different ways of communicating to see what drives CTR and sales.

First, you work out which area (product/market/language) you are struggling with that is leading to a lack of PMF, and then you conduct PMF research.

Next, choose 1–3 channels that will give you enough data to understand what is and isn’t working and some initial growth. They don’t need to be your end channels, as long as they work for now.

1. Testing products

I recommend taking a Lean Startup approach, using the previously mentioned research techniques to understand what drives PMF and then finding low-cost ways to test it further.

For example, focus on pre-orders to validate interest in the new version of your product and generate the cash flow to create that new variant. 

Or, if it is an online product, use smoke tests where you ‘fake’ a feature or new version of the product to test initial interest.

When you have multiple products or services, it can be tempting to try to find PMF for all of them. Discover how I handled this issue with one of my clients, Dougo’s.

2. Testing different markets

If you aren’t sure who your target audience is, you can use your channels to test reaching different audiences. 

Note: Channels often skew to one audience or another, so be conscious of how that may impact your results.

Start by narrowing it down to the 2–3 audiences where you feel you have the highest Product-Market Fit through research.

Next, test different setups per audience. 

You can do this with one landing page, but often, I find you need to end up customising it further. 

Different audiences have different interests, and when you try to speak to everyone (because you aren’t sure who the audience is), you speak to no one.

The quickest version of this can be using the same style landing page and ads, but changing the language to the reasons they said they have Product-Market Fit.

3. Testing language

Once you’ve got your audience, it’s time to discover how you can reach them best.

For this, I recommend using the same image and audience, but testing three different sets of copy. 

If you use this approach, please make sure you test this properly. 

I use the experiment feature of Meta Ads, where you get the same audience for several ad sets and then test ad sets against one another. 

You also want to keep the audience broad but relevant to make it a fair test.

Never assume what your audience wants; test it to be certain. Even the smallest changes in copy can make a huge difference.

Check out my full article on finding your Product-Market Fit.

Recommendation

In every edition of Growth Waves, I also share a related book, individual or newsletter to check out related to the week's topic.

If you’re an audio learner, listen to my episode on ‘The Product Experience,’ where I discuss the secret guide to product growth, Product-Market Fit and the importance of business and channel models.

Listen now

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A question for early-stage DTC startups

Have you been struggling to grow, and want some guidance on the fundamentals including PMF, creative messaging, paid ads and funding?

Later this year, Growth Waves will be collaborating with DTC Live on an affordable, live cohort course designed to help you tackle these challenges.

But we need to hear from you.

We want to hear about your startup and challenges so we can tailor this course to your needs. If you’re interested, please fill out the short survey here.

As a thank you should you be interested afterwards, all survey respondents get an exclusive discount + early access :)

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Imagine you have been trying to fill a bucket with water, but it has holes; as you get closer to PMF, you start to manage to plug those holes. 

You’ll suddenly realise the bucket is filling so much faster.

You can’t focus on growth and PMF simultaneously, but you can use growth to learn and understand how to get PMF.

It is time to plug your bucket. 

Now, I recommend listening to “Under Pressure” one more time before you return to work! And feel free to dance around at your desk like I’ll be doing.

Daphne