9 Comments

At a certain scale and vertical, having an opinion about the market will allow your product to shape it - the market will meet you. But this is probably rare.

Interesting to think that removing features can actually get you further along the curved, and aligned with the market. Relatedly, stratification comes into play at some point, so the same product can meet different market segments (you might consider several curves in one graph).

Lastly, I do wonder if "subscriptions" tend to become a replacement for truly meeting needs, as you have the proxy for success (recurring revenue) but without knowing if and how your product should evolve in terms of feature set and capabilities and bundling to match a future market state (I'm thinking x delivery).

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love the idea that you can fine tune fit to a segment within a market

the trouble with subscriptions is they mask the timing of the ROI - did the customer get value then buy, are they buying on future promise of value, etc - this is why subscription revenue is not a good metric for product value delivered to the customer

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On the contrary, in a market with enough competitors present, high retention should be a strong signal of value being delivered. Monthly subscriptions are easy to get out of and switch to competitor, no?

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correct, renewing subscriptions is a strong signal of value delivered (or at least customer intent to continue working towards achieving the intended ROI)

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I would also argue that while subscriptions mask timing of the ROI, you can at least use changes in in-product behaviour as a lead indicator of value delivered. Though that means the engineering team needs to build and release with this goal in mind from the outset.

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Really appreciated this tweak on PMF; it’s an iterative + dynamic process where the GTM team needs to contribute whether thru Marketing campaigns, Sales altering purchase dynamics (to de-risk for buyer) or Partners helping to clear up rough edges on a buying experience.

Thanks for sharing; gonna riff on this with my Product team.

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appreciate the feedback! keep me posted on how the discussion goes with your product team...

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Another interesting thing to note would be how 1 product's state of PMF can get affected by another product's rise/fall. Ex. - You have PMF - another product keeps improving and raises market's standards - your product falls off the PMF cliff.

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exactly, the market can be affected by a # of factors, including competition, partners, analysts, community, etc

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