There are bunch of websites that serve as a great resource to learn product management, but Product School has been my favorite by far. In addition to the blogs and webinars on their site, I have found the free eBooks they provide to be pretty useful. “Ship It” is one such book I read this past week.
The book talks about a lot of different things. I will however be focusing only on one area in this article – product market fit.
How to achieve product-market fit?
Th first chapter focuses on Dan Olsen’s (also the author of this chapter) pyramid model.
The author argues about how important it is to first understand and identify your target customer and the underserved needs they have.
Once you get to know the market, it’s the value proposition that sets you apart from the competitors. The author further goes on to define a simple framework for value proposition, that talks about three important features –
- Must – haves
- Performance benefits
- Delighters
A product needs to find the sweet spot that takes into account all three features. While must – haves are well, must haves, its the performance benefits that will have a direct impact on whether your potential customers use your product or sway towards other better alternatives serving the same needs. Delighters is an interesting one – the author says (and I agree) “Not having it doesn’t cause problems, having it causes happiness and satisfaction.”
This blog is part of the 52 Weeks of Product series.