How to Find Product Market Fit

how do you know if your product is something people actually want it's a simple question but to finding your product market fit as soon as possible it's one of the most important things you can do when starting a new business or launching your next big product hey everybody my name is dan dempsky and i'm a co-founder of unbound merino an e-commerce apparel brand built right here on shopify in this video we're going to talk about product market fit what it is how to identify your business's unique niche to help you stand out from your competitors and get traction for your first or 50th product that will help you connect more deeply with your customers and ultimately help you sell more and for more simple actionable tips to help you grow your online business make sure to subscribe to learn with shopify so you don't miss out on future releases what is product market fit the term product market fit was originally coined by entrepreneur investor and co-founder of one of the first internet browsers mark andreessen remember netscape basically andreessen defines product market fit as being in the right market with a product that can satisfy that market again this sounds pretty simple but the devil's in the details when it comes to determining if your new product idea is a good fit for an existing or better yet an emerging market because it's harder than you think to properly identify a market for your product i'll share an example from the early days of unbound marino to show exactly how we identified a product market fit for our first product the hundred percent merino wool t-shirt and how you can find a perfect niche for your product how to find your product market fit i discovered the need for unbound merino's particular line of stylish and functional travel clothing when i tried to travel with just a carry-on bag you see before that i used to travel with traditional luggage you know a big overstuffed suitcase and i i hit a boiling point when i went to heatre grease as i climbed yet another set of stairs in the midday heat i realized 80 of what i was packing i wasn't even wearing i was lugging around gear and clothing i just didn't need and it was making my dream vacation feel kind of like a nightmare i decided then and there that i'd only travel the carry-on bag from that moment on no matter where i was traveling to for however long and this was the first step in determining the product market fit of unbound mourinho's future product line even though i didn't really know it at the time by realizing that carry on travel was the only way to go i began to establish who our target market was and that's people who wanted to travel later identifying a market opportunity the next piece of the puzzle came together when i learned about marina wool actually in a reddit thread so someone there claimed that merino wool could be worn for multiple days without needing to be washed now this obviously meant you didn't need to pack as much clothing as you traveled and you could pack it with a much smaller bag i love the idea of packing fewer pieces of clothing but as i did my online searching i couldn't find any clothing that i liked at all everything was either too casual for a business meeting or too dorky to go out for a night of the town it all just felt too sporty or outdoorsy for my personal tastes i felt like there was a gap in the market of existing merino wool clothing makers which was step two in determining product market fit identifying an opportunity in an existing market now had a brand like unbound mourinho existed back then i would not have felt we had a chance of succeeding in the niche of stylish travel clothing but the lack of travel clothing that i wanted to buy led me to asking a simple question which launched our entire business why was nobody making travel clothing out of this awesome material for people like me i quickly realized that no one was making clothing for digital nomads frequent travelers who don't like to go camping every weekend or compete in an ironman but i'd seen first hand on those steps in greece that there was at least from my vantage point a growing demand for stylish performance travel clothing that fit into the one bag lifestyle this was our product market fit if you don't want to store any inventory or ship packages and love the idea of running a semi-automated business from anywhere then register for this free webinar that's already inspired over 5000 entrepreneurs you're going to learn the basics of selling t-shirts online it's going to teach you how to build your first store where to find designs and how to connect with suppliers who will print and ship your products on demand click the link right here or in the description below to register now why product market fit matters most startups fail because they waste time and money building a product that nobody wants to buy now this sounds like an avoidable mistake but the truth is many companies fail because they just didn't determine if their product was a good fit for their market before they launched so before you spent countless hours trying to build the wrong product ask yourself a few simple questions is there an existing need for your product are there people that want to buy your product and who are they is somebody already making a better version of your product and is there room for a new company in the market spend time determining the product market fit for your idea and create a streamlined minimal viable product or mvp as soon as possible then test it in the real world because there's no better way to determine the product market fit than by seeing if people actually want to buy your product how to measure a product market fit when we built our shopify store we accidentally launched it publicly weeks before we were really ready to launch before we knew it was happening we had dozens of orders from real people who wanted to unbound merino clothing so in a flash we had this undeniable feedback that our product had a great product market fit when you do eventually launch your first product listen to the customer feedback because you can't scale until you've nailed the product market fit for your business pivot if your product isn't a great fit or go back to the drawing board but work and rework your idea until you discover what your market is you can't beat everything to everyone but if you can find the right market for your product you'll do great if you found this video to be helpful make sure that you give it a thumbs up that actually helps the channel and community grow and for more simple actionable tips to help you grow your online business make sure to subscribe to learn my shopify so you don't miss out on future releases [Music]

Channel: Learn With Shopify

Views: 10,812

Keywords: learn with shopify, ecommerce tutorials, shopify store, ecommerce business, online business, product market fit, finding product market fit, product market fit explained, how to find product market fit, product-market fit, product-market fit vs go-to-market, online business from home, ecommerce business explained, online business 2022

Id: Bje4xaSnpsI

Length: 6min 34sec (394 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 13 2022