Slow Road to Product-Market Fit

I recently had a conversation with a couple of different early-stage founders regarding product-market fit. These founders had created mission-critical platforms that required serious adoption/implementation and behavior change to be used with its intended applications.

The management teams of these companies were discouraged by the slow traction of their product. It seemed that they were trying to push their solution onto the market in its entirety, and the market was reacting timidly at best.

There is always an excuse for slow product adoption (i.e., growth). Wrong salespeople, long sales cycle, "they don't get it," ad infinitum. They usually cite their early adopters as the standard, which can be a dangerous assumption for the rest of the market.

My anecdotal feedback is to pair back the product to the 1-2 features that are must-haves and will theoretically fly off the shelf. Then, hypothetically you can build trust from there and roll out the entire platform when you prove yourself as adding demonstrable value to their organization. I also know that this is easier said than done, and it is only applicable if your product allows it to be.

When I operational/product feedback, I do so with the utmost humility because I do not know their market or customers like the founder does. What I do know, however, is that if the market isn't pulling your solution, the pain point may not be as bad as you think it is, or you aren't good enough at selling it.

There is no shortcut from finding product-market fit, and it is an errand I would never want to do. That is why the founders that do it are exceptional.