Product Market Fit Survey

The survey method we use to evaluate your Product Market Fit.

Background

A brief history of the Product Market Fit survey.

  1. January 2009
    Sean Ellis invents the PMF survey
    Working with companies like Dropbox, LogMeIn and Eventbrite, Sean Ellis comes up with the PMF survey to help measure the Product Market Fit of these companies.
  2. Unknown
    The benchmark of 40% is discovered
    100s of startups use the PMF survey and it is discovered that 40% of responses being “Very disappointed” if they lost the product indicates the product has Product Market Fit.
  3. June 2017
    Superhuman uses the PMF survey
    After struggling to reach Product Market Fit while building their product, Superhuman adopt the PMF survey to have a measurable way to reach Product Market Fit.
  4. November 2018
    CEO of Superhuman shares the PMF engine
    Rahul Vohra the CEO of Superhuman shares the Product Market Fit engine they used to reach Product Market fit. The engine is a combination of the PMF survey and segmentation of users.
  5. January 2021
    Product fit launches their PMF engine service
    We have successfully launched our Product Market Fit engine for SaaS companies to automate measuring their Product Market Fit and improve their product decisions.

Survey questions

These are the key questions that are asked in the Product Market Fit survey.

This is the most important question in the Product Market Fit survey. Here we are asking the user "How disappointed" they would be if they were to no longer be able to use the product.

In asking this question you are aiming to have our target market answer "Very disappointed". If there is a low response rate as being "Very disappointed" then the product does not have Product Market Fit.

This is the question you will use to segment your users into the segments you care most about.

The main method for segmentation in the Product Market Fit survey is to use personas. The answers to this question can be grouped as personas.

We recommend asking this question based on the type of product you are offering. If it is used by professionals you can ask for their job title, but if you have other types of users you may want to ask this question differently.

This question is used to understand the benefits you should focus on as identified by your users. It's important that we identify the benefits from the target market users who 'love' using the product.

The analysis of this question is most important which you can find in the section below.

Finally the improvements question. Here we are identifying the shortcomings or things that users want in the product.

Like the benefits question analyzing this question is the most important part which you can find in the section below.

Example of the PMF survey used in Product fit
Try it now

Segmenting your users

Using personas you can identify who your users are and which personas are your target market.

Personas
Personas are the easiest way to group your users into segments and your target market. In Product fit you can use the answers to the market question to identify personas.
Target market
Once you group your users into personas you need to identify the personas that are your target market. This can change over time as you grow your product and expand into new markets.
Segments
In addition to personas segmenting users using other attributes is important to see your Product market fit data from different lenses.

Calculating product market fit score

The PMF score is the percentage of responses who would be ‘Very disappointed’ if they could no longer use your product.

The 40% benchmark
The benchmark for Product Market Fit is to have 40% or more of your users say they would be 'Very disappointed' if they can no longer use your product.
Target market
Product fit calculates the PMF score using only responses from your target market personas and segments. You can see the score for 'All users' and any segment but the method is based on the target market segments.

Identifying benefits to focus on

Keep focusing on the benefits identified by your biggest fans to retain them.

Benefits question
This is the third question in the survey where we ask users for the biggest benefits they see in the product. The text from these answers is analyzed to find keywords that are benefits.
Target market users who 'Love' your product
These are the users who are in segments or personas that you have flagged as your target market and who answered 'Very disappointed' to the PMF question.

Identifying improvements to focus on

Implement the improvements identified by your users who only ‘Somewhat love’ your product to convert them into fans.

Improvements question
This is the final question in the PMF survey where we ask users for the main improvements they want in the product. The text from these answers is analyzed to find key phrases that are improvements.
Target market users who 'Somewhat love' your product
These are the users who are in segments or personas that you have flagged as your target market who answered 'Somewhat disappointed' to the PMF question.

Start surveying your users for Product Market fit

Get started free