Product/market fit is “the degree to which your product satisfies a strong market demand.” Simply speaking, you’ve achieved product/market fit if you identified a good market and came up with a product or service that the customers want to buy – and keep buying.
A product/market fit survey is a tool that lets you determine your product/market fit metric.
The most popular framework for discovering your product/market fit was developed by Sean Ellis. To follow it, ask your users one simple question:
“How would you feel if you could no longer use [our product]?”
Provide the respondents with three answer options: “very disappointed,” “somehow disappointed,” and “not disappointed.”
Once you get your responses, measure the percentage of users that answered with “very disappointed.” If it’s over 40%, congratulations – you have achieved the product/market fit.
Monitoring your product/market fit metric with the help of surveys will let you optimize your offering, continuously grow, and make sure your company has a bright future in its niche.
Why do you need a product/market fit survey?
The product/market fit survey is useful both for early-stage and established companies. Here are some of the benefits of measuring your product/market fit:
Scale safely
You’ll know if you should pour more resources into your MVP or the new feature you’ve released – or if you still have to spend some time optimizing. Think of all the time and money you might save!
Make sure the product adoption is going well
If you’re an established brand that releases new products and features, the product/market fit survey will help you find out if you’re keeping up with market demand.
Have you ever released a feature that was popular at first, but then the usage dropped significantly? Chances are, your loyal customers wanted to check out the shiny new toy but didn’t need it much in the long run. A product/market fit survey will let you get to the bottom of such problems.
Prioritize the product roadmap
Follow-up questions in your product/market fit survey – such as “How can we improve [our product] for you?” – will let you decide which products, features, or service types you should spend the most resources on.
Learn about your biggest strengths
Ask your most enthusiastic users what they like most about your product and use their insights to create an airtight value proposition.
What are the product/market fit survey questions?
The main product/market fit survey question is:
“How would you feel if you could no longer use [our product]?”
But if you want to use the Superhuman framework and dig deeper into your customers’ motivations, add additional open-ended questions to your product/market fit survey:
What type of people do you think would most benefit from [our product]?
What is the main benefit you receive from [our product]?
How can we improve [our product] for you?
Can I customize a product market fit survey template to fit my specific needs?
At Survicate, we understand that every business has unique needs and requirements when it comes to gathering insights from their target market. That's why all of our survey templates are fully customizable to fit your specific needs.
Our survey templates are designed to be flexible and easy to use, allowing you to change the CSS, background colors, or even add your company logo.Â
This means that you can create a survey that not only effectively gathers valuable insights from your target market but also fits seamlessly into your existing branding and messaging.
Customizing your product-market fit survey template has many benefits for your business. Firstly, it helps to establish trust and credibility with your customers by showcasing your brand's consistency across all touchpoints.
How should I analyze the results of a product-market fit survey?
Analyzing the results of a product-market fit survey is a crucial step in understanding your target market and improving your product or service offerings. Sean Ellis, who conceptualized the survey, suggests the following approach to analyzing the results of a product-market fit survey:
1. Calculate your Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The NPS is a straightforward metric that measures how likely your customers are to recommend your product or service to others. To calculate your NPS, ask your survey respondents to rate on a scale of 0-10 how likely they are to recommend your product or service to a friend or colleague. Subtract the percentage of detractors (0-6) from the percentage of promoters (9-10) to get your NPS.
2. Count "must-have" responses to the product-market fit questions
Determine your percentage of respondents who reported experiencing a "must-have" experience: Ask your survey respondents to rate on a scale of 0-10 how disappointed they would be if they could no longer use your product or service. Calculate the percentage of respondents who gave a rating of 7 or higher, as these are the customers who experienced a "must-have" experience.
According to the Sean Ellis method, if at least 40% of your respondents report experiencing a "must-have" experience, and your NPS is above 50, then you have achieved product-market fit. If your results fall short of these benchmarks, then you need to take steps to improve your product or service.
3. Take action
Use the insights you gained from your analysis to inform your decision-making. Consider making changes to your product or service offerings based on the feedback you received. Monitor your NPS and the percentage of respondents who report experiencing a "must-have" experience over time to track your progress.
In summary
By calculating your NPS, determining the percentage of respondents who report experiencing a "must-have" experience, and analyzing your data, you can gain valuable insights into your target market and make data-driven decisions for your business.
How to run a product-market fit survey with Survicate?
With Survicate, you can have your product/market fit survey up and running in no time.
Click the button above the page (next to the template's preview) and sign up with your business email. By doing so, you're signing up for a Flexible account. You can use our tool for free until you collect 100 responses.
Then, distribute your survey via email, link, website, web app, or mobile app. Setting up the survey requires just a few clicks and no coding.
Once you collect responses from your users, you’ll be able to analyze your results easily in Survicate’s built-in analytics tool. In the automatic response breakdown, you’ll know right away what percentage of your respondents answered with “very disappointed.” You’ll also see all the answers to open-ended questions and spot the main themes thanks to word clouds.
You can export all survey .csv or .xls – or integrate Survicate with your favorite data analysis tool for more context and deeper insights.
‍Sign up now and discover if your product meets the demand!
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