Top 50 Resources on Product/Market Fit
The most important journey any new product goes through is finding product/market fit. Marc Andreessen, who popularized the term, defined it as:
Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.
Despite sounding so simple, the majority of new products fail due to never finding this illusive fit. This fit alludes both new startups creating their very first product as it does established organizations seeking to expand their product portfolio. From Viddy to Quibi to Google Wave, we can all name famous product failures. And even more die quietly without such fanfare.
As a serial entrepreneur, I've been on a quest to learn how best to find product/market fit for each new product I build to avoid the pitfalls so many run into. In doing so, I've been collecting the very best resources on the topic for years. After reading and watching hundreds of essays, books, and videos, I wanted to share a curated collection of the very best resources I've found to help give you the best chance of finding product/market fit for your own product.
These resources cover everything from defining product/market fit, motivating it's importance, developing an experimentation culture to help you pivot towards product/market fit, measuring product/market fit, and case studies of startups own journey to product/market fit.
While they certainly won't guarantee your success, being well versed in the mental models, tools, and processes these resources offer will undoubtedly increase your chances.
Essays
The only thing that matters - Marc Andreessen
Why You Should Find Product-Market Fit Before Sniffing Around For Venture Money - Andy Rachleff
12 Things about Product-Market Fit - Tren Griffin
Fundamentals of Product-Market Fit - Andy Sparks
How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit - Rahul Vohra
Using Product/Market Fit to Drive Sustainable Growth - Sean Ellis
The Idea Maze - Chris Dixon
Why premature scaling fails: The Traction Treadmill - Andrew Chen
Zero to Product/Market Fit - Andrew Chen
The Never Ending Road to Product Market Fit - Brian Balfour
Four Fits for $100M+ Growth - Brian Balfour
How To Build a Minimum Viable Company - Ann Miura-Ko
Product/Market Fit: What it really means, How to Measure it, and Where to find it - Eric Jorgenson
Product Market Fit - Marty Cagan
Before You Grow - Sam Altman
Experiments That Lead to Product-Market Fit - Jeff Bussgang
21 Solid Ways to Validate your Minimum Viable Product - Shrikant Srivastava
Try More Things - Ev Williams
Know Your Customers' "Jobs to Be Done" - Clayton Christensen
Do Pivots Matter? - Steve Blank
The Revenge of the Fat Guy - Ben Horowitz
A New Way to Think About Product-Market Fit - Erez Druk
Product-Market Fit is a Broken Concept. There's a Better Way. - Rand Fishkin
A Quantitative Approach to Product Market Fit - Tribe Capital
The Burn Multiple - David Sacks
Casey’s Guide to Finding Product/Market Fit - Casey Winters
The best metric for determining quantitative product market fit - Jeff Chang
How to know if you've got product-market fit - Lenny Rachitsky
What it feels like when you've found product-market fit - Lenny Rachitsky
How to tell if you have product/market fit - Merci Victoria Grace
Finding product-market fit… again! - Tido Carriero
A Lean Alternative to a Business Plan: Documenting Your Product/Market Fit Hypotheses - Sachin Rekhi
Videos
Finding a Compelling Product Market Fit - Andy Rachleff
A Playbook for Achieving Product Market Fit - Dan Olsen
The Foolproof Formula for Finding Product-Market Fit - Rahul Vohra
The Art of Pivoting Towards Product/Market Fit - Hiten Shah
The Real Product Market Fit - Michael Siebel
Product-Market Fit Redefined - Ann Miura-Ko
How to Evaluate Startup Ideas - Kevin Hale
Timebox Your Way to Startup Product Market Fit - Garry Tan
How to Find Product Market Fit - David Rusenko
How to Find Product Market Fit - Peter Reinhardt
The Hunt for Product/Market Fit - Sachin Rekhi
Books
The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank
The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
Zero to One - Peter Thiel
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development - Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits
Running Lean - Ash Maurya
The Lean Product Playbook - Dan Olsen
Competing Against Luck - Clayton Christensen
Continuous Discovery Habits - Teresa Torres
The Mom Test - Rob Fitzpatrick
Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help:
AI Productivity: Learn how leading product managers use AI to become faster, smarter, and gain super powers beyond their traditional role.
Mastering Product Management: Accelerate your product career by learning rigorous frameworks for each PM deliverable, from crafting a strategy to prioritizing a roadmap.
Product Innovation Strategy: Building a new product? Learn how to leverage the Deliberate Startup methodology, a modern approach to finding product/market fit.