Hello {{First Name | founders}}!
Welcome to ‘Tactical Tips’ by Jerel and Shuo at DECODE, where we cover one new idea to help you build and grow your startup – every week in <5 minutes!
Today, we’ll be answering the question, “How to find product market fit?”
And here’s what Rahul Vohra, Founder and CEO at Superhuman, advised.
If you’re struggling with product market fit and wondering how to make users love your product, then today’s newsletter is for you.
🔥 Inside this issue:
✅ 3 tactics to find product market fit
✅ 2 traps to avoid
✅ 1 tool to leverage
👇Let’s dive in.
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3 tactics to find product market fit
🎯 Identify and focus on true fans
Ask users:
“How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?”
A) Very disappointed
B) Somewhat disappointed
C) Not disappointed
Segment users by response and assign personas
Focus on the ‘very disappointed’ group—these are the true fans
Ask: “Who would benefit most from this product?”
Analyze language used—users often describe themselves, revealing the ideal audience and what messages resonate
Use these insights to refine positioning, marketing copy, and user targeting
🚀 Amplify what users love and address what holds people back
Identify what users love
Ask true fans: “What is the main benefit you receive from the product?”
Identify common benefits in the responses
Identify what holds people back
Find users who are ‘somewhat disappointed’ if they could no longer use the product, and who value the same benefits as the true fans
Uncover pain points (feature gaps, complaints, friction, etc)
Ignore users who don’t align with the benefit themes or who are ‘not disappointed’
Prioritize improvements
Rank by cost (low/medium/high) and impact (low/medium/high)
Start with low cost, high impact changes
Split effort: 50% enhancing loved features, 50% removing blockers
📈 Make “% of very disappointed users” your primary metric
Survey new users consistently
Track the % of users who answer ‘very disappointed’ if they could no longer use your product, on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis
Repeat the process of identifying what users love and what holds them back
Align product goals to increase this metric
2 traps to avoid
🚨Chasing mass appeal at the cost of focus
Small number of people want a large amount > Large number of people want a small amount
Narrowing the market doesn't limit growth—it creates a stronger foundation for product-market fit instead
🚨Letting non-ideal users steer your product roadmap
Don’t get distracted by users who won’t love the product
Feedback from this group often lead to irrelevant features and user cases that won’t drive growth
1 tool to leverage
📖 Best practice on measuring product market fit
Aim for > 40% of users to say they'd be ‘very disappointed’ if they could no longer use the product
Leverage tools like Typeform for customer surveys
Dive deeper
Watch Brian Ma’s (General Partner at Iterative Capital and Founder of Divvy Homes) sharing on his journey to finding product-market fit — along with practical insights on startup decision-making and building products that actually resonate with users.
Other resources to help you move forward
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Stay tuned for more startup wisdom in next week’s edition!
