3 experiments for early-stage startup founders seeking product-market fit

Welcome to TechCrunch+ Tuesday

Stating the obvious: customer discovery is essential for startups that hope to achieve product-market fit.

Unfortunately, most of us are not skilled when it comes to talking to strangers. Each member of a startup’s founding team was hired for a specific reason, but customer outreach rarely leads the list.

Early-stage startups that hope to refine their value proposition and triangulate target users cannot afford to sit back and wait for customer intelligence to roll in.

Instead, founders must conduct their own product and marketing experiments using robust methodology that produces actionable insights. That sounds difficult, but the work is quite straightforward.

Elise King, program director of Human Ventures’ entrepreneur-in-residence program, interviewed three founders from her company’s portfolio to learn more about the tactics they used to acquire data:

• Pre-MVP/customer discovery phase: Tiny Organics
• Mid-MVP phase: Tabu
• After product is in-market: Teal

“The overarching theme seems to be this: Listen to your demographic, learn from their experiences in order to find a way to truly service them, and don’t be afraid to pivot if needed,” advises King.

Product experiments are easy to manage, but they’re most effective when multiple team members are involved. Instead of having one person share their findings with the company, rope as many stakeholders into the process as possible.

I managed customer listening sessions at one startup that were so fruitful, our product managers, designers and engineers started attending. The direct interactions they had with early users helped us make smarter choices and fueled growth.

What could you learn from your earliest, most loyal customers?

Thanks very much for reading; I hope you have a great week.

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

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