# Product market fit analysis Human Guide

## What This Is For
Expert framework for assessing and achieving product-market fit. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for product market fit analysis: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Product market fit analysis agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for product market fit analysis.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Product market fit analysis guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Curves that flatten over time (not decaying to zero)
- "Smile curve" — engagement increases over time (strongest signal)
- Customers driving next steps
- Questions about pricing/timelines
- Find PMF in one segment (e.g., early-stage startups)
- Double down where you see natural pull
- ✅ Scalable, built-in distribution
- Focus on retention, not acquisition
- Talk to every customer personally
- Find the segment with strongest pull
- Don't spend on paid acquisition
- Growth comes from "launch spikes" not organic

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Workspace Context, Operating Contract, Quick Reference, Part 1: What Is PMF?, Definition, Key Insight, PMF Levels, Part 2: PMF Measurement Frameworks, Sean Ellis "Disappointment" Survey, Retention Curves.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- > Matt MacInnis: "Product market fit is something where you absolutely know it when you see it. Therefore if you don't absolutely know it, you don't have it."
- > Casey Winters: "If you have a product that retains well and you can't find more users for it, I don't think that's product market fit."
- Without both, you don't have true PMF.
- Don't spend on paid acquisition
- > Casey Winters: "Protecting what you've built is increasingly important once you build scale. You might fall out of product market fit in a year or five years if you're not continually making your product better."
- | Ignoring retention data | If they don't come back, no PMF |

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Product market fit analysis human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the manojbajaj95/claude-gtm-plugin skill entry for `product-market-fit-analysis`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Product Market Fit Analysis

## Workspace Context

Read bootstrap context before asking questions: `strategy/brand.md` for brand, audience, offer, channels, tools, constraints, and metrics; `about/me.md` for personal voice; `content/ideas.md` and `content/calendar.md` for content planning. Use legacy product-marketing context files only as fallback. Save generated drafts to `content/<platform>/drafts/YYYY-MM-DD_short-topic-slug.md`, and route durable learnings back to `strategy/brand.md`, `about/me.md`, or `content/ideas.md`.

## Operating Contract

This skill is self-contained for its frontmatter scope: use its local instructions, references, scripts, and assets as the playbook; ask only for missing task-specific inputs; hand off to adjacent skills instead of expanding scope; and return an actionable artifact, decision, plan, draft, or diagnostic.


Comprehensive framework for assessing, achieving, and scaling product-market fit.

## Quick Reference

| Situation | Use This Skill For |
|-----------|-------------------|
| Measuring PMF | Sean Ellis Survey |
| Retention analysis | Retention Curves |
| PMF validation | Leading Indicators |
| Segment-specific PMF | Segment Analysis |
| Scaling decisions | Post-PMF Strategy |

---

## Part 1: What Is PMF?

### Definition

Product-market fit is the condition where a product satisfies a strong market demand. It's not binary — it's a spectrum.

### Key Insight

**PMF is obvious when you have it.**

> Matt MacInnis: "Product market fit is something where you absolutely know it when you see it. Therefore if you don't absolutely know it, you don't have it."

### PMF Levels

| Level | Customers | Focus |
|-------|-----------|-------|
| **Nascent** | 3-5 | Satisfaction |
| **Developing** | 5-25 | Demand |
| **Strong** | 25-100 | Efficiency |
| **Extreme** | 100+ | Scaling |

---

## Part 2: PMF Measurement Frameworks

### Sean Ellis "Disappointment" Survey

**The Question:**
> "How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?"
> - Very disappointed
> - Somewhat disappointed
> - Not disappointed

**The Benchmark:**
> 40% "very disappointed" = on the right track

Focus on the "very disappointed" segment as the core value indicator.

### Retention Curves

**Uri Levine's Definition:**
> "Product market fit has one metric. Retention. If you create value, they will come back. If they're not coming back, you're not creating value."

**What to look for:**
- Curves that flatten over time (not decaying to zero)
- "Smile curve" — engagement increases over time (strongest signal)

**Key retention points:**
- Day 7 retention
- Day 30 retention
- Day 90 retention

### Reference Customers

**Christian Idiodi:**