The Road to Market Product Fit and the Trillion Dollar Opportunity in Subjective Search

Kazuki

Hatched by Kazuki

Jun 29, 2023

4 min read

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The Road to Market Product Fit and the Trillion Dollar Opportunity in Subjective Search

Introduction:

Building a successful company requires more than just a great product. It starts with understanding the market, identifying the target audience, and solving their problems effectively. Brian Balfour emphasizes the importance of focusing on the market and problem first, rather than jumping straight into product development. This article explores the concept of Market Product Fit and delves into the potential of subjective search as a trillion-dollar opportunity.

Market Product Fit:

To achieve Market Product Fit, it is crucial to consider several factors. Firstly, understand the category in which your product falls and how customers perceive it within that category. Next, identify the target audience and their specific personas within the category. This helps in understanding their problems and motivations. By aligning your product's core value proposition with these problems, you can create a strong connection with the audience. Additionally, the product's hook, time to value, and stickiness play significant roles in ensuring customer retention.

The Iterative Process of Market Product Fit:

Finding Market Product Fit is not a linear process but rather an iterative one. It involves cycles of iteration where you start with a market, build a version of the product, analyze who derives value from it, and refine both the market and product accordingly. Market Product Fit exists on a spectrum, ranging from weak to strong. Evaluating qualitative indicators like Net Promoter Score (NPS) can provide a qualitative understanding of the fit. However, it's essential to be cautious of false positive results when relying solely on qualitative information.

Quantitative Indicators of Market Product Fit:

Retention curves and direct traffic serve as quantitative measures to determine Market Product Fit. Ideally, flat retention curves indicate that customers are continuously finding value in the product. Direct traffic, resulting from word-of-mouth recommendations, is another positive sign of a well-fitted product. When customers genuinely feel their problems are being solved, they tend to share their experience with others, leading to an increase in direct traffic.

Subjective Search: The Trillion Dollar Opportunity:

Approximately half of search activity involves subjective queries that are not looking for straightforward answers. These searches are driven by the need for ideas, opinions, recommendations, advice, and conversations. The best content for subjective searches is found on forums, long-tail blogs, social media, and review sites, rather than traditional SEO-optimized websites or big media publications. Platforms like Reddit, Twitter, HackerNews, TikTok, and Pinterest have become popular destinations for subjective search activity.

The Potential Disruption of Google:

Subjective search presents a trillion-dollar opportunity and poses a potential challenge to Google's dominance. Google's business model revolves around displaying search results based on keyword auctions and PPC ads. However, subjective search content thrives in places where Google is weakest, such as forums and social media platforms. In categories like fashion, food, and entertainment, where accuracy may be less critical, subjective search platforms have the potential to gain traction.

The Future of Subjective Search:

Subjective search platforms can differentiate themselves by offering a more interactive and engaging experience. Users come for specific information but stay for fun and interactive conversations, entertainment, and games. Customizable user control empowers individuals to personalize their search experience by tailoring the algorithm, results, and user interface. The ability to downvote and upvote results, as well as see what friends or followed individuals are searching for, enhances the social aspect of subjective search.

Conclusion:

Achieving Market Product Fit is a crucial step in building a successful company. By understanding the market, identifying the target audience's problems and motivations, and aligning them with a compelling value proposition, companies can create a strong connection with their customers. Additionally, recognizing the trillion-dollar opportunity in subjective search and focusing on platforms that cater to subjective queries can disrupt traditional search models. By providing a more interactive and personalized experience, subjective search platforms can tap into the vast potential of this market.

Actionable Advice:

  • 1. Prioritize understanding your market and target audience's problems and motivations before focusing on product development.
  • 2. Incorporate qualitative and quantitative indicators to evaluate Market Product Fit, such as Net Promoter Score, retention curves, and direct traffic.
  • 3. Explore the trillion-dollar opportunity in subjective search by creating platforms that offer a customizable and engaging search experience, leveraging social aspects and user control.

In conclusion, finding Market Product Fit and recognizing the potential of subjective search are critical aspects of building a successful company in today's market. By understanding the needs of your target audience and providing a personalized, engaging search experience, businesses can position themselves for long-term success.

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