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A framework for finding product-market fit | Todd Jackson (First Round Capital)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

notes

NOTE

Efficiency is not Crucial at Initial Stages of Business Development

In the early stages of business development, it is crucial to focus on delivering value and fulfilling promises to a small number of key customers. An example was shared where a company lacked compliance certification needed to land a deal, but a person manually prepared the necessary documentation, leading to the successful deal closure. This illustrates that inefficiency in the form of manual work is acceptable at the initial level as long as it results in customer satisfaction and revenue generation. It emphasizes the importance of addressing critical customer needs rather than striving for efficiency when the business is still in its nascent stages.

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Transcript

Episode notes

Todd Jackson is a Partner at First Round Capital. Before moving into venture capital, he played a crucial role as VP of Product and Design at Dropbox, guiding the company until its IPO in 2018. Prior to Dropbox, Todd led product management for Twitter’s Content and Discovery teams after selling his startup, Cover, to Twitter in 2014. Before Cover, Todd oversaw product development for Facebook’s Newsfeed, Photos, and Groups. He kickstarted his career at Google as an associate product manager and eventually led product for Gmail, witnessing its growth from beta to 200 million users. In our conversation, we discuss:

• Why product-market fit (PMF) matters

• First Round Capital’s four-part PMF framework

• Level one: Nascent product-market fit

• Level two: Developing product-market fit

• Level three: Strong product-market fit

• Level four: Extreme product-market fit

• Examples of companies at each level

• How to know if you’re stuck at a level, and how to get unstuck

• What to change if you’re stuck: persona, problem, promise, and product

• The goals and challenges at each stage

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