The founder of Waze taught me 5 things about product marketing. That's because Uri Levine writes about what it takes to find product-market fit in his book,
📒Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs.
I couldn't help but add an edtech takeaway I'm picking up to each tip:
Don’t waste time building without product-market fit.
Getting zero insight from the schools and families you want to serve guarantees that any product interest you think you may have is a guess. This isn't building for them.
As fun as it feels to swatch different potential shades of teal for your website's button, this detail should take a backseat to getting what you've built in front of customers' eyes and taking down their critiques before getting back in the lab.
Listening to customers is the only way to make progress.
Think of every buyer and customer call as a milestone bringing you that much closer to uncovering a trend you can act on to help the business (and of course them).
This isn't the first time I've heard this. Apple CEO Tim Cook spends the first hour of his day checking his email, which includes reading product suggestions written by users.
If maintaining consistency on customer outreach feels like a drag on certain days, why not glamorize it?
The effort you're putting in to keep a pulse on what real people think about your product is putting you into the category of a Cook, or a Bezos, who apparently reads customer complaint letters.
Perfect is the biggest enemy of good enough.
Execution and a "getting it done" attitude impact students and teachers more than a spectacular idea that's just floating in the air.
Sometimes, the details that you get hung up on, that stop you from completing a task or project, are caused by your close proximity to what you're working on.
Data is king.
Education is emotionally charged work and your feelings are valid. But numbers are what moves the needle.
If anything, the passion you feel for the product you're marketing should drive you to seek out data and stats that strengthen your claim.
Imagine what pairing qualitative and quantitative analysis can do. Let's make numbers the backbone of our warm and fuzzy experiences.
Reached product-market fit? Do it again!
The needs of schools and families change. You survive by shifting with them.
I write a newsletter for people in edbiz so we can sharpen our product marketing skills together, from books & more than 10 years using learning products at jolieradunich.com