Product Market Fit Troubleshooter: How to Find PMF
So, what do you do if growth never quite takes off or has stalled?
This decision tree helps founders diagnose product–market fit issues.
The tool is for founders of post-Seed stage startups looking for initial product market fit or any business that had PMF but has seen growth stall or plateau. The steps are ordered for identifying and addressing root causes. For a tool with a slightly wider aperture, see the Business Growth Cheat Sheet [coming soon].
🧭 Product Market Fit Troubleshooter
To succeed in business, you must:
👉 Solve a meaningful problem for people in a specific situation
👉 Do it better than their alternatives
👉 Reach them at the right times with distinctive messaging
👉 Ensure there are enough of them to support a real business
Step 1: Is there a real and meaningful unmet or undermet problem?
→ No → Return to customer discovery
→ Yes → Proceed
Step 2: Do we solve it better than the alternatives (including doing nothing) for people with that problem in a specific situation?
→ No → Change product or reposition to a situation with better fit
→ Yes → Proceed
Step 3: Are we reaching and connecting with people who actively feel the problem now?
→ No → Refine targeting or what we're saying or both
→ Yes → Proceed
It can be powerful, especially early on, to focus on people with an urgent, high-intensity need—a "bleeding neck" problem—rather than trying to serve everyone with the problem.
Step 4: Are there enough of these people to build a scalable and sustainable business?
→ No → Explore adjacent segments or reposition
→ Yes → You may have product–market fit 🎯. Validate that it's repeatable.
If growth stalls again, come back to this checklist. PMF isn't a one-and-done thing.
Read also: Struggling with Growth? You Can't Create Demand—You Need to Find It