Three mistakes you can avoid to make your Startup the next Tesla

Arya Krishna
December 21, 2020

Amit Acharya,
Head of Product
Gigster

Amit Acharya is the Head of product at Gigster (a startup based in San Francisco) leading a SaaS platform for future work. Before Gigster, Amit led various products at IBM in enterprise B2B SaaS, software and appliances in the API, Cloud Integration, and digital transformation space.

Achieving a Product/Market fit is an obsession for any product manager from day one. “Product/Market fit is when the burning need in the market or a segment of the market is being met by a product or service”. But is there any battle-tested approach when it comes to an understanding of how to get there? As a Product Manager, it is essential to identify the right problem and lay down the assumptions to challenge yourself and the stakeholders to understand the solution statement for the identified problem. Developing and nurturing decision making and execution skills will help the product managers to climb up the ladder of success and become a Product Leader. Journey from a Product Manager to a Product Leader can be a back-breaking process sometimes. Become the Product leader you’d always want to follow with Institute of Product Leadership’s Executive MBA in Product Leadership. Ever wondered why most of the Startups are not weaving success threads? Not finding the right Product/Market fit contributes to the major problem. “ Launch and see what happens” is often reckless and irresponsible for a StartUp. Finding another market is an option for those who have enough funding and the luxury of doing it over and over. The common practice of “ throw it out there and what sticks” may be fine after a few months of effort when the sunk cost is low. Difficulty in pivoting to something new adds up the cause for the failure of many startUps. You always have to be a watchdog for the changing market needs and demands.

Taking a step back to reflect on some key tips to achieve Product/Market fit.

Never lose sight of your market.
Never lose sight of the changing terrains in the market.
Be transparent about the roadmap of the Product/Market fit journey to the stakeholders

“ Product/Market Fit is a journey, not a destination to reach “ !!