Obsess Over Customers, Not Your Product

Obsession can often be a good thing for startup leaders. It’s often what drives founders to succeed.

Early on, most founders are obsessed with finding product-market fit. However, the quest for product-market fit can sometimes cause startups to become too obsessed with their product.

The reality is that the most important part of product-market fit is a word that’s not mentioned. That word is customer. Finding product-market fit means empathizing with customers for a problem they have and providing a solution that can alleviate that problem. In other words, it’s not about the product, it’s about helping the customer.

From day 1, startups should have an obsession with the customer, not the product. This doesn’t just apply to the founder; other leaders and the entire team should be obsessed with the customer. This includes both co-founders and employees who are focused on the technical/product side of things. They can’t forget about the customer when trying to perfect the product.

In short, the culture of a startup should include an obsession with the customer and trying to solve the customer’s problem. The only caveat is that this obsession should be with the ideal target customer, not every individual customer. Keep in mind that the goal should be finding the ideal customer and making that segment as small and focused as possible. Identifying this is what will ultimately lead to product-market fit.

The bottom line is that startups, especially founders, must learn to fall in love with the customer’s problem. This is different from being obsessed with your product’s solution. The obsession is for the customer, not the product. If a startup is obsessed with the customer from the start, there will be a much clearer path to finding product-market fit, which is the more natural obsession of every startup.

After helping more than 50 startups scale, including several that have reached unicorn status, Roland Siebelink is a startup coach and a certified unicorn guide.

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