№ 90

Questo articolo è disponibile anche in: Italiano

The more you miss it, the more it’s worth

03:40 of reading - How to calculate your Product Market Fit. What to do if you reach it or not. Metrics: Net Revenue Retention Rate
CONDIVIDI
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp

Hey, happy Tuesday!
That today, however, is a bit like a Monday.

I swear I didn’t do it on purpose to make Note number 90 coincide with the one at Halloween time. 

Which then is not even an Italian holiday but one of the many cultural short circuits we accept as a consequence of being able to live in one big “connected village” that as I write this sounds so much like retro now that we are talking about the Metaverse (don’t worry, I don’t want to tell you about it too…).

Skipping a Monday was interesting.

It is part of the few human principles I chose to adopt for this project. If it is true that STRTGY protect your time then it would have been a nonsense as well as unnecessary to add my voice to marketing communications that follow a mechanical, annoying, and unstable plan that puts everything in the center except the people they are supposed to address.

Unfortunately, I have a thing for things done well, and marketing is done well not only when it is synchronized with the company’s bottom line but more importantly when it is with the lives of those who decide to listen to you.

Skipping a Monday was interesting because it allowed me to realize that someone missed something yesterday. And that “something” is actually a great thing, indeed it is the important thing to understand, to probe, to measure.

Like when a love ends. 

Like when an object disappears. 

It is the absence that reveals the value.

Is it worth investing in something that, if it were gone tomorrow, no one would miss it?

If you are here I can imagine your response. 

It is the right one.

There is no need to go further, if you want you can stop here the value of this note you have already gathered.

After that there is technique. Which is important, because in Tennis as in Business…

There is no such thing as bad luck. Only bad technique.
Mats Wilander, 1988 World Tennis Champion

Good work!
Be heard and remember…

Always Make Progress.

 

● Products / Doing things that people love.

How to Calculate Your Product Market Fit (PMF)

Let’s keep it simple the way we like it at STRTGY. 

PMF is a number. To be exact, it is a percentage.  

To calculate it you have to take the number of people who gave a particular answer to a specific question and divide it by the total number of people who answered it.

The question is:

How would you feel in case you could not use “product-name”?

And the possible answers are:

✓ Very sorry
▢ A little sorry
▢ Not sorry (actually not that useful)
▢ Irrelevant – I don’t use “product-name” anymore.

The only answer that matters is “Very sorry.”

You have reached the PMF if:
40% of the respondents will have stated that they would be “Very sorry.”

Everyone should have this number in the center of their control panel to make sure they are committed to creating a product that people want rather than investing without return in making people want your product

The PMF represents the best segment of customers who depend on your product for their own progress. 

Imagine if you no longer had Instagram… or Whatsapp… or Slack… or Jira… or Trello… or Notion… or even Netflix… not only would you be sorry, for some of these you would even be in trouble!

You have not reached the PMF if.
the percentage of people who answered “Very sorry” is less than 40%.

Not me, but Sean Ellis, the daddy of Growth Hacking, who invented this test that bears his name and defined this threshold based on hundreds of interviews and found that companies with growth problems had a PMF of less than 40 percent.

Segment and optimize.
Don’t stop at the number. By itself it means nothing.

Segment the responses by identifying characteristics common to the groups of users who gave similar responses and compare them with those in the segment that answered “Very sorry.” What do you see?

In order of priority:

➀ shift your acquisition efforts to similar users who will miss you most if you were to disappear. You will have lower acquisition costs.

➁ prioritize the roadmap for these users and make sure they do not leave.

➂ create a system to measure temperature constantly. Incorporate PMF calculation into your product development routines. Just because you have a good PMF today does not mean it will be the same tomorrow.

 

● PMF in practice

👻 Poof! If STRTGY were to disappear, how would you feel?
8 very short questions but will help to improve STRTGY

Answer the PMF Survey by. STRTGY

 

● Links

❤️ Calculate your PMF for free with a tool invented by Sean Ellis.

📧 The most productive leaders in Silicon Valley (and beyond) use this software that costs $30/month to read and respond to their emails. It’s called Superhuman and have put PMF at the very center of their own growth engine. To be read and printed.

📈 Don’t like asking questions? Then check out this issue: Net Revenue Retention Rate. Like the best metrics, it is a ratio and represents how much of your users are taking more than one ride on your ride. Spoiler: if below 100% there is something wrong.  

Don't miss the next Notes. Every Monday at 7:00 a.m. Free.

Tools and frameworks to unlock innovation in your company and apply Design Thinking, Blue Ocean Strategy, JTBD and OKRs in practice.

Continua a leggere

№ 240
del 13 April 2026
How to create missing time, measure your focus ratio, and design your personal concentration system, using your data.
№ 239
del 23 March 2026
Why do the best strategies seem wrong? I've collected 14 companies that have won with strategies no one would have given a cent to. Includes exercise.
№ 238
del 16 March 2026
Entrepreneurs and managers carry different risks, have different priorities, and often make decisions about different companies. Discover how to transform this gap into a strategic framework that works.
№ 237
del 9 March 2026
The fastest companies don't do everything faster. They manage two different rhythms. Here are the 5 strategic tensions and the 10 tools to manage them without losing control.
№ 236
del 2 March 2026
While you update your resume, someone is creating the future. Companies are no longer looking for those who "know how," but those who decide what should be done, starting with the case that shook Silicon Valley in 82 days.
№ 235
del 23 February 2026
Every previous technological revolution first changed how we used our muscles, then our brains. This one is different.
№ 234
del 16 February 2026
Why the most competent managers procrastinate on the most important work. The Theory of Temporal Motivation. A 3-minute exercise to defuse everything.
№ 233
del 9 February 2026
I took the 2030 strategic plan and mapped it out using the MAKE PROGRESS® tools. I'll show you how I did it, piece by piece, so you can apply the same method to your company.
№ 232
del 2 February 2026
4:37 read — How to find the one thing your competitors can't (or won't) copy.
№ 229
del 1 December 2025
6:39 read — How to fix lack of focus, data gaps, and departmental silos.
№ 228
del 24 November 2025
2:39 read —What if we protected strategy time like we do vacation time?
№ 222
del 13 October 2025
Those who grow do three things differently: they separate current management from strategic exploration, they establish a weekly learning cycle that transforms evidence into action, and they reduce the complexity of metrics to three interconnected levels that describe product, impact, and profit.

Leggi il primo capitolo gratis

Scopri come gestire la Strategia per Obiettivi, misurare i progressi con OKR e KPI, e crescere più velocemente della competizione.