{"id":19386,"date":"2021-03-01T19:22:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T03:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foundersnetwork.com\/?p=19386"},"modified":"2021-03-01T19:22:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T03:22:51","slug":"the-product-market-fit-reality-check-with-john-corcoran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foundersnetwork.com\/the-product-market-fit-reality-check-with-john-corcoran\/","title":{"rendered":"The Product\/Market Fit Reality Check with John Corcoran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Founder, product designer and CRO consultant <\/span>John Corcoran<\/span><\/a> has spent 15 years working on, then leading product teams, conducting market and user research.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Among his accomplishments, as head of product design for <\/span>a luxury bed and bath retailer, <\/span>he <\/span>increased sales by 400% in six months.\u00a0 In a similar role for a company that <\/span>designs websites for addiction treatment service providers, in just two weeks, the company saw a 24% lift in revenue on one of their major sites and a 49% lift on another.\u00a0 These changes contributed to a $60M acquisition of the company soon after.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did he get these results so quickly? Neither company had made concentrated efforts conducting in-person user-experience reviews and informed A\/B digital testing before John came along.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can change buttons and colors, but then you’re just messing around,\u201d John explained. \u201cIf you do user interviews, you get to actually know what’s happening in the real world with people and inside their minds. And then when you take action on that, you can have AB tests where you see a 50% increase in sales or 20%, 40%, 70% \u2026 you can get into real needle mover changes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So all this makes sense for mature companies with existing products to run user interviews and A\/B tests on, but what about early stage startups still working on developing a product?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many founders go wrong by waiting too long to start the user testing process which can result in a lot of costly assumptions about what your audience is looking for and where your solution fits in the market.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cEveryone's chasing product market fit, and that's something that's very hard, even for seasoned founders and investors.\u201d - @johnccorcoran <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

\u201cYou can put paper sketches in front of your audience and get authentic feedback,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone’s chasing product market fit, and that’s something that’s very hard, even for seasoned founders and investors. They’ll pour millions into things that do not turn into the big, amazing companies they were hoping for. <\/span>User research<\/span><\/a> helps you get into sync with reality. It’s critical.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At a <\/span>Founders Network<\/span><\/a> workshop, John Corcoran will walk founders through how to use user testing to unlock untapped potential in your product and verify your assumptions about the product\/market fit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Register at <\/span>Founders Network<\/span><\/a> for an invite, or find out if you <\/span>qualify for full membership<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>At the event, John will guide founders through how to structure a user test, cost-effective ways to recruit unbiased, relevant users, how to take better notes, and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a preview of the kinds of insights you\u2019ll learn:<\/span><\/p>\n