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Pre-MVP Product Market Fit Playbook 2025
15+ strategies to validate product-market fit before an MVP

This Product Market Fit guide takes you through five steps to achieve product market fit, using 15 different strategies that do not require having an MVP.

Author: Mark Cowtan
How to Validate Product-Market Fit: A comprehensive guide
If you're a first-time Founder or CEO, this is for you.

Almost all new founders make the same mistake: Starting with the product instead of the market.

If you have rushed into an MVP before, you probably learned the hard way, and paid for it, in more ways than one: with cash, delays, and lost opportunities.
Whether you're an old-hand or newbie, This playbook helps you avoid the MVP trap by testing demand first, so you don't waste months (or money) building something people don't want.
What is Product-Market Fit and Why is it Important?

Why Product-Market Fit Matters for Startups
Validating product-market fit is essential before investing significant time and money into new product development. Instead of betting on your instinct, you gather real-world data to ensure you’re solving the right problem for the right people—and in a way they’re willing to pay for, and for the long term. However, the exact approach you take depends largely on how complex your product is to build.

If it’s a simple product that can be built quickly, the best approach may be to put a prototype in front of real users as soon as possible. There’s no substitute for seeing firsthand whether potential customers understand and find value in what you’ve built.

On the other hand, if your product requires a significant investment in development, which is more often the case, you need to reduce risk by systematically testing and validating your assumptions before committing to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Progression of Product-Market Fit Checkpoints
Think of it as a series of progressively more demanding of checkpoints. Experienced founders may instinctively know the right order, but if its your first time, having a playbook makes it easier.
First you must nail your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), then the problem definition, value proposition, pricing model, and finally a functioning prototype or early MVP. Early validation can be done without any MVP.
In this guide, we'll introduce the five checkpoints that determine whether your product truly fits the market. They will help you validate your product step-by-step, ensuring that you're making market-driven decisions rather than costly assumptions.
5 Steps to Validate Product-Market Fit
Step 1: Validate Customer
Nail your Ideal Customer Profile
Step 2: Validate Problem
Ensure Problem is Worth Solving
Step 3: Validate Solution
Test Value Proposition
Step 4: Validate Business Model
Test Pricing and Options.
Step 5: Validate Function
Test before building a full MVP
Step 1: Validate Your Target Customer is Real!
For first-time founders, nailing the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is absolutely critical. Experienced entrepreneurs often have past insights, but if this is your first time, you can't afford to guess. When you market your product to the right audience, they respond, and your marketing is efficient. If your targeting is off, you pay for it in low conversions at every step in the funnel, and even worse, you really pay for it on retention.
What you're trying to learn:
  • Are you targeting the right group of people?
  • Do they recognize the problem you think they do?
  • Which pain points or benefits resonate most with your audience?
Validation Strategies:
Engage Your Audience with Polls, Quizzes, and Interactive Posts
These are available and free on platforms like LinkedIn, X, Instagram Stories and Google. Ask questions about pain points, preferences, or reactions to product ideas. Must have option to say, "This isn't [a problem] for me".
A/B testing Audience Segments
Identify related but different audience segments and A/B text the audiences with the same tactics, to see which engages more.

Red Flags:
  • Low engagement to poll across all segments.
  • The "This isn't a problem for me" is most popular.
  • A different segment than expected engages more.
Step 2: Validate the Problem is Real and Worth Solving
Even if you've nailed your ICP, that doesn't guarantee they actually care about the problem you think they have. Having the wrong problem definition lead to wasted effort in developing a solution that no one is looking for. If your target audience doesn't feel enough pain or urgency around the problem, they won't take action, even if your solution is well-designed.
What you're trying to learn:
You want to get in front of problem-aware people, to see if they describe / define the problem the same way you do? And to learn how big a problem is it for them: Is it a nice-to-fix, or must-fix issue? How do they solve it today? Are they open to alternative solutions?
Validation Strategies:
Surveys and interviews
Directly ask potential customers about their workflows and challenges related to your problem space. If they struggle to articulate the problem without prompting, that's a red flag.
A/B Problem-Focused Ads
Run paid ads where the headline focuses on the problem, not the solution. For example, "Wasting hours manually posting reviews?" vs. "Tired of chasing customers for reviews?" The pain point ad with higher engagement resonates most.
Waitlist with no solution offered
Set up a basic waitlist landing page that outlines the problem and asks visitors to opt-in if they experience it and want to know more about your solution if you build one. If few people opt in, it's a bad sign.
Invite people to get more details
Leave a trail of breadcrumbs, inviting users to ask for more details, see how it works, read FAQs, to stimulate curiosity and interest.

Red Flags:
  • Respondents in surveys don't rank the problem as a high priority.
  • Ads focused on the problem statements get little engagement.
  • Few people sign up for a waitlist when only the problem is presented.
  • Few people explore information links or ask for more details.
Why this matters:
Validating the problem ensures you're solving something that truly matters. Weak responses are not always a negative indicator of product-market fit — they may mean you need to reposition the problem, change your ICP, or focus on a different pain point within the same audience.
Don't give up on the first attempt you may need to frame it differently. Also consider if your timing is off due to seasonal factors. Such as: times of year when your ICP is too pre-occupied to hear you, or times of year when the problem is the least acute.
Step 3: Validate the Solution and Value Proposition Sticks
Once you've confirmed that your target customers recognize and care about the problem, the next challenge is ensuring they see value in your proposed solution. This is the problem-solution fit. Your value proposition must instantly convey why your solution is better, faster, or cheaper than existing options. If customers don't perceive your product as meaningfully different or valuable, they won't switch from their current way of doing things.
What you're trying to learn:
  • From your messaging do customers get how it solves the problem and how they will benefit?
  • Do customers see it as a significant improvement over their current approach?
  • Are they willing to engage further once they understand it?
  • Are you triggering an emotional response?
People don't just buy solutions; they buy feelings—relief from frustration, excitement about new possibilities, or the urgency to fix a growing problem. If your messaging only appeals to logic, you may overlook much more potent drivers to action.
Validation Strategies:
Cold Outreach for Direct Feedback
Proactively reach out to potential customers using cold calling. Test how well they respond to your value proposition over the phone, when resistance is at it's highest. If they engage in a real conversation about their pain points, it's a sign your messaging resonates. You can spin up an army of AI Agents to do this, and setup follow-up meeting with anyone who engages. Or you can user robo-callers to leave a message with an engaging offer and see what take- up you get.
Prototype or Demo Testing
If feasible, create a mock up of screenshots, a critical workflow or a basic working demo of your product and present it to early adopters. Observe their reactions and listen to their feedback, and how quickly they grasp the benefits and connect the dots to their situation. Listen for "But"s – these are flaws or showstoppers they foresee from thinking it through. That's gold.
A/B Test Value Proposition Messaging
Create multiple ad variations that emphasize different aspects of your solution (e.g., "Automate Review Posting Across All Platforms" vs. "Save 5 Hours a Week on Managing Reviews") and track which message gets the most engagement.
Test Real Purchase Intent
It's easy to fall into the trap of mistaking positive survey responses for real interest, without testing intent to pay. Instead of just asking users if they "would use" your product, try pre-selling it.
Test different emotional responses
Test landing page copy that leans into different emotions, not just the logical argument. You may strike gold if you really hit a nerve. The best insights for emotional angles, will come directly from deep conversations with your ICP.
Landing Page with a Clear CTA
Build a landing page that explains the value of your solution and encourages visitors to sign up for a demo, waitlist, or free trial. If conversion rates are low, your messaging may not be compelling enough.

Red Flags:
  • Users don’t see a clear reason to switch from their current solution.
  • Users won't switch because your product requires behavioral change.
  • Value proposition messaging fails to generate engagement or signups.
  • Early adopters don’t express enthusiasm to use the product.
  • Users dwell on the site but do not click through to pay.
Why this matters:
Even if the problem is real, a weak or unclear value proposition can kill adoption. Customers need to immediately grasp why your solution is better than their current approach. If they don’t, it's not compelling enough to drive action. People resist making behavioral changes. The more easily your solution slides into their existing workflow the better.
A minor improvement over existing solutions isn’t enough—users need a reason to switch. The consensus among founders is if your product isn’t at least 40% better, faster, or cheaper than what they already use, adoption will be slow. Remember, users don’t compare your product to competitors—they compare it to their "now". It has to be worth much more than the risk, hassle and cost of change.
Step 4: Validate Pricing and Business Model
Even if your ICP acknowledges the problem and sees value in your solution, that doesn't mean they'll pay for it at the price you expect. Pricing isn't just about covering costs—it reflects perceived value. Too high, you alienate customers. Too low you limit profitability.
What you're trying to learn:
  • What are customers willing to pay?
  • Does the pricing model (one-time, subscription, freemium) match their expectations?
  • What might be the price flexibility?
  • Will customers buy your product without heavy incentives?
Validation Strategies:
Fake Pricing Page Test
Create a landing page that lists pricing options but doesn't yet allow purchases. Measure click-through rates to see which price points generate interest. Or A/B test identical waitlist landing pages with different prices.
Pre-Sales and Early Access Discounts
Offer limited pre-sales or discounted early access at different levels of discount, to gauge demand and price sensitivity.
Internal Champion Test (B2B products)
If your product is sold to businesses, your customer often needs to convince someone else (their boss, procurement, or finance). Does your product give them a simple, clear way to explain the value.

Red Flags:
  • Users dwell on the landing page but don't pay.
  • Heavy discounting is required to drive sign-ups.
  • The most popular pricing option is significantly lower than what you planned.
  • B2B prospects go silent after saying they'll get internal approval.
Why this matters:
Pricing validation prevents costly missteps. If your pricing doesn't align with customer expectations, you may need to adjust your model or further refine your value proposition. Understanding willingness to pay early ensures sustainable revenue generation and prevents pricing from becoming a launch roadblock.
Step 5: Validate a Functional Prototype Before MVP
First-time founders often assume an MVP is the first step—but before launching one, you need to test a fully functional but limited prototype that allows early users to experience the core value of your product. This isn't a polished MVP, but a version that can deliver real results in a controlled setting.
Your functional prototype should be in the hands of real users to confirm that they experience the 'aha moment'—the moment they realize your product truly solves their problem and is worth returning to. This should happen within a few days, hours or minutes (depends on the problem it solves) and ideally, they should continue using it frequently over a few weeks, until you replace it with the MVP version of your product.
What you're trying to learn:
  • Do users engage with the product beyond the first interaction?
  • Do they experience the "aha moment" that makes them want to keep using it?
  • Are they using it in ways you expected—or in unexpected ways?
Validation Strategy:
Small-scale pre-MVP Rollout
Launch your Pre-MVP Functional Prototype (A.K.A. Beta) to a select group of early adopters. These are going to be your most positive people on the waitlist. Hopefully you've been tracking all their interaction with you and your content etc. Now you closely track daily usage.
Don't Skimp on Tutorials
Since this is a limited but functional prototype, you must provide solid tutorials, walkthroughs, or even manual guidance to ensure users fully understand how it works and what they should expect. Even if it's rough, make it as clear as possible so users have every opportunity to see the value.
Engagement Metrics to Measure
Time spent per session
Are users spending more time using the product over repeated interactions? A growing session duration suggests deeper engagement.
Frequency of logins
Are users returning daily, weekly, or rarely? Frequent logins indicate a strong habit-forming product.
Speed of completing the atomic task
What is the core action that delivers value (e.g., publishing a review, processing a file, generating a report)? Are users getting faster and more efficient at completing it?
Organic sharing and virality signals
Are early users telling others about the product without being asked? If your product spreads naturally—through referrals, team invitations, or social sharing—it’s a strong indicator you have found product-market fit.
Self-serve onboarding success
Can users onboard themselves without requiring extensive manual support? Ensuring a frictionless onboarding experience is critical before launching at scale.
Power Users
It's not uncommon at this stage for a small group of power users to emerge. People who use all of the limited features and push the limits. Lookout for and pay attention to them. They are very important validators as you will see later.
Task completion rate
Are users successfully finishing the intended workflow, or do they abandon partway through?
Unexpected behavior
Are users finding new ways to use the product that weren’t anticipated? This could indicate untapped value or usability issues.

Red Flags:
  • Users drop off after initial use without returning – If users don’t return after their first session, they likely didn’t experience enough value to justify continued use.
  • Slow or inconsistent task completion – If users struggle to complete the atomic task or take longer than expected, it could indicate usability issues or lack of clarity in how the product works.
  • Lack of engagement signals (referrals, feedback, repeated use) – If users aren’t sharing positive feedback, referring others, or naturally integrating the product into their routine, it suggests the product isn’t delivering the expected value.
  • Users express confusion in feedback – If users report that they “don’t get it” or request significant clarification on how the product fits into their workflow, it signals a potential disconnect between the expected and actual user experience.
  • Frequent drop-off points in usage flow – If users abandon the onboarding process this is serious. Then if give up using the product after a certain set of actions and not others, it may indicate frustration, missing functionality, or that they don’t see enough value to continue.
Why this matters:
If early adopters don’t continue using your Beta, they won’t convert into long-term customers. A well-validated prototype ensures that there is no room for doubt, no excuses—if these users are not still using it, and incorporating it into their work after a few week the issue is not lack of instructions, or a bad UX but rather they did not get the value. So the product is not delivering on the value proposition promised.
One of the strongest indicators of product-market fit is organic retention: when users continue using your product organically, even without constant reminders or marketing pushes.
Did you Achieve Product-Market Fit?
If users are still using your beta weeks later, and using it more each week...

Congratulations you’ve achieved product-market fit in your target market, by showing the core function of your product delivers value people are willing to pay for. And you have a decent handle on what that pricing should be.

Now it's full steam ahead. Product Management and Engineering need to crank out the MVP, eliminate bugs, simplify the UX and workflows, and instrument everything.
While marketing prepares to pre-launch it, to get buzz before a full launch.
Can You Actually Measure Product-Market Fit?
No, there is no one metric like a Page Rank for measuring Product Market Fit, but one clever post-launch Product-Market Fit Framework going around, is to ask active users how they would feel if suddenly they could not use your product. This idea applies to any product or service actually.
  • Would you be very disappointed
  • Would you be somewhat disappointed
  • Would you not be bothered at all
A common benchmark in startup circles is that if at least 40% of surveyed users say they would be 'very disappointed' if they could no longer use your product, you've likely found product-market fit. These are the ICPs getting huge value from your product, who will stick around, tell their friends and root for you.
Using Customer Feedback for Continuous Improvement
  • Now there are three follow up questions for the first two groups.
  • What is the main benefit you receive from the product?
  • What type of people do you think would benefit most from using it?
  • How can we improve the product for you?
This feedback is gold.
It will guide your product in the right direction and help you get users who already love you, to love you more, and it will help you attract more like them. Listen to what's missing, and more of the second tier will also ascend to become raving fans.
As you refine your product and iterate based on user feedback, moving from 40% to 50% of users saying they'd be 'very disappointed' can signal stronger product-market fit and lead to faster sales acceleration.
The impossible dream is 100% of course, but just because they're not raving fans, you shouldn't mistake "mildly annoyed" for about to jump ship any minute. They are still ICPs getting value from the product or service.
As for the final group, ignore them. Counter-intuitively, appeasing their wishes will not drive more adoption. They will only pull you in the wrong direction and steal cycles from working on features the engaged ICPs want.
Hold on. We're jumping this gun here.
This doesn't matter until after launch and you scaling acquisition.
What if You Don't Find Product-Market Fit?
First-time founders: If your product isn't gaining traction, start by reassessing your business model and product idea. Many first-time entrepreneurs hesitate to pivot because they’re emotionally attached to their original idea — Don't be. Great founders adapt based on real-world data.
Are you solving a problem people truly care about? Are you targeting the right audience? Reviewing user feedback and engagement data can highlight where the disconnect lies.
Consider pivoting strategies — such as adjusting pricing, refining messaging, or repositioning the product to serve a different audience. Sometimes small tweaks make a big difference.
But if after multiple iterations your product still fails to engage users or generate revenue, it may be time to move on. Differentiating between a product that needs refining and one that lacks market demand is crucial to knowing when to pivot or start fresh.

After you Validate Product-Market Fit
Next Up: Pre-launch, Launch, Iterate like hell, Scale
That's another story, see you next time.