• Length:
    4 Weeks
  • Effort:
    2–3 hours per week
  • Price:

    FREE
    Add a Verified Certificate for $199 USD

  • Institutions
    UMDUSMx
  • Subject:
    Business & Management
  • Level:
    Introductory
  • Language:
    English
  • Video Transcript:
    English
  • Course Type:
    Self-paced on your time

Associated Programs:

Prerequisites

None required. “Product Management Fundamentals” recommended.

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About this course

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Entrepreneur and investor Marc Andreessen coined the term product-market fit in 2007 when he said, “Product-market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” While there are ample articles that mention the term, detailed guidance on how to actually achieve product-market fit is scarce.

Through our course we will explore an actionable model that defines product-market fit using five key components. From bottom to top, we will examine the layers of product-market fit beginning with your target customer and transitioning through your customer’s underserved needs, your value proposition, your feature set, and ultimately your user experience (UX).

Our process is an iterative, easy-to-follow guide through each layer to achieve product-market fit. This process helps you to articulate, test, and revise your key hypotheses about your product and the market so you can define and improve your product-market fit.

Using the principles of Lean Product Process, our course is structured in seven steps: determining your target customer, identifying underserved customer needs, defining your value proposition, specifying your minimum viable product (MVP) feature set, creating your MVP prototype, testing your MVP with customers, and iterating to improve product-market fit.

What you'll learn

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  • Determining your target customer. It all begins with target customers who will ultimately decide how well your product meets their needs. You should use market segmentation to get specific about who your target customer is.
  • Identifying underserved customer needs. After forming your hypothesis about your target customers, the next step is to understand their needs. As you try to create value for customers, you want to identify the specific needs that correspond to a good market opportunity.
  • Defining your value proposition. Your value proposition is your plan for how your product will meet customer needs better than the alternatives. Out of all the potential customer needs your product could address, which ones will you focus on with your product?
  • Specifying your MVP feature set. Once you are clear on your value proposition, you need to specify what functionality your minimum viable product will include. The MVP approach is aimed at building only what is needed to create enough value in the eyes of your target customer to validate that you are heading in the right direction.
  • Creating your MVP prototype. In order to test your MVP hypotheses with customers, you need to show them a version of your product so they can give you feedback on it. You will need to apply user experience (UX) design to bring your feature set to life for your customers.
  • Testing your MVP with customers. Once you have your MVP prototype ready, it’s time to test it with customers. It’s important in this step to ensure the people from whom you are soliciting feedback are in your target market..
  • Iterating to Improve Product-Market Fit. The Lean Product Process is an iterative process. After analyzing the customer feedback, you want to revise your hypotheses based on what you learned and loop back to an earlier step in the process.

Syllabus

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Module 1: Determining Your Target Customer

Module 2: Identifying Underserved Customer Needs

Module 3: Defining Your Value Proposition

Module 4: Specifying Your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Feature Set

Module 5: Creating Your MVP Prototype

Module 6: Testing Your MVP with Customers

Module 7: Iterating to Improve Product-Market Fit

Meet your instructors

The University of Maryland, College Park
University System of Maryland
James Green
Director of Entrepreneurship Education
University of Maryland, College Park

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