I Thought I Understood Product-Market Fit. I Didn’t.

<p>I thought product-market fit meant people liked what I built. That belief was wrong, and it cost me time.</p><p>In this solo episode, I walk through what product-market fit actually looks like once you get past the surface-level idea of &quot;people gave positive feedback.&quot; I talk about the pain cave, the identity crisis that comes with being a founder, and why nine out of ten people give up before they ever get there. I explain the exact situation I look for in a Mylance customer: someone with a task they cannot avoid, and existing options that are not good enough for very specific reasons.</p><p>I get into how I use LinkedIn content marketing and LinkedIn thought leadership as the backdrop for this whole conversation, since that is the product I have spent years building. I also share how I separate my identity from my product so I can hear real feedback without taking it personally, and the list of questions I now ask every customer to understand what is actually unavoidable about their situation. If you are building something, whether a product or a service, this is the mindset shift I wish I had earlier.</p><p>Build your founder brand with Mylance: https://mylance.co</p><p>Connect with Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/<br>00:00 Why building a company is so hard<br>01:36 The typical product-market fit path<br>02:42 The emotional weight of putting yourself out there<br>03:35 What I used to think product-market fit meant<br>04:57 The unavoidable task and the limits of existing solutions<br>06:21 Why skeptical customers are not &quot;hell yes&quot; customers<br>07:27 Building authority versus expecting inbound leads<br>08:15 Becoming an investigator into your customer<br>10:31 Separating your identity from your product<br>12:08 The 12 questions I ask every customer<br>13:33 Finding your hell yes customers<br>14:39 Staying detached while believing you will figure it out</p>