Even at level four, finding product-market fit for new products is challenging and requires continuous effort.

Product Market Fit (PMF) occurs when a startup has built a product that customers love and are using, shifting the focus from defining customer needs to scaling the business. When you're pre-product market fit, your main focus should be on finding that fit, while post-product market fit, your priority shifts to maintaining and scaling that fit.

Product-market fit is crucial; you know you have it when growth is not your biggest problem, and when you pivot, you get another chance to succeed, increasing your odds of achieving product-market fit by taking multiple high-quality shots at it.

Founders often get stuck at various levels of product-market fit, and it's essential to evaluate which of the four Ps—persona, problem, promise, or product—needs to change to move forward.

To find product-market fit, you need to engage in thorough conversations with customers, asking detailed questions to uncover their actual needs and pain points, as customers will share their vision and problems if you ask the right questions, leading to valuable insights for product development.

Most startups never get past level two of product-market fit, which is a common challenge for early-stage companies.

The ultimate goal is to achieve extreme product-market fit, characterized by widespread demand for a product that satisfies a critical need and can be delivered efficiently.

At level one product-market fit, your goal is to find three to five customers with a significant problem and deliver a satisfying solution, even if it means being inefficient initially.

Finding product-market fit is the single most important thing that your startup does in the first three years, yet it's often underexplored and underexplained.