#133 — 7 things to do if your product isn’t taking off

If users aren’t experiencing urgent pain solved by your product or you’re not seeing genuine buying signals (like unsolicited payments or active, repeated use), you likely haven’t achieved product-market fit. Ramp struggled early on until it got the right ‘message-market fit’ for finance teams, showing the importance of strong signals.

Focus on real users who actively use or love your product—even if the segment is extremely narrow. Pinterest first broke through with 30-something female bloggers, not techies. DoorDash started exclusively in indie restaurants in small towns. Always refine your ICP based on specific, observable customer traits.

Experiment with your pitch, one-liner, and value proposition. Test new angles with customer interviews and outside feedback. April Dunford’s book, 'Obviously Awesome', provides actionable frameworks for turning unclear messaging into traction and growth.

Many successful startups pivoted to new audiences when their original market didn’t engage. Instagram initially targeted designers and Twitter influencers before going mainstream. Only pivot if you see stronger pull and pain signals from the new segment.

Consider orchestrating a major launch, creative stunt, or viral campaign to put your product in front of ideal users. For example, Notion ran strategic Twitter launches that attracted core enthusiasts, catalyzing their user base and creating viral loops.

Track every feature, channel, and use case—double down on those showing organic growth, repeated use, or viral behavior. Slack pivoted from internal game development tools to a team chat product based on strong user engagement with one feature.

If you’ve iterated on user interviews, audience targeting, messaging, and outreach—but still lack passionate active users—consider moving on. Most founders succeed through multiple pivots. Even Stuart Butterfield of Slack pivoted twice before finding massive success.

Pinterest targeted a niche group—female bloggers who craved visual inspiration—unlocking viral adoption. Ramp found its momentum by refining its pitch for CFOs, while DoorDash discovered traction in the overlooked indie restaurant segment in Palo Alto. Each pivot was grounded in hands-on user discovery and messaging experiments.

YC’s ‘Talk to Users’ playbook and April Dunford’s positioning workshops are best-in-class. Ryan Singer’s Jobs-to-be-Done interviews reveal true user motivation, and Lenny Rachitsky’s newsletter covers tactical approaches for early signal validation.

There’s no single answer—monitor progress through regular user interviews and engagement metrics. If you see real pain or pull, keep pushing; otherwise, set a timeline (often quarterly) for major pivots or new ideas, as most breakouts come after multiple strategy shifts.

Most failures happen due to lack of deep customer understanding and real product-market fit—not because the product doesn’t work. Gustaf Alströmer (YC) notes that ignoring user feedback is the root reason most startups don’t scale. Iteration and active conversation with users is the only workaround.

You likely lack product-market fit if customers aren't experiencing deep pain that your product solves, aren't paying, or aren't using the product without you nudging them. True product-market fit means word-of-mouth growth, users who’d be very disappointed without your product, and low churn. If you see no engaged users, it’s not just slow—it’s a sign to revisit your problem, ICP, or messaging.

Ask yourself: Are you solving a top 2-3 priority problem for your target users? Are customers paying or referring friends? Is switching to your product worth the effort for them? Is there a clear ‘atomic use case’ that keeps users coming back? Successful founders like those behind Notion (pages) and Airtable (bases) focused early on the atomic unit of value in their product.

Talking to users helps you hear true pain and ‘pull’ signals directly. World-class founders schedule regular interviews, track feedback, and use insights to iterate quickly. For example, Airbnb’s founders got their first real signals by visiting hosts in person and watching how they used the product.

Common missteps include: building for themselves, not defining a narrow enough ICP, relying on broad features instead of focusing on a core use case, and underestimating ‘good enough’ incumbents. Many founders also delay pivots, when rapid iteration is usually required. Slack’s founders pivoted after previous failures, finding a breakout by focusing on what actual teams loved and used repeatedly.

Slack started as a tool for an internal game company and pivoted to chat after observing repeated team usage. Instagram evolved from a location-based check-in app (Burbn) to focus solely on photos after seeing what users loved. DoorDash found traction in small-town indie restaurants before expanding to larger markets.

Use SEO keyword research tools to analyze the real questions and problems target users are searching for. Search for problem-aware topics rather than just product types (e.g., ‘how to manage team workflows’ vs. ‘project management software’). Build content clusters that answer these questions and inform your product development—this approach not only aids content marketing but helps with sustained customer discovery.

No. SEO efforts work best after you’re solving a real, repeated pain for enough customers. Before that, use SEO keyword research to validate market needs and pain points but hold off scaling SEO efforts until you see retention, referrals, and engaged usage. Early SEO should inform learning, not acquisition.

Analyze why existing users stick with incumbents—are switching costs too high? What’s your unique wedge? Focus on underserved niches, nail one use case, and ensure your initial users see so much value they become advocates. Notion, Airtable, and Canva broke into mature markets by obsessing over the core experience for tightly defined user groups.

Pre-product-market fit: focus on technical SEO basics, ‘problem-aware’ content answering niche questions, and learning from search behavior. As you approach market fit, build bottom-funnel content, competitor comparison pages, and expert guides. Anchor topic clusters (e.g., workflows, integrations) to your product’s core value as you validate demand and scale.

If you repeatedly iterate and still see tepid user engagement, lack of referrals, or no strong emotional connection, it might be time to pivot or move on. Use user interviews, retention metrics, word-of-mouth, and paying customer feedback to make a data-driven decision. Not all great teams strike gold on the first try—founders like Stewart Butterfield (Slack) and Michael Seibel (Twitch) succeeded after several pivots by following the data and user behavior.