In this first part of the series, we discuss what it means to move from pre- to post-PMF, and what new kinds of challenges you’ll need to face.

The transition between being a pre- to a post-PMF company doesn’t happen overnight, but will be a gradual process over time. At some point, you will notice strong indications that your company is transitioning from the former to the latter.

Getting to PMF is mostly about deeply understanding the problem you are solving and for which customer. You need to as fast and cheaply as possible validate different solutions to that problem. During this stage you’ll be mainly focused on three things:

  1. Iterating and experimenting as fast as possible;
  2. Building something a significant group of people wants – achieve PMF; and
  3. Finding an economically viable way to get those people to know about it (this is also called Product Marketing Channel Fit).

Entering the post-PMF stage is a remarkable time for your business, as most startups don’t make it here. Don’t forget to celebrate, enjoy and recognise this pivotal time in the development of your company. At the same time, you’ll need to reconsider how you’re doing things and make changes. To continue building a successful business post-PMF, a planned, orderly transformation is required. The journey ahead is going to be challenging, in a different way than what you did until now.

Post-PMF, customer interest accelerates to a pace your organisation likely cannot keep up with if it keeps doing things as it did. You’ll need to evolve on many fronts to deliver on your promise towards customers, your employees and yourself. This includes:

  • Growing your audience or customer base;
  • Strengthening your competitive position; and
  • Building a platform that can reliably scale.

There’s an emphasis shift from pre- to post-PMF, from doing the right things to doing things right. You’ll need to learn and become really good at:

  • The culture, processes, people and skills you need to put in place now to “steer the rocket” and give it maximum velocity. This is what we’re going to cover in the next four parts of the series.
  • Identifying what investments are required to be able to deliver in the short- and medium-term. This includes investments that are part of laying the rails for acceleration of the business; while they may not immediately pay off, they will help you avoid hitting a wall later on.

Post-PMF, failure should be for the right reasons, not the wrong ones. Avoidable mistakes, i.e. problems that have well-known solutions, will only detract from your mission. As your company and your customer base grow, these mistakes will be much costlier than if you make the same mistakes pre-PMF. You need to be able to focus your energy and time on increasing value for the customer, not on solving problems that have already been solved before.

One question you may get from your team is whether this new stage is going to be fun – or whether you’re all going to turn into boring “corporate types” at this point. They can rest assured – there are even more challenges in this new phase as there were pre-PMF.

While there will be lots of unknowns and fears, you and your team need to understand and fully embrace the transformation. The vast majority of your employees will take these new challenges in stride, but some may not. You’ll need to coach people and inject new types of talent to support this new growth phase.

In the remaining four parts, we’ll cover the specifics of what needs to change:

  • Part 2 provides insights into how you can scale your company culture. 
  • Part 3 discusses scaling aspects that are common to both Product and Engineering.
  • Part 4 focuses specifically on how you need to evolve your Product discipline.
  • Part 5 discusses aspects that are specific to your Engineering team.

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