Product-market fit survey and score calculator
The standard way to measure product-market fit is to ask users how they would feel if they could no longer use your product. Copy the survey below, send it to your active users, then enter the answers to get your score against the 40% benchmark.
How many people gave each answer to question 1?
Not counted in the score.
Your product-market fit score
34%
40% benchmark
Below the 40% benchmark. That’s common early on; the open answers show what to work on (see “How to raise your score” below).
The survey
Four questions: the multiple-choice question that gives the score, then three open questions that tell you who loves the product, why, and what holds the others back. Replace [product] with your product’s name and use any form tool.
1. How would you feel if you could no longer use [product]? - Very disappointed - Somewhat disappointed - Not disappointed (it isn’t really that useful) - N/A: I no longer use [product] 2. What type of people do you think would most benefit from [product]? 3. What is the main benefit you receive from [product]? 4. How can we improve [product] for you?
Who to send it to
Ask people who have actually experienced the product, not everyone on your email list. A common rule is users who have used it at least twice, including once in the last two weeks.
Sean Ellis, who created the test, has said scores start to stabilize at around 30 responses. Below that, treat the number as a rough signal and read the written answers closely.
Leave out the “N/A: I no longer use it” answers when you work out the score, as the calculator does; they tell you about churn, not fit.
What the score means
The score is the share of answers that say “very disappointed”. Ellis compared nearly a hundred startups and found that those that struggled to grow were almost always below 40%, while those with strong traction were almost always above it.
It’s a benchmark, not a law. A score under 40% early on is normal: Superhuman started at 22% and reached 58% in under a year by working on what its keenest users valued.
How to raise your score
The open answers matter more than the number. The approach Superhuman described works well for small teams:
- Read the “very disappointed” group’s answers to question 2. That describes the people who love your product; aim at more people like them.
- Read their answers to question 3. That’s the main benefit: protect it and make it stronger.
- Read question 4 from the “somewhat disappointed” users who mention that same main benefit. They are closest to loving the product; what they ask for is what to build next.
- Politely set aside requests from people who don’t value the main benefit at all.
- Run the survey again every few months and track the score over time.
Requests from question 4 add up quickly. Putting them on a public board where users can vote shows which ones many people share, and a roadmap shows them you acted on it.
Sources: Sean Ellis’s product-market fit survey and 40% benchmark; Rahul Vohra, “How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit”, First Round Review. Nothing you enter on this page is stored or sent anywhere.