Review

A must-read those launching new products wether at a startup or inside a larger organisation. A great resource that can help you structure your GTM approach and be more precise with your strategy and risk taking approach.

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Key Takeaways

The 20% that gave me 80% of the value.

• Identify and target a well-defined early audience segment (e.g. early adopters) to achieve initial product-market fit before scaling.
• Craft a GTM strategy anchored in a clear value proposition, unique positioning, and pricing that resonates with the chosen niche.
• Use frameworks like North Start Metrics and OKRs to set a goal-oriented roadmap, measure real value creation, and steer the team's focus and alignment.
• Continuously refine your approach by testing assumptions, iterating quickly, and adapting to market feedback.
• Rehearse execution steps (preparation), and use surprise and speed in execution to outmanoeuvre bigger competitors.
• Foster interdisciplinary collaboration for holistic market insights, unified direction, and cohesive execution.
• Recognise that a resilient mindset and willingness to learn from failures are crucial to long-term GTM success.

• Start by focusing on a narrow, high-potential market segment (a beachhead) rather than trying to serve everyone—this approach validates product-market fit faster and sets a foundation for growth.
• Deeply understand your chosen segment's needs, pain points, and alternatives; calibrate focus by defining a minimal viable segment (MVS) that your MVP can serve distinctly and profitably.
• Conduct quick, targeted market research (TAM/SAM/SOM), competitive analysis, and customer interviews to gather proprietary insights—use these learnings to shape your product, pricing, positioning, and messaging.
• Apply frameworks like SWOT, consider various types of competitors, and identify how you can innovate—whether via product, marketing, or pricing—to stand out.
• Use a Market-Problem Map to score potential segments by winnability, pain intensity, willingness to pay, size, and growth potential; select the segment where you have the strongest case for early success.

• Initially target early adopters, not your "ideal" long-term customer—build credibility, generate feedback, and create a launching pad into the broader market.
• Narrow down to a single beachhead segment, validate key assumptions (desirability, feasibility, viability), and focus research efforts to ensure you're solving real problems for the right audience.
• Employ structured research (OODA loop, experiments, pre-launch tests) to refine who you target and how you position your product—prioritise learning over perfection early on.
• Translate findings into an Early Customer Profile (ECP) or persona, detailing pain points, decision-making roles, and preferred channels—this clarity drives product, messaging, and GTM execution.
• Keep refining your ECP through iteration and testing, ensuring your understanding of the early customer remains dynamic and informs both immediate moves and future scale-up.

• Define and test a compelling Unique Value Proposition (UVP) early—translate features into clear, differentiated customer benefits.
• Reach Product-Market Fit (PMF) by quickly releasing an MVP, validating assumptions through customer feedback, and iterating based on user behaviour rather than guesswork.
• Prioritise metrics and analytics from the start—focus on a single "One Metric That Matters," track leading/lagging indicators, and analyse cohorts to inform product decisions.
• Assess PMF through retention, willingness to pay, and the intensity of customer "pull"—if 40%+ of surveyed users would be "very disappointed" without your product, it's a strong signal.
• Post-PMF, expand strategically—either by addressing new segments, new solutions, or optimising your distribution channels and pricing models to sustain profitable growth.

• Use early WTP research (e.g. Van Westendorp, Gabor–Granger) to set prices based on actual value rather than guessing or copying competitors.
• Adopt a value-based pricing mindset—tie price to tangible outcomes to justify premium tiers.
• Continuously test and adjust prices, packages, and models (e.g. freemium, usage-based) to meet market expectations.
• Position pricing strategically for different customer segments; optimise communication, page design, and psychological triggers to improve conversion.
• Regularly revisit pricing as your product, market conditions, and competitors evolve.

• Define a clear ICP and highlight your unique differentiators—your value proposition, USP, and category positioning must stand out against alternatives.
• Align messaging, storytelling, and brand identity (visual and verbal) with the target segment's core pains, motivations, and desired outcomes.
• Consistently test and iterate your positioning and branding: update narratives, refine messaging, and strengthen brand guidelines as you learn.
• Leverage a strong brand foundation—mission, values, visuals, voice—to build trust, drive loyalty, and command better pricing over time.
• Ensure every GTM effort (marketing, sales, product design) reflects a cohesive brand promise and positions your product to resonate with the chosen audience.

• Identify channels by researching how your target customers discover products and what influences their decisions—let them guide channel strategy rather than relying solely on competitor intel.
• Start broad (using frameworks like Bullseye), then narrow down to a few scalable, repeatable channels that deliver high ROI—treat channel selection as an iterative experiment.
• Balance demand capture (e.g. SEO, search ads) with demand generation (content, communities, education) based on market maturity and buyer journey stages.
• Consider internal capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and acquisition efficiency (unit economics) before committing to channels.
• Test small, measure results, and continually adjust channels and tactics—stay alert to diminishing returns or channel saturation.
• Blend strategies (inbound/outbound, ABM, PLG, community, partnerships) to create a self-reinforcing growth system.
• Emphasise ongoing learning: update tactics as market conditions shift, refine targeting, and master execution with time.
• ABM focuses on high-value accounts; community building cultivates advocates; partnerships extend reach; PLG uses the product to drive acquisition; growth loops create compounding effects.
• Remain agile, experimenting with emerging channels and adapting to customer feedback, ensuring long-term, sustainable growth.

• Build a disciplined, iterative GTM system with clear goals, milestones, and tight alignment across a small, specialised, cross-functional team.
• Provide everyone with the essentials—timelines, roles, tools, and budgets—keeping execution lean, focused, and mission-critical.
• Use data-driven decision-making, continuous measurement, and regular checkpoints to refine strategy, messaging, channels, and product-market fit.
• Establish simple, transparent communication frameworks—centralised documentation, shared dashboards—and a culture encouraging open feedback and learning-by-doing.
• Integrate experimentation at every stage: start with broad idea generation (inception), then run focused tests (experimentation), and loop insights back into planning.
• Balance speed with rigour: aim for "done is better than perfect" while still ensuring experiments and initiatives are purposeful and tied to GTM objectives.
• Reassess and adjust regularly, staying responsive to new insights, shifting market dynamics, and evolving customer needs.
• Over a structured 90-day plan, first secure objectives, research, and fundamentals, then run initial experiments, refine positioning and offers, and finally formalise processes and teams.
• This systematic, agile approach ensures that the GTM strategy is always evolving, always learning, and always primed for sustainable growth.

Deep Summary

Longer form notes, typically condensed, reworded and de-duplicated.

Chapter 1: Go-To-Market Strategy (GTM)

• A go-to-market strategy is a plan to bring a product to market and reach its target customers. It outlines choices, steps, and activities that need to be taken to introduce and sell the product effectively. A good GTM strategy leads the company to cross “the chasm” and reach the growth phase
• Geoffrey Moore in crossing the chasm described the market as follows:
• 2.5% are Innovators. They enthusiastically try new technologies and idea. There’s too few of them to build a sustainable business around - especially because they tend to move onto the next new innovation quickly.
• 13.5% are Early Adopters. Willing to embrace new ideas but need solid proof they deliver value. They are eager to build cases and co-create solutions - keen to look innovative. Open to making a couple of compromises.
• 34% are Pragmatists, Early Majority buyers. They will not compromise and do not take much risk. They want solid evidence that the solution works before ever considering it.
• 34% are Conservatives, Late Majority. They don’t like change and would rather compromise on the old way of solving their challenges and buying from the market leader. In their world, consistency outweighs the benefits.
• 16% are Laggards. Skeptics of innovation who will only adopt if there is no other way but to do it.
• Winning over innovators and early adopters provides a critical mass of adoption that makes it possible to win the early majority, achieve Product-Market Fit and and enter the growth stage.
• The main decisions to craft a holistic GTM plan:
• What market opportunity should you pursue? The market matters and timing matters.
• Who is your target audience? Define your early customers. Target a specific niche initially. Focus on solving key pain points for a narrow audience. This allows for tailored solutions and premium pricing.
• What is your value proposition and product? Craft a compelling product, offer, and business model that the target market cannot refuse. Test and refine to establish product-market fit (PMF) and a sustainable business model.
• How should you price the product? Consider value-based pricing, stay 20 to 30% above or below the existing competition’s pricing. Pricing should support a healthy business model.
• How do you present it in a unique and compelling manner? (a.k.a positioning). How you effectively communicate your solution's value to target users. Focus on addressing their key pain points and how it benefits them. Develop unique positioning - as people shop around.
• Which channels work best for your product, and how do you scale them? (a.k.a Growth), Focus on testing 1-3 channels to find one that works for your audience and business model. Get to a critical mass of users and build a predictable funnel.
• You can refine your GTM strategy by testing your GTM assumptions against market realities. Adapt after each iteration.
• You’ll need a resilient mindset. 95% of innovation-to-market efforts fail, those that succeed change the market.
• Often you need to outcompete competitors with more resources. You’ll need to focus on your strengths and their weaknesses.

• Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a goal. Without a goal, there is no strategy. If a mission is journey, a goal is a milestone along the way
• Two frameworks work well in the dynamic world of GTM:
• North Start Metric (NSM): A measurement of the overall value that a business delivers. If improved it should have the greatest impact on the business. Introducing a NSM should help with decision-making. The NSM..
• Should lead to revenue
• Reflect value creation for customers
• Measure progress as a result of value creation

Most businesses are playing the attention game, the transaction game or the productivity game.

To find your NSM answer: What game are you playing? What’s your value proposition? What are the key actions that drive your business? Identify the metric that best represents the key action.

Then make it visible, set targets for it, align your team around it and experiment to find ways to improve it.

• OKRs: Break down the broader goal into smaller, manageable, measurable steps to guide behaviour and decision making. OKRs balance ambitious, aspirational goals (objectives) with measurable, achievable results (Key Results), creating a dynamic tension that drives both vision and accountability. OKRs help you track progress, create alignment between teams and encourage joint efforts around measurable goals.
• Objectives can be commitments, inspirational or learning based.
• Key results should be specific, time-bound and aggressive yet realistic.
• Align OKRs top-down: Start with company-level OKRs, setting the primary goal for everyone. Next, create team OKRs that support company objectives.
• Collaborate and get buy-in: Conduct OKR workshops with teams to co-create goals, ensuring everyone understands and supports how OKRs benefit the organisation.
• Define objectives first, then attach KRs that clearly advance those objectives.
• Limit the number of OKRs: Aim for 3-5 objectives per team, with each objective having up to 5 KRs. Choose a manageable number that motivates without overwhelming.
• Make OKRs visible and frequently referenced: Display them prominently so they guide the company’s efforts. Consider using professional help but start with a DIY approach to learn through experience.
• Review progress regularly: Mature companies assess OKRs quarterly, but in GTM, monthly reviews are preferable for faster feedback and adjustments.
• Measure KRs, not objectives: Use a 0.0 to 1.0 scale for KR achievement. Calculate objective success by averaging KR scores: aim for 1.0 for commitment objectives, 0.4-0.7 for aspirational ones, and accept any grade for learning objectives.
• Embrace learning from failure: OKRs are a tool for continuous improvement. Feedback and learning are essential, with the mindset to "move fast and fix things."

If you’re serving everybody you’re not doing a fantastic job for anybody.

If a batch of companies respond poorly to your value proposition, it is probably the wrong target audience or the solution isn’t good enough to serve them.

Most companies struggle to create an effective GTM due to the following:

• Misalignment with the company’s core strategy
• Lack of market research (not understanding customers or the competition makes it like a finding a needle in a haystack)
• Poor alignment between departments
• Unclear goals and objectives
• Very tight resources (without a complementary strategy)
• Resistance to change - existing employees, systems and processes making change hard
• Lack of leadership - clear vision
• Loss of enthusiasm - resilience and delayed gratification, feedback loops from testing is important

Great GTMs have this in common:

• Do it as an interdisciplinary team - get everyone to participate in research
• They give you a clear sense of direction.
• Create a critical mass - follow special ops principles - focus effort on a single focal point - choose your battlefield and go all in before choosing the next one
• Iterate fast - test and validate as soon as you can - speed is the name of the game
• Implement adjustments - insights should lead to improvements - adapt your GTM strategy as you go

Chapter 2: Market

• Focus is hard.
• You can’t spread resources too thin - but niching down is scary.
• It’s hard to succeed - you need to choose the best terrain to win - you need a good understanding of the market
• Focus first on the market - to increase your chances of winning
• The beachhead strategy -> focus on a small market segment first, to increase your odds of winning. The Beachhead Segment - choosing the right one is critical

• Capture a beachhead segment - and you’re in a better shape to start expanding into adjacent markets
• Ideally those that have some intercept with your beachhead segment
• Facebook - Harvard
• Uber - San Francisco and SXSW
• Figma - game designer studios
• Amplitude - product managers
• Tinder - fraternities and sororities

The segment you aim at determines everything: product, messaging, pricing, branding, marketing and sales channels

Mental Barriers to cross:

• My solution can help everybody - Maybe - but you’ll have more chance of success if you win one segment, and move on to the the next. And you’re more likely to do that - by focusing your GTM on one segment to begin with (e.g. pain points, messaging, features etc)
• It can feel like you’re leaving money on the table
• Shiny object syndrome - invest 80% in the core GTM - create a critical mass of activities for success. Validate the opportunity at hand - before moving onto the next thing.

You need to plan, and you need enough proprietary information to ensure your Beachhead Segment matches these criterial:

• Winnable in 18 months or less
• A high pain point for the solution you’re bringing to market
• An adequate willingness to pay for the solution.
• The market is seizable and healthy enough to support future growth

A beachhead strategy leads you to identify the minimal market segment (MVS) that your minimum viable product (MVP) can serve better than anything else.

You can define a winning strategy as a Minimum Viable Product that serves the needs of a Minimal Viable Segment that has a willingness to pay for the product.

Your customers should recognise you for delivering a unique value-added solution that’s differentiated from your competitors. Ideally it’s hard to copy.

GTM planning is about doing sanity checks that you’re on the right track by generating proprietary knowledge and insights that will lead to creating a truly differentiated and hard-to-copy GTM strategy.

Form a simple play that:

• Limits the number of objectives (use OKRs)
• Gathering good intelligence
• Playing to your strengths and the enemy’s weaknesses
• Innovating to build a competitive edge

Start with these 7 questions:

1. What is the core idea of the product?
2. For whom is this product the best fit?
3. What are the problems the product is solving?
4. Who am I competing against? What is their offer, traction and price?
5. What is your MVP and business model that you would like to test?
6. What is the customer transformation? How can I validate this product in the next 2 weeks?

Market research: Know the terrain

• Market research can help find out if there’s a sizeable opportunity to go after. Even when using a beachhead strategy - you want to ensure the market is big enough to build enough traction to move to other markets
• TAM: Total Addressable Market
• SAM: Serviceable Addressable Market: % of TAM you can realistically capture
• SOM: Serviceable Obtainable Market: % of SAM you can capture in the short-medium term.
• Early Adopters: Early adopters you need to win
• What to include in 1-page market research:
• Market Definition
• Market Size
• Market Growth
• Main product applications
• Key market players
• Key market trends
• Closest competitors
• Customer type (individual / business)
• Customer geography (location_
• Types of market testing:
• Social monitoring
• Marketing test with advertising
• User interviews and usability tests
• Tips:
• Use at least some external data to inform your decision making
• Test assumptions you made using primary research methods
• Enrich findings and decide if you want to pursue this assumption
• Build relationships research participants as they may become early adopters.

Consider 4 types of competition:

• Direct competitors: Same audience, offer and price point.
• Indirect competitors: Same audience, similar pricing but differentiated offers
• Replacement competitors: Different audience and solution but customers still choose to go with them. They might even threaten the existence of your category.
• Aspirational competitors: Companies you can admire and learn from (even if in another industry)

To work out who to focus on - find out who your target customers see as alternatives to you in the purchasing process.

Do DIY customer research, look at their online presence, analyse competitors marketing and sales activities, get hands-on experience with the competitor or consider looking at online communities.

Create a table with your offer alongside your competitors. How does target audience, delivery of service, Case studies / reviews, number of customers, pricing, marketing channels and messaging differ?

Play to your strengths and the enemy’s weaknesses.

Find a relevant 2x2 on which to plot the competition. E.g. for cars: Price vs Perceived Quality

How will you innovate? What will set you apart? It could be product innovation, marketing innovation or pricing innovation.

Choosing the segment

Two schools of thought: Testing first and reverse engineering the segment later vs doing research before going to market.

Traditional ways to segment: Demographic, Firm-ographic, Geographic, Psychographic, Behavioural

Instead focus on: Jobs to be done, pain points, alternatives (what they’re using now) or values and fears.

Calibrating your focus - resist choosing only one segment or testing too many. You may wish to define and test 3-5 segments to see where you get traction.

Create a Market-Problem Map:

Identifying the most pressing problems your customer is facing that you can solve. The two dimensions of the model are:

• A list of the segments you could be serving / problems you could be solving
• A combinatorial score for:
• How likely you are to win the segment - Fair chance
• How strong is the pain point you’re solving - Pain
• What is the segments willingness to pay - Pay
• Are there many more such users? - Market Size
• Does this market grow rapidly? - Growth Potential

Chapter 3: Early Customer Profile

“It’s impossible to be everything to everyone, so by identifying and understanding the needs of your ideal customer, you can create a product or service that speaks directly to them.” Sir Richard Branson

• The customers who’ll trust you first, are usually different from those you’ll be targeting in 5 years time. Don’t aim at the ideal customer right away, aim at the early adopters who can help you bridge to the early majority.
• Identify 3-5 beachhead segments as above → then collect evidence that you’re making the right call in selecting one to focus on.
• Evolving your strategy around a customer pays dividends → companies that use personas achieve 9.16% higher growth rate.s

Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing Wernher von Braun

• Leadership is evolving from dictating decisions and directing teams to empowering team members to participate in decision-making and challenge assumptions.

There are usually more unknowns than knowns in GTM. When you know and have evidence to support the decision, you know. When you assume, you validate before making a final decision.

• The military use the OODA loop to guide their thinking in complex or chaotic circumstances
• Observe - to identify and validate the core problem and track who engages with your solution
• Orientate - to gather customer insights and validate solution-market fit through structured feedback
• Decide - to form and test hypotheses through data-driven experimentation
• Act - to execute GTM strategy based on validated problem-solution fit and target segment analysis

Map and rank your assumptions

Choose 2-5 to research methods that are stage-appropriate

• Use a mix of qual and quant research.
• When deciding what type of research to do - consider the state of product development and the level of confidence that you want from your decision making.
• When it comes to GTM research, remember what people do is more powerful than what they say.

Diligent research always reveals more than you ask it.

• Use 2-3 methods at first, if you’re a pro use 6 to 9 methods in the first 90 days.

• Build a system of experimentation for constant learning and improvement
• Experimentation is the process of making decisions based on a scientific method, by setting a hypothesis, testing it and learning from it.
• Consider a pre-launch marketing test to learn which audiences and messages work best. Invest a portion of your budget to test 5 possible audiences. If you find a clear winner – change your messaging and comms to better cater for that group. You might do the same with landing pages.

Whenever you don’t know something, it’s easier to make the decision confidently by doing research and running some tests than holding on to an assumption on launch day.

• State your assumptions and design your experiments to have clear success criteria. Be specific about who you’re running your target test on, else your results won’t be meaningful.

• How much you learn is the most important metric early. Are you smarter than last week? If you’re not smarter than last week, you’re learning too slowly.
• You need to focus - win a beachhead segment and you’ll be in a much stronger position to go from there.
• In an ideal world our GTM should be focused on one audience, one offer and one channel:
• Forget the ideal user, focus on the ideal customer you can successfully address, serve and monetise in the next quarter or two.
• Before you can convince your ideal customer you might have to win the hearts and minds of early customers.
• Ideally your beachhead segment will give you a platform for further adoption via word-of-mouth and virality.
• You need to understand your early customer and how they think and align yourself to them.

Early adopters need to see the product. They need to try it. They need it to solve their problem. They are eager to read, learn, and dive into the solution itself if they see the value. It can be a demanding crowd to win trust with, but when satisfied, they make a loyal user base and are passionate ambassadors.

• Sometimes multiple people are involved in the decision making process. Different roles can act as a decision making unit:
• Initiator: first thinks of a purchase
• Influencer: their views sway the purchase
• Gatekeeper: can say no to the decision
• Decider: actually decides what to buy
• Buyer: makes the purchase
• User: uses or consumes the purchase
• How to make a persona: Identify your Beachhead Segment through research and experimentation by analysing patterns in customer behaviour or conducting discovery interviews and surveys. Focus on segments with a burning pain point, easy accessibility, and growth potential within an 18-month timeframe. Dive deeper to understand their needs, alternatives, and aspirations, then create a visual representation of your target audience to communicate insights. Validate your personas through testing and empirical proof, iterating as you gain new insights to refine your understanding of the ideal customer profile. Ensure your ECP remains a dynamic tool central to your GTM strategy.
• Things to consider including:
• Demographic data
• Job and functions
• Motivations and goals
• Problems and frustrations
• Dependencies in purchasing process (Decision Making Units)
• How they measure success
• Preferred technologies
• Brands they like and trust
• Influencers?
• Preferred channel

Chapter 4: Product

Customers are experts in pain, we are experts in solutions. April Dunford

• You create and deliver value to customers through a product.
• Don’t start thinking about GTM after you’ve spent months or years developing a product.
• Product-Market Fit is when the selected segment loves your Minimum Viable Product.
• Craft a unique value proposition hypothesis
• Start building and ideating on your minimum viable product. Customers love products that are SLEPPERY:
• Simple
• Low or no adoption cost
• Easy to adopt
• Proves value quickly
• Plays well with others
• Easy to use
• ROI is obvious
• Y customers cannot live without it
• Test assumptions so you can make decisions with confidence.
• Product-Market Fit is hard to define ahead of time, but it’s surprisingly obvious when you don’t have it.

People don’t buy products, they buy better versions of themselves Samuel Hulick

• A value proposition is a clear, simple statement of benefits that the product brings to customers.
• Do not overestimate the buyer’s ability to translate features to value for them. Make it easy. Translate features to value.
• Value alone doesn’t win deals, differentiated value does. Answer: Why choose us over alternatives. Find your Unique Value Proposition.
• Ask new customers why they chose your products over others.
• Ask churning customers why they chose alternative solutions over yours.
• Conduct 10 interviews with your Early Customer Profile and then fill out the customer profile value map to help you zoom in on your UVP:
• Start with the Customer Profile:
• List out all of the customer jobs - what are the tasks users are trying to complete?
• List the pains - the obstacles that are preventing them from getting a job done
• List the gains - the positive outcomes that customers aim to achieve by getting the job done
• Finish with the Value Map:
• How does your solution address customer pains?
• How do your services create gains for customers?
• Select only mission critical pain relievers and gain creators at first
• Think about how they could translate into a product or service you could test.

Communicating and testing your UVP:

Clarity is key. They need to grasp what’s presented, if it’s relevant to them, and could add value to their life.

Ways to present your value proposition:

• We help [X] achieve [Y] by [Z] - We help target customer achieve customer need by product feature
• For [target customer} who [needs or wants X], our [product/service] is [category of industry] that benefits].
• Comparison with competition - When developing your value proposition, consider what you're offering to customers, the specific job they're hiring your product or service to do, which companies and products are competing with you to fulfill that job, and what unique differentiators set you apart from those competitors.

Your UVP should be concise, powerful and be clear on the benefits for your target customers. Developing a UVP is an iterative process that consists of:

• Conducting customer and market research
• Identifying the key benefits of your product or service
• Developing a unique value proposition hypothesis
• Testing your value proposition hypothesis
• Integrating your value proposition in your messaging sales
• Continuously evaluate and refine your value proposition

To achieve PMF, you need to build and deliver a product that users find valuable, are happy to return to, and will recommend to others.

You’ll have a lot of assumptions to validate along the way - it’s a gradual process. It happens in iterations and is nearly impossible to strike right without repetitive field testing.

To increase your odds: release your MVP into the wild as soon as reasonable, gather feedback from your target audience before going all in with marketing or sales. Identify areas for improvement and iterate on your MVP.

The sooner you challenge your assumptions - the lesser the sunk cost of development in a non-optimal direction will be.

MVP: The version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. Eric Ries

Metrics and Analytics

Think about your metrics and analytics system early. Determine key metrics that will measure your GTM success. Capture metrics throughout the funnel and customer journey. Bring data from different sources together. Create dashboards and make data-driven decisions as a team.

• Input Vs Output Metrics:
• Input metrics are the measurable and controllable factors or actions that can contribute to achieving a specific goal. Levers that drive success that are under your influence.
• Output metrics represent the outcomes or results that are desired.
• Leading vs Lagging Metrics:
• Leading metrics are forward-looking and predictive, providing early indications of future performance
• Lagging metrics are backward-looking and measure past outcomes (e.g. monthly revenue)
• Start at the end - What are your trying to achieve? Choose your One Metric That Matters (OMTM) and focus your GTM operational efforts around optimising for it. OMTM should be an actionable metric that addresses a bottleneck in your customer journey. Make it understandable, comparative, a ratio or rate, make it about changing behaviour in a way that matters.
• Connect your business model to your data.
• Cohorts are essential for understanding data.
• Exit surveys can help you understand why people abandon journeys.
• Capture session-based analytics and user-based analytics.
• Build dashboards and review them habitually.

Aiming for PMF

• To achieve PMF there needs to be a strong market pull for the product. Customers are actively asking and gravitating toward a solution (seen in organic growth, customers asking to pay before you ask, customers panicking when your side goes down).
• The PMF journey usually manifests as series of many milestones and small wins and things you learn.
• The intensity of the pull depends on how well you’re solving peoples problems and the size of the market.

Measuring PMF

• What PMF feels like at different funnel stages:
• Acquiring new customers - cost efficient, word of mouth, virality
• Activation - users are excited, ask for early access, pre-pay, find it easy to understand, easy to use
• Retention - retention curves flatten, you gain more users than you lose in a given period
• Monetisation - there is or could be a profitable business, CAC < LTV
• Referral - users bring new users, strong satisfaction scores
• Look for the three steps:
• Proof of valuable experience - can you retain enough users?
• Proof of monetisation - how much are they willing to pay to get the value?
• Proof of value proposition - do users experience the Aha moment?
• Customer retention rate is one of the biggest signals of PMF

• The Sean Ellis 8 question PMF survey:
1. How did you discover [ProductName]?
2. How would you feel if you could no longer use [ProductName]?
• (Very disappointed, Somewhat disappointed, Not disappointed, N/A)
• If more than 40% select very disappointed that’s considered a strong signal of PMF.
3. What would you likely use as an alternative if [ProductName] were no longer available?
4. What is the primary benefit you have received from [ProductName]?
5. Have you recommended [ProductName] to anyone? (If yes, explain how you described it)
6. What type of person do you think would benefit most from [ProductName]?
7. How can we improve [ProductName] to better meet your needs?
8. Would it be okay if we followed up by email for clarification? (Yes/No)
• Segment your users based on those that are satisfied vs those that aren’t. How are they different? How does their product usage differ?

After PMF:

• Different ways to expand beyond your Beachhead Segment after winning PMF:
• Same product/solution but new segment
• Same segment but different product/solution
• New product/solution and new segment
• Three other fits that you should consider: 
• Product/Channel fit: are you delivering your offering through the right channels?
• Channel/Model fit: is the selected channel sustainable to unlock profitable business?
• Model/Market fit: is the end customer willing to pay what is sustainable for your business model?

Even though some products have similar technology and roadmaps, they can differentiate with a different GTM:

Chapter 5: Pricing

Pricing is the mechanism of value exchange between your company and your customers, reflecting the worth your product delivers.Early-stage companies should begin monetising once they have validated that the product consistently delivers value to a target market.

Validating willingness to pay (WTP) helps achieve Product-Market-Pricing Fit, ensuring you charge for the value you create.Many startups default to competitor-based pricing, but best-in-class approaches start with WTP and develop sustainable models early on.

Common pricing mistakes include delivering no true value, setting prices too high or too low, not converting customers due to poor messaging, and offering a “one price fits all” model. Giving away too many core features for free, waiting too long to monetise, and treating pricing as a “set it and forget it” activity.

Sustainable pricing involves continuous experimentation, refinement, and alignment with evolving product improvements and market conditions.

Pricing decisions are influenced by perceived added value, competition, alternatives, customers’ current spending habits, and your business’ unique positioning.

A clear value metric (e.g., number of messages sent in Slack) helps anchor pricing to usage and outcomes rather than arbitrary fees.

Communicating the value and benefits of your product is as important as setting the right price point to ensure perceived fairness.

Gathering both quantitative and qualitative feedback (via surveys, interviews, or pre-sell tests) refines WTP understanding. Different customer segments (small businesses, mid-sized firms, enterprises) have varying WTP ranges and adoption patterns. Positioning and perceived value determine your ability to charge a premium price, especially when competing against well-known market leaders.

Pricing strategies should align with your GTM (Go-To-Market) goals—whether focusing on rapid adoption or maximising profit.

• For adoption-first strategies, consider penetration pricing, freemium models, and lower initial prices to build a user base.
• For profit-first strategies, consider skimming (high prices for early adopters), premium, or dynamic pricing to optimise revenue.

Pricing is not static; it should be revisited every few months, adapting to market feedback and internal product enhancements.

Different pricing models:

• Value-based (ties cost to delivered value)
• Usage-based (charges per unit of consumption)
• Fixed (flat fee)
• Hybrid (mix of models)
• Seat-based (pricing per user).

Freemium or free-trial models help users experience value before committing, increasing conversion likelihood once trust is built.

Avoid undervaluing your product; a low price might attract users quickly but can make raising prices later difficult.

The human brain uses mental shortcuts to judge what is a bargain, too cheap, or too expensive, influenced by market anchors.

Researching what customers currently pay for alternatives sets benchmarks and helps identify how you can position your product’s value.

In crowded markets, incremental improvements might not justify higher prices; differentiation and unique value are key.

Small businesses often have lower WTP and look for inexpensive or free solutions, while medium-sized firms and enterprises can pay significantly more if value is clear.

Consider how your pricing affects your business economics—ensure you can cover costs, pay teams, invest in growth, and show ROI. Your pricing strategy must match your business life cycle stage, resources, customer access, and the uniqueness of your offering.

Competitor pricing offers a baseline, but relying solely on it can lead to undercharging or failing to differentiate properly.

Value-based pricing typically outperforms other models, generating greater expansion revenue and aligning price with delivered outcomes.

Ultimately, pricing is an ongoing strategic process—by combining WTP research, value metrics, thoughtful segmentation, and iterative testing, you can find a sustainable, growth-oriented pricing approach.

Effective product packaging involves creating distinct tiers (e.g., Starter, Pro, Business, Enterprise) each with a clear value metric and feature differentiation.

Pricing Hacks:

• Offering too many package options can overwhelm customers, so 2–5 well-structured tiers often works best, guiding them toward the right choice without confusion.
• Your pricing page is an essential conversion point: clarity, transparency, and the right framing can significantly influence a buyer’s decision.
• Psychological factors heavily shape customers’ pricing perceptions—offers framed in relatable, smaller units (e.g., per day vs. per month) can appear more attractive.
• Price anchoring—showing a higher-priced option alongside a “best value” package—helps customers perceive mid-tier plans as better deals.
• Decoy strategies, where one option is designed to make another option more appealing, can nudge customers toward higher-priced packages.
• Bundle offers and discounts, if used judiciously, can capture different segments and encourage longer commitments, but can also attract price-sensitive buyers who are less profitable.
• Pricing communication techniques like using fewer digits, showing savings in percentages vs. absolute numbers, and placing discounts strategically on the page can boost conversions.
• Psychological pricing “hacks” like “.99” endings or color choices for discount labels still matter, though customers have become more sophisticated over time.

Experimentation is critical: testing different price points, packages, and communication tactics helps find what resonates best with the market.

Pricing is never truly “set and forget.” As markets evolve, new competitors emerge, and economic conditions change, continual price and packaging adjustments are vital. Revisit and refine your pricing strategy every few months: test WTP with surveys, run A/B tests, and gather feedback. This ensures your pricing aligns with shifting customer preferences and business goals.

Communicating upcoming price changes well in advance and explaining the added value or improvements can soften the impact of a price increase on customer sentiment.

Involve cross-functional teams (sales, marketing, product, support) in pricing experiments to ensure alignment with business objectives and user experience.

Ultimately, pricing experimentation informed by customer feedback, market data, and psychological insights leads to a more optimised, profitable, and sustainable pricing strategy.

Chapter 6: Positioning

Positioning Frameworks and Principles:

• Define an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to guide decisions.
• Analyse market alternatives and identify the market gap.
• Articulate problem-solution fit: the core issue solved and why it matters.
• Highlight differentiated value: how your offering improves outcomes beyond features.
• Decide your market category: create, redefine, or position within an existing space.
• Craft a positioning statement: who you serve, what you solve, why you’re unique, how you fit.

Building and Refining Your USP:

• Inventory assets: list all features, capabilities, strengths, and benefits.
• Convert assets into benefits by asking “so what?” until they’re customer-centric.
• Remove non-valued assets—focus on what matters to buyers.
• Ensure your USP is valued and unique, hard for competitors to match.
• Form a Value Proposition (VP): a promise plus why you’re better than alternatives.

Positioning Steps:

1. Target Audience: Start with who you serve.
2. Alternatives & Gap: Identify what’s missing for that audience.
3. Assets for Differentiation: Align features with the gap.
4. From Assets to Benefits: Make each asset a tangible customer benefit.
5. USP Creation: Combine unique benefits into a clear differentiation point.
6. Coherent Narrative: Integrate VP, USP, and problem-solution fit into a story.
7. Test & Validate: Use A/B tests, surveys, or landing pages for confirmation.
8. Practical Application: Reflect positioning in marketing, sales, and product development.

Messaging Frameworks:

• Messaging bridges positioning and perceived value.
• Create messaging guidelines: statements, USPs, key messages, tone of voice.
• Adjust messaging for different audiences and DMUs based on their needs.
• Align messaging with customer journey stages: awareness, acquisition, activation, habit, expansion, monetisation.
• Use storytelling frameworks and persuasion principles (reciprocity, scarcity, etc.) to boost credibility.
• Keep messaging clear, concise, and benefit-driven.

Ongoing Optimisation:

• Continuously test and iterate messaging via A/B tests, interviews, surveys.
• Keep a messaging repository for learnings and improvements.

Repositioning if Needed:

• If growth stalls, reassess positioning; consider a narrower segment.
• Update positioning as products evolve or markets shift.

Branding Foundational Pillars:

• Vision: State why you exist and how you’ll improve lives.
• Customer Definition: Identify your target audience and ensure brand attributes resonate with their values.
• Product Benefits: Turn features into meaningful emotional or functional benefits.

Core Brand Identity:

• Brand Name: Generate multiple options, ensure memorability, uniqueness, and relevance.
• Check legal availability, competition, international suitability, and domain.
• Moodboard: Use visual references to shape aesthetics.
• Brand Story: Ground your narrative in your “why” to make it relatable.
• Brand Promise & Values: Define what you stand for and promise customers.

Brand Identity & Guidelines:

• Visual Identity: Develop a distinctive logo, typography, colors, and style.
• Verbal Identity: Define voice and tone—authoritative, friendly, witty, or empathetic.
• Brand Guidelines: Document visual/verbal standards, ensuring consistency across all materials and channels.

Brand Expression & Activation:

• Product Design Alignment: Ensure product appearance and experience match brand values.
• Promotional Materials: Apply brand guidelines to all content for consistency.
• Community & Reputation: Build trust through consistent quality and positive interactions.
• Evolve the Brand: Adapt as markets and customer preferences change.

Strategic Considerations:

• Brand Equity: Recognised, trusted brands drive loyalty and willingness to pay.
• Consistency & Trust: Reinforce a unified identity to build customer trust.
• Customer-Centricity: Align branding with user desires to deepen engagement.
• Channels: Choose and tailor communication platforms that fit audience behavior.

GTM Branding:

• Purpose & Vision: Reinforce your mission in market entry.
• Memorable Identity: A strong name and visual signature help you stand out early.
• Long-Term Investment: Brand building takes time but yields loyalty and higher margins.

Brand Architecture:

• Corporate Branding: One unified brand for all products/services.
• Endorsed Branding: A corporate brand endorses product-level sub-brands.
• A Branded House: A master brand with sub-brands tied closely to it.
• A House of Brands: Separate, stand-alone brands for different market segments.

Chapter 7: Growth

Start by focusing on your customers. Research how they discover products, what influences their decisions, and which channels they trust. These insights anchor your channel strategy.

Use competitor intelligence as guidance, not a template. Tools like Similarweb or SEMrush show what others do, but adapt these findings to match your unique strengths rather than copying.

Assess internal capabilities early. Check your team’s skills, capacity, and budget before committing to any channel. Pick those you can manage effectively and affordably.

Run a unit economics check. If acquisition costs are too high or ROI too distant, deprioritise that channel. Sustainable growth requires channels that won’t drain your resources.

Apply a prioritisation framework (like the Bullseye Framework). Start broad, then narrow down to a few channels that deliver real traction. Regular refinement ensures you focus only on what works.

Treat channel selection as experimentation. Test small, measure results, and adjust quickly. The aim is to identify scalable, repeatable channels that consistently deliver results.

Balance demand capture with demand generation. If people already search for your solution, capture that demand (e.g., through SEO). If not, generate demand with content, communities, and education.

If direct demand is low, look to adjacent markets or segments with similar needs. Use these channels until you carve out your own demand.

Map channels to each buyer’s journey stage. Align awareness, consideration, and decision channels so prospects move smoothly through the funnel.

Adapt to your market stage. In crowded markets, proven channels help you compete. In emerging ones, focus on educating and shaping demand.

Consider the industry’s buying behaviour. Some require extensive research and trust-building—great for educational content—while others lean on quick recommendations or marketplaces.

Keep an eye on ROI over a 3-to-18-month window. Evaluate channels regularly. Choose those that can scale without constant reinvention.

Watch for diminishing returns. Channels mature and may saturate. Stay alert, rotate tactics, and explore new platforms to avoid declines.Acknowledge channel lifecycles. Be agile—test emerging channels early. “Moonshot” experiments can deliver big returns if you move first.

Use foundational growth strategies—like inbound, outbound, Account-Based-Marketing, and product-led growth—as frameworks. They guide lead generation, engagement, and conversion.

Blend channels rather than relying on one. Inbound can work with outbound and community efforts. This holistic approach creates a stronger, self-reinforcing system.

Embrace iterative learning. Improve execution as you gain experience—sharpen ad targeting, run better webinars, refine outreach. Mastery comes with practice.

Challenge personal biases. Don’t dismiss channels for being old-fashioned or unfamiliar. Follow customer preferences and real performance data.

Maintain feedback loops. Keep researching markets and talking to customers. Spot new opportunities and shifts early before results suffer.

Sequence your channels smartly. Early on, capture demand for quick wins. Later, layer in demand-generation to build long-term, durable growth.

By grounding decisions in customer insight, following prioritisation frameworks, balancing short-term gains with long-term market shaping, and iterating continuously, you can form a disciplined, repeatable GTM channel approach.

Account-based marketing (ABM) begins with identifying high-value accounts that share key traits. Map decision-makers, understand their roles, and tailor messaging for each. Then, run multi-touch campaigns that integrate direct outreach, targeted content, and events. Measure engagement at the account level and refine as you learn what resonates.

Community building starts with clarity about who you want to attract and what value they expect. Set rules, maintain quality conversations, and consistently offer useful content. Lead by example, help members connect, and measure engagement to ensure the community remains vital. Over time, trusted members evolve into advocates, amplifying your brand’s influence.

Strategic partnerships grow when both parties see mutual benefit. Start by confirming shared values and goals, then define responsibilities, milestones, and metrics for success. Foster open communication, align cultural fit, and regularly assess results. As trust builds, partnerships can expand organically, yielding more reach and revenue.

Product-led growth (PLG) focuses on user experience as the primary sales driver. Let users self-onboard, reach value quickly, and rely less on traditional sales. Unified cross-functional teams continuously improve product flows, measure adoption, and refine features based on usage data. The product becomes the engine of acquisition, engagement, and monetisation.

Growth loops replace linear funnels with iterative cycles where user actions feed back into growth. By defining triggers, actions, and results, you create compounding momentum. Different loop types suit different models—some hinge on user-generated content, others on viral sharing. Optimise these loops through ongoing improvements to product features, messaging, and incentives.

Combine these approaches to form a cohesive GTM system: use ABM for targeted wins, build communities for trust and advocacy, lean on partnerships for reach, let PLG drive efficient expansion, and harness growth loops for sustainable compounding effects. Test small, measure everything, iterate rapidly, and refine frameworks as feedback guides you toward scalable, repeatable growth.

Chapter 8: GTM System

A well-structured go-to-market execution involves setting clear objectives, focusing on core customer segments, and orchestrating a capable team around a disciplined process. It requires consistent alignment among stakeholders, defined roles, data-driven decision-making, and streamlined workflows. Each element should fit into an iterative cycle of planning, testing, learning, and scaling.

• Start with a clear timeline, defining major milestones and realistic deadlines.
• Assemble a cross-functional team with complementary skills, each member having a well-defined role and responsibility.
• Align all team members behind a single strategic objective, ensuring everyone understands the desired outcome.
• Keep the team small but specialized to maintain speed, agility, and focus on mission-critical tasks.
• Use a simple "execution backpack" approach: pack essential resources like timelines, team roles, org structure, tools, and budget.
• Prioritise essential tasks by asking "Is this mission critical?" and remain laser-focused on those initiatives.
• Adopt a lean tech stack that supports collaboration, measurement, and accountability without adding unnecessary complexity.
• Allocate budget thoughtfully, including labor, growth investments, necessary tools, and a contingency reserve.
• Measure and adjust continuously by reviewing metrics, sharing insights, and refining strategies based on market feedback.
• Set explicit expectations, KPIs, and evaluation criteria for both internal teams and external collaborators.
• Simplify communication by consolidating discussions, decisions, and knowledge in one place.
• Embed learning-by-doing and "done is better than perfect" as guiding principles to move fast and iterate.
• Encourage open knowledge-sharing and honest feedback loops to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
• Ensure that everyone understands the "why" behind decisions, enabling teams to make faster, data-driven judgments.
• Regularly revisit and adjust the plan as insights emerge, ensuring the GTM process remains responsive, resilient, and poised for sustainable growth.

Experimentation:

• Begin by clearly defining what you aim to test, aligning all experiments with a limited set of critical Go-to-Market (GTM) objectives.
• Start with the Inception Stage to generate initial ideas and gather anecdotal, qualitative proof of concept through user research, competitor analysis, and market insights.
• Avoid "garbage in, garbage out" by ensuring experimentation ideas are purposeful, not random or forced.
• Move toward the Experimentation Stage to gather stronger, statistically significant evidence at a smaller scale (e.g., a product fraction or a prototype test).
• Formulate a testable hypothesis: what do you expect to happen, and what will constitute success or failure?
• Set up and launch the experiment thoughtfully, ensuring you have the necessary infrastructure, resources, and measurement tools in place.
• Collect data methodically and analyze results to determine whether outcomes support or refute the hypothesis.
• Map insights from the data back into the company's knowledge base, creating a loop of continuous learning and improvement.
• If the experiment is successful, implement the changes; if not, still extract meaningful lessons to inform further idea generation in the Inception Stage.
• Focus experimentation efforts on areas where you can realistically reach statistical significance and critical momentum, rather than scattering efforts too thin.
• Strive for a manageable cadence of experiments that contribute real value, rather than hitting arbitrary weekly or monthly test quotas.
• Use a continuous experimentation mindset: it's not about one-off experiments, but an ongoing process of refinement, learning, and strategic iteration.
• Ensure that all experiments have a clear link to GTM objectives and are not conducted "just because."
• Prioritize experiments likely to make an impact—quality of insights gained is more important than quantity of tests run.
• Regularly reassess and refine both the inception and experimentation processes to maintain a competitive edge and drive meaningful business results.

90 Day GTM Plan:

Month 1: Mission Critical = Doing the Research & Setting up fundamentals

Week 1:

• Agree on the objectives and what defines success of your GTM.
• Meet the team - do at least 3 internal interviews.
• Focus on the inside - team & company.

Week 2:

• Conduct a solid market analysis. Review the competition.
• Have hypothesis of beachhead segment ready.
• Focus on the outside - market.

Week 3:

• Run at least 12 interviews or a survey to learn more about your beachhead segment.
• Refine your understanding of the Beachhead Segment with these insights.
• Understand what channels they are using and what offers are attractive to them.
• Focus on the customers.

Week 4:

• Run a WTP (willingness to pay) research.
• Revise if the offers are coherent with what your beachhead segment needs.
• Make sure that the business model is sustainable by running projections.
• Focus on the offer.

Week 5:

• Map customer journey.
• Select critical metrics to track and implement event tracking plan.
• Focus on measuring what is going on.

Month 2: Mission Critical = Run the first experiments and empirically test your assumptions

Week 6:

• Do the positioning exercise.
• Refine branding and messaging from your findings.
• Focus on presentation.

Week 7:

• Refine your offer to what you have learnt so far.
• Get feedback on your offers with usability testing.
• Focus on testing the offer.

Week 8:

• Dive deep into the channels - what are the "natural channels" for your ICP.
• Test different channels and compare how the conversion behaves.
• Focus on growth fundamentals.

Week 9:

• Craft your customer journey.
• Select 2 to 3 channels that you bet on and leave some space for experimentation.
• Focus on building a repeatable growth system.

Month 2: Mission Critical = Run the first experiments and empirically test your assumptions

Week 10:

• Prepare a simple GTM plan for your endeavour, which is easy to communicate and understand.
• Secure your GTM budget.
• Focus on internal buy-in.

Week 11:

• Formalise your GTM team.
• Organise weekly or bi-weekly sprints.
• Introduce your meeting agenda.
• Focus on aligning the team.

Week 12:

• Formalise the research and customer discovery process.
• Formalise the experimentation process.
• Prepare your backlog to capture findings.
• Focus on spinning on the experimentation loop.

Week 13:

• Analyse thoroughly what has been learnt so far.
• Make adjustments to the GTM strategy if needed.
• Stay open to opportunities and nurture agile and pragmatic mindset to seize them.
• Focus on interaction and learnings.