Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.<p>You can always feel when product/market fit isn’t happening. The customers aren’t quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn’t spreading, usage isn’t growing that fast, press reviews are kind of “blah”, the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close.<p>And you can always feel product/market fit when it’s happening. The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it — or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You’re hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can. Reporters are calling because they’ve heard about your hot new thing and they want to talk to you about it. You start getting entrepreneur of the year awards from Harvard Business School. Investment bankers are staking out your house. You could eat free for a year at Buck’s.<p>I am also a part of a startup and owned by a website <a href="http://resumeplus.us" rel="nofollow">http://resumeplus.us</a>. I think this answer helped you and I wish all the success for your bright future.
Talk to potential customers. Then talk to more of them. Ask "Would you buy this?"<p>I reference patio11 on this topic a lot: You'll generally get one of 3 responses when you ask.<p>1) 'No'. This is useful - why not? What would need to change?
2) 'Yes'. This is the most dangerous response. It's impossible to tell a polite response from a promising prospect. Plenty of new businesses chase the wrong product development strategy because "people <i>said</i> they would buy <i>this</i>". What people say and what people do, especially when it comes to money, are different things.
3) "Can I buy this from you right now? How much?" This is the only 'good' response for the state of your current product. If people don't want to buy it now (sign up, whatever) then you haven't found the fit yet.<p>I'm going through this again with a new business. Lots of the second response - not enough of the third, so much as I'd love to ramp up the marketing I know the product and how I'm explaining it just aren't ready yet.
Put your product in the hands of users and watch what happens. Product / Market fit is that magical moment when users get the intended experience out of your product, and not only keep coming back for more, but also help you grow your userbase.
At least for b2b, my 2 cents is that charge for your product upfront. Putting that paywall in front of your product can help you immediately assess how interested they are.