PMF Is a Metric, Not a Feeling
The standard definitions of product-market fit are backward-looking. You know you have it when growth explodes, when the press calls, when servers melt. Useful for recognizing fit, useless for finding it.
Vohra wanted a leading indicator, something that predicts fit before the hockey stick shows up. He found it in Sean Ellis's question: how would you feel if you could no longer use the product? Very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, or not disappointed.
Ellis benchmarked hundreds of startups and found a threshold: companies where at least 40% of users answer 'very disappointed' tend to grow sustainably. Companies below it almost always struggle. One question turns a vague milestone into a number on a dashboard.
“What if you could measure product-market fit? Because if you could measure it, then maybe you could optimize it.”
Key idea
Ask users how they'd feel if they lost your product. The percentage answering 'very disappointed' is a measurable leading indicator of product-market fit, with 40% as the benchmark.