I have been doing 1:1 personal branding coaching with people, and one of the exercises I ask them to do is write their obituary. Pretend it is 25 years in the future and write about what they accomplished. It is part aspiration (looking forward) and part self-reflection (looking backward) so people can list accomplishments that are earned and desired.

A client asked me this week if I thought he had achieved "product-market fit" and I said, "Not even close."

However you define product market fit, I define it as "would your customers notice or suffer if you died/went out of business.

I wasn't trying to be mean, but it was an honest answer because the product has no identity for whom it is designed.

Now I could easily write 2000 words on what product market fit is and how to measure etc, but instead, let's talk about the thing few people discuss in this conversation, which is how "niche" your business is. I have seen many times brands try to be everything to everyone instead of being the only choice for a few. That few could be hundreds of thousands of people and be the foundation of building a billion-dollar company, but those "few" must all look and smell the same. That could mean the same industry or similar geography or many other similarities. The quickest way to product market fit is (in my opinion) finding that niche that isn't being served and overserve them.

I recently finished reading Peter Levitan's new book "How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency". I enjoyed the book, and highly recommend it; only a little of it was new to me because I have seen or heard most things in the almost 15 years I have been running my agency, but one thing I did take to heart was his chapter on having a one-page business plan.