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I’d say that “sales” or “marketing” are indeed valuable skills that developers may lack, but I think you would be doing yourself a disfavor if you’re only looki

I’d say that “sales” or “marketing” are indeed valuable skills that developers may lack, but I think you would be doing yourself a disfavor if you’re only looking for those skills. In the end, what I myself realized, is that the real gap is not just sales/marketing; it’s about someone that figures out product-market fit. It’s somewhat sales, it’s somewhat marketing, it’s somewhat strategic. But an average marketeer or sales representative will have a terribly difficult time figuring out PMF.

hcal 5y ago
As always it depends on a lot of things, but anyone with a background marketing should be pretty versed in product-market fit. It is a fundamental concept to marketing in the same way double-entry bookkeeping is fundamental to accounting... I'm sure there are a bunch of people calling themselves marketers who are really just sales drones, but there are also a lot of developers who are just spaghetti coders and accountants who are really just glorified filers and data entry specialists.
- stingraycharles 5y ago
  Maybe, I would just look for qualities of finding PMF over marketing qualities. Getting a startup’s product strategy in the right direction is something entirely different than “just” marketing; it means understanding how to change the product based on lack of demand, and understanding it is, in fact, a product problem rather than a marketing problem. I’m sure great marketeers qualify for these traits, but if that’s the case, why not just select for these traits in the first place, rather than marketing?
- Jensson 5y ago
  > anyone with a background marketing should be pretty versed in product-market fit. It is a fundamental concept to marketing in the same way double-entry bookkeeping is fundamental to accounting. It isn't though, marketers aren't experts in understanding if a product is worth building. Some become experts at that, but it isn't a standard part of their job. Instead find people who are experts in product design or just regular business, they will likely be better at this than marketers and could do the marketing bits as well. It feels as if developers do the same mistake here as they accuse others of. Even a developer can learn marketing, so why not make a product designer learn marketing? Its just useful to have another person on the team who takes care about product market fit etc, looking for a marketer for that role just limits who you can find.
clairity 5y ago
yes, there are many skills needed to get a startup off the ground (and a whole heapin' of luck), and lumping them vaguely like "sales/marketing" doesn't help. you need to be able to recognize (first) potential customers, find them with leverage that far exceeds the labor input, study how/why they become customers, foresee market and other risks, distill all that into strategy and features, sell these distillations to others, including cofounders, investors, and customers, orchestrate a reasonable development plan, forecast the future reasonably, and do this over and over again.

hcal 5y ago

As always it depends on a lot of things, but anyone with a background marketing should be pretty versed in product-market fit. It is a fundamental concept to marketing in the same way double-entry bookkeeping is fundamental to accounting... I'm sure there are a bunch of people calling themselves marketers who are really just sales drones, but there are also a lot of developers who are just spaghetti coders and accountants who are really just glorified filers and data entry specialists.

stingraycharles 5y ago
Maybe, I would just look for qualities of finding PMF over marketing qualities. Getting a startup’s product strategy in the right direction is something entirely different than “just” marketing; it means understanding how to change the product based on lack of demand, and understanding it is, in fact, a product problem rather than a marketing problem. I’m sure great marketeers qualify for these traits, but if that’s the case, why not just select for these traits in the first place, rather than marketing?
Jensson 5y ago
> anyone with a background marketing should be pretty versed in product-market fit. It is a fundamental concept to marketing in the same way double-entry bookkeeping is fundamental to accounting. It isn't though, marketers aren't experts in understanding if a product is worth building. Some become experts at that, but it isn't a standard part of their job. Instead find people who are experts in product design or just regular business, they will likely be better at this than marketers and could do the marketing bits as well. It feels as if developers do the same mistake here as they accuse others of. Even a developer can learn marketing, so why not make a product designer learn marketing? Its just useful to have another person on the team who takes care about product market fit etc, looking for a marketer for that role just limits who you can find.

clairity 5y ago

yes, there are many skills needed to get a startup off the ground (and a whole heapin' of luck), and lumping them vaguely like "sales/marketing" doesn't help. you need to be able to recognize (first) potential customers, find them with leverage that far exceeds the labor input, study how/why they become customers, foresee market and other risks, distill all that into strategy and features, sell these distillations to others, including cofounders, investors, and customers, orchestrate a reasonable development plan, forecast the future reasonably, and do this over and over again.