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PMF survey calculator

Product-market fit survey calculator

Enter how many users answered very, somewhat or not disappointed (or paste the answers) and see your score against the 40% mark, with the range it could really be in.

  • Free
  • No signup
  • Runs in your browser

Answers to “How would you feel if you could no longer use it?”

Only count people who have used the product recently (Sean Ellis suggests at least twice, in the last two weeks); leave out anyone who never really tried it.

Your score

Enter your survey counts, or paste the answers.

The survey to send

  1. How would you feel if you could no longer use [product]? (Very disappointed / Somewhat disappointed / Not disappointed)
  2. What type of people do you think would most benefit from [product]?
  3. What is the main benefit you receive from [product]?
  4. How can we improve [product] for you?

Show your product to new users

Need more people to survey? Launch on LarkLaunch for free and get a week in front of makers and early adopters.

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How to run the survey

  1. Copy the four questions below the calculator into your survey tool. The first one is the score; the other three tell you what to do next.
  2. Send it to people who have really used the product recently, not everyone who ever signed up.
  3. Enter how many chose each answer to the first question, or paste the answer column from the export.
  4. Read the score with its range. If the range crosses 40%, collect more answers before deciding.

What the score means

Sean Ellis asked users how they would feel if they could no longer use a product, and found that products where at least 40% answered “very disappointed” tended to grow. Superhuman later used the same survey to steer its roadmap: it studied who the “very disappointed” users were and what they valued, and built for people like them.

The calculator adds what a raw percentage hides: a 95% range (a Wilson interval). Eight out of 20 is 40%, but the true share could be anywhere from about 22% to 61%. The verdict only says “above” or “below” when the whole range is on one side.

Next steps

Below the mark, read the answers to “what is the main benefit” from the very disappointed group and talk to them: the customer interview script has a script for exactly that. Above it, find more people like them.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good product-market fit score?

Sean Ellis found that products where at least 40% of users would be "very disappointed" without them tended to grow well, and 40% became the usual mark. It is a rule of thumb from comparing startups, not a guarantee either way.

Who should I send the survey to?

People who have really used the product: Sean Ellis suggests users who have tried its core feature, used it at least twice and used it in the last two weeks. Including people who signed up and left lowers the score without telling you much.

How many answers do I need?

Enough that the range is narrow. With 20 answers a 40% score could really be anywhere from about 22% to 61%; with 100 answers it narrows to about 31% to 50%. The calculator shows the range so a small survey is not read as a verdict.