A single satisfaction score tells you that something’s working, never what. The Sean Ellis product-market-fit survey fixes that: it asks how disappointed people would be to lose you — the sharpest leading indicator of fit there is — and then branches so every respondent answers the follow-up that matters for their answer.
Users who’d be very or somewhat disappointed tell you the main benefit they get, so you know what to market and what to protect. Users who wouldn’t be disappointed tell you what would make you a must-have — your fit gap, in their words. You finish with two clear, actionable segments instead of one flat number.
The 40% rule
Sean Ellis found that products where at least 40% of users would be “very disappointed” to lose them tend to have real product-market fit. Below that, you don’t yet. This template captures that percentage and the reasoning behind it, so the metric comes with a to-do list attached.
Variants
- Anonymous mode: drop the personalization for maximum candor.
- B2B role screen: swap the usage question for a role/seniority question when the buyer and the user differ.
- Add a PMF score: weight the disappointment answers to trend an aggregate over quarterly runs.
- Interview recruit: add a “can we talk more?” question and reward the willing with a badge.