How to Find Product Market Fit: OILA.app Case Study

Lana Dikanchieva, co-founder of OILA.app

Baglan Ayazbaev, co-founder of OILA.app

About Us

Baglan. We have been working as entrepreneurs in the education sector for over 25 years. We transitioned from offline business to EdTech. We started with a startup — we created an interactive mobile learning application for children called OILA.app.

What is Product Market Fit and how to achieve it

Baglan. Building a company works like this: an idea appears, then you implement it and try to sell the product and connect it with customers. However, a situation may arise where the project is needed by no one. This means that you have not found your Product Market Fit — and this is the most difficult part of developing a startup.

Lana. In the early stages, belief in your product is strong. We were convinced that our solution was needed by all parents and children. Then we faced reality, where there is no such thing as everyone seeing it and immediately buying it. This also happens when going through accelerator programs: looking at the successes of other projects, you can lose faith in your own.

Baglan. All these problems are described in books. You can read them, memorize the names of terms, understand the essence, but practice is a different story. For example, in the book "The Startup Owner's Manual" by Steve Blank, the author emphasizes the idea: "Get out of the building and talk to real people." We thought we would do just that, but in reality, we decided that we had enough experience and knew parents and their children. It turned out that this was the wrong decision. You need to have many constructive conversations with people to see the problem your project solves from the consumer's perspective, in their context. You need to forget that these ideas are yours and analyze them objectively. Find out if people really have the pain you are working on.

This requires communication skills and courage. Many founders like to hide behind startups, frameworks, and hypotheses. Because subconsciously we are afraid that it is needed by no one. If you go out and talk to people, it may turn out that this is indeed the case. But this is normal and it doesn't end here. You need to keep working. Product Market Fit is precisely that transformative work that needs to be done until your product becomes necessary for customers. It includes changes in the project and even in your own mind.

You need to meet reality, which may differ significantly from your opinion. This is one of the points after which your business begins to grow towards Product Market Fit and develop.