Product Market Development

Introduction

"Great products don’t just serve existing demand; they create and shape new ones."

In classic product development, we often talk about finding Product–Market Fit (PMF), as if the market were already defined and waiting. But in reality, many high-impact products succeed not because they found a market, but because they developed one.

Whether it's OpenAI turning raw model capabilities into ChatGPT, or Figma building the case for browser-based collaborative design, these companies didn’t just compete, they educated, reframed, and enabled behavior change at scale. That’s market development in action.

Thought leadership

Voice	Idea	Source / Context
Brian Balfour	“You don’t just launch a product, you build a growth system that evolves with the market.”	[Reforge: Growth Loops]
Clayton Christensen	“Customers often can’t articulate what they need. Great products help them make progress.”	Jobs to Be Done Theory
Marty Cagan	“You’re not in the business of building features. You’re in the business of changing behavior.”	Inspired, product strategy framing
YC / PG	“Startups don’t win by attacking a market head-on. They win by finding new, often invisible markets.”	YC startup school, founder-market fit
Melissa Perri	“You can’t outsource strategy. You must deeply understand your market to shape value.”	Escaping the Build Trap

Why this matters

New technologies (like generative AI) often outpace the market’s understanding
Adoption depends on more than features, it hinges on mental models, education, trust, and workflow change
If the user, buyer, or ecosystem isn't ready, the best product will fail
Thus, market development becomes a core PM responsibility, not just marketing’s job

In AI, Web3, climate tech, healthtech, etc. market education, enablement, and trust-building are part of the product.

Framework: How to develop a market

Strategy area	What it means	Tactics to apply	Examples
1. Category Framing	Help users understand what the product is, and why it matters	- Name the category / sub-category - Use metaphors, analogies - Design for mental model fit	Notion → “All-in-one workspace” OpenAI → “ChatGPT: AI assistant” Slack → “Email for teams”
2. Use Case Seeding	Show where the product adds value, and for whom	- Curated examples by persona/role - Pre-built templates or demos	Airtable → Use-case libraries ChatGPT → Prompt examples
3. Education & Onboarding	Lower the barrier to adoption by teaching required behaviors and context	- In-product onboarding - Explainer videos and walkthroughs - Docs and tooltips	Stripe → Developer-first docs Figma → Interactive design tutorials
4. Problem Reframing	Help users see old problems in a new light	- Frame hidden costs of status quo - Emotional and time-based reframing	Slack → “Meetings & emails are killing you” Calendly → “No more back-and-forth emails”
5. Trust & Risk Mitigation	Make trying the product feel safe, and trustworthy	- Transparent limitations - Usage disclaimers - SOC2 / privacy / alignment focus	ChatGPT → “May make mistakes” Snowflake → Enterprise-ready compliance
6. Community & Evangelism	Turn early users into advocates	- Launch playbooks, community spaces - Templates, showcases, feedback loops	Notion, Replit, Hugging Face — user-driven ecosystem growth
7. Ecosystem Enablement	Allow others to build on top or around your product	- Public APIs - Plugin SDKs - Reference integrations	OpenAI Plugins, Shopify App Store, Slack integrations
8. Iterative, Public Learning	Learn alongside your users, evolve in real time	- Beta releases - Public changelogs - Open product feedback channels	Linear → Changelog & public roadmap OpenAI → ChatGPT iterations based on feedback
9. Low-Friction Adoption	Make it easy to try and experience value	- Free tiers - Sandbox modes - No login barriers or trials	Loom → Free forever for basic users ChatGPT → Free trial access
10. Strategic Distribution	Scale trust and access by partnering with known players	- OEM or co-sell deals - Cloud bundling - Education/enterprise sales bridges	GitHub Copilot → VSCode default ChatGPT → Azure OpenAI, Microsoft 365, Apple integration

Meta takeaway

You’re not just building a product. You’re building the conditions for its success.

Market development is about shaping demand, trust, understanding, and behavioral readiness and in modern product management, it’s a core part of your job.

Developing the market: What it means, why it matters, and how to do it