Article

Defining our ICP is the most important thing we ever did

PostHog Free Intermediate

This is a founder team telling on themselves: they grew for years without a defined ICP and it caused real damage to their roadmap and go-to-market. It is a useful antidote if you think ICP work is a nice-to-have exercise rather than something that changes what you build and who you call. Concrete, no fluff, written by people who actually shipped a product.

  • Product-market fit and a defined ICP are linked, you struggle to get one without the other.
  • Not having an ICP doesn't just hurt marketing, it makes the whole roadmap unfocused.
  • Define your ICP earlier than feels comfortable, waiting has a real cost.
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It answers 4 questions

  1. What's the difference between an ICP, a buyer persona, and a target market?
  2. How do I know if I've defined my ICP too narrowly and I'm leaving obvious customers out?
  3. How do I use the customers I already have to sharpen my ideal customer profile instead of guessing?
  4. How do I keep my whole team aligned on who our ideal customer is once we start hiring?

Read with it

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  2. Market size is meaningless until you know exactly who you're for, and Lenny turns that into a concrete, repeatable ICP exercise... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP) Lenny Rachitsky
  3. The best book on positioning against competitors by understanding the alternatives customers actually consider. Directly turns... aprildunford.com Book · ~200 pages Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It April Dunford
  4. Turns the vague feeling of product-market fit into a number you can move. Ask users how they would feel if they could no longer... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit Rahul Vohra
  5. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  6. The author of Crossing the Chasm explaining beachhead selection in plain, modern language, the fastest way to absorb the... Lenny's Podcast / Lenny's Newsletter Podcast · ~75 min Geoffrey Moore on finding your beachhead, crossing the chasm, and dominating a market Lenny Rachitsky & Geoffrey Moore
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