How to get initial traction in startup and product management?

Who never ask himself while looking at the ceiling: How can I get more users?

Based on the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg, I made a template to help startups and product managers to get their initial traction.

It’s always hard at first to get customers or users, as we may think, let’s build an awesome product and users will come by. Overnight success is so rare but so documented that real growth efforts are less talked about and that is what entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs need to know.

Growth comes with some work and Gabriel Winberg made it very easy to get to your initial traction.

Inspired by the business model canvas here is:

THE TRACTION MODEL CANVAS

Before diving into the canvas, here are three things you should know :

1-A good traction is always finite. So to get constant traction and customer growth you may need to do the exercise multiple times, at multiple stages of your startup or product life.

2-It is used in the context of lean startup — Build — measure — learn. By using the traction model canvas you will get faster feedback and it will help you make a better product by giving you easier traction.

3- As Gabriel said, you should spend as much as 50% of your time in getting traction for two main reasons: First it helps you get feedback faster from customers and second it gives you a good idea of what messages and medium works with them and what doesn’t.

I’d love to hear your comments on the canvas and your experience with it.

“Traction trumps everything” — Gabriel Weinberg