Find out what changed
before deciding
what to fix
A SaaS company can have a product that worked, customers who valued it and a sales engine that produced growth — and then find that traction slows or becomes erratic. Weakened traction is a symptom, not a diagnosis.
“The tempting response is to start fixing things. Product thinks about the roadmap. Sales questions the pitch. Leadership wonders whether the ICP is still right. Any of them may be right.”
Iain Wallace
Founder, Traction Lab
The customers who created your traction may not be the customers who can create the next wave
Sometimes there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the product. There may simply be fewer of those original customers left to win. What worked before is evidence of what worked for the previous market. It is not proof of what will work for the next one.
Sometimes the company chooses to change ICP
SME to corporate, for example. The strategic decision may make perfect sense. The risk is changing the ICP without establishing whether the product still fits. We find the evidence before prescribing the architecture.
And sometimes the ICP changes without anybody deciding to change it
Sales begins prospecting larger companies. A campaign attracts a different population. Nobody necessarily announces an ICP change. But the product starts being tested by people it wasn't designed around.
“Is the product wrong for the ICP — or is the commercial system bringing the wrong ICP to the product? Those are very different problems to solve.”
Iain Wallace
Traction Lab
Symptom
Not a diagnosis
Right comparisons
Not dozens of interviews
Roadmap risk
Tested before more product effort
600+
Startup & tech leaders coached
SaaS and tech teams we have worked with
Talk to the people who can discriminate between the possible explanations
You don't necessarily need dozens of user interviews. You need the right comparisons — and evidence strong enough to change the roadmap.
Compare the right populations
Depending on the company, that might mean core users, power users, recently onboarded customers, churned customers, non-converting testers, or people representing a possible next ICP. We rarely need all of them.
Separate opinion from commercially material difference
Who created historical traction? Who are you attracting now? What makes one adopt while another walks away? Which product parts create the outcome they value — and which differences actually matter commercially?
Test the assumptions that would hurt if they were wrong
Not every feature should go to a customer vote. Identify where being wrong would materially matter, and get evidence strong enough to carry the decision before committing significant product effort.
The purpose isn't a research report. It is to make consequential decisions.
Explanations held by Product, Sales, Marketing, Growth, Customer Success and leadership can be tested against the same outside evidence. The goal isn't to make everyone agree. It is to make disagreement better informed by reality.
Who created traction
Clearer evidence about who generated historical traction — and who you are actually attracting and selling to now.
Whether they are still the right people
What problem or needs matter most to them, what outcomes they expect, and where the current product satisfies those requirements.
What is weakening traction
What is most likely changing, and what needs to be changed or tested next — including whether the product should add or simplify.
Operator judgement
We don't ask customers to run your company, and we don't replace experienced judgement with research.
Reality gets a vote
When an important decision rests on an assumption about the market, reality gets a serious vote before you bet on it.
A capability that compounds
Fixing a traction problem is the immediate job. Learning to detect when the market is changing is the longer-term opportunity.
Let's find out why
You don't need to know whether you need a programme, sprint or workshop. Start with the decision you can't yet make confidently from inside the building.
Talk to Traction LabOr reach out directly
Adresse
44, rue Laborde
75008 Paris, France