What
Marc Andreessen coined the term product-market fit in a 2007 blog post where he said, “Product-market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” The simplicity of the definition shouldn’t devalue its importance, nor should it convey routine practice. Mostly due to boredom, or hubris or just having too much money to know what to do with it, companies too often build a product for themselves rather than the market.
Without Product Market Fit, the new revenue leader will find the job description impossible to satisfy.
Why
The why here is even more simple than Adreessen’s definition; without PMF, we have a product but no market. And without a market, we have no access to revenue.
How
Eric Reis’ The Lean Startup provides an excellent foundation to evaluate PMF against. Reis’ uses his Product Market Fit Pyramid to illustrate the role of PMF and provides an easy-to-apply iterative for fine-tuning.
The following is an exercise that every team member should be able to articulate. If the Revenue Leader receives conflicting responses to the below from Product, it’s time to hit pause and ensure alignment.
Who is the Target Customer?
What are the Underserved Customer Needs?
What Value are we bringing?
What was/is the Feature Set for our Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?
What does the User Experience look like for our MVP?