Of late, I have been thinking of a concept I call the Congruent Square (or Rhombus for the math-purist) to better explain to founders why some of them are struggling with hitting product market fit (PMF).
Congruent Square says there has be a broad alignment / congruency in the product you are taking to market, the team that is taking it there, the consumers / market …
Two discussions, one with a founder, and another with an experienced operator, both around the definition of product-market fit (PMF) encouraged me to write this post.
Product-market fit (hereafter PMF) is seen variously as the ‘holy grail’ for startups (Elizabeth Yin, Hustle Fund) to the ‘only thing that matters (Marc Andreessen) to ““arguably the most critical milestone for a startup” (Jill Soley & Todd Wilms, …
An innocent google query around the origins of the term ‘product-market fit’ sent me down the internet rabbit hole a few nights back.
‘Product-market fit’ (or PMF hereafter) is a seminal concept in startupland. It is considered as a turning point in the life journey of every successful startup, and not being able to achieve PMF is considered the leading cause of failure (see here and here).
The term …