Product market fit and tight car spaces
The other day I was at our local shopping centre car park. It has incredibly tight turns when you go up the ramp to the next level. The parking spaces are very narrow and there are huge concrete blocks next to some of the parking spaces. For additional difficulty points, it was a Saturday and there were a lot of cars inside also trying to find a space. We’ve all been in those car parks and in those situations.
I happen to see a car leaving, creating an ample opportunity to park. It was directly opposite the ramp and also the space right next to the wall. It required a lot of precision to park and I didn’t have a lot of time as there lots of cars backed up waiting for me. I just had to get the car into that space.
Product / market fit
One of the things that people in the startup industry talk a lot about is “product / market fit”. However, its hard to explain what that means and to visualise it. Its even harder to actually achieve.
“Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.”
Essentially, you have to find a product that fits what the market needs. According to Marc Andressen, for a startup, that’s all that matters. That’s your sole objective.
You may have to keep massaging the product to find that perfect fit. Its like Cinderella being the perfect fit for that particular slipper. I really like this explanation he uses in his blog:
The #1 company-killer is lack of market.
- When a great team meets a lousy market, market wins.
- When a lousy team meets a great market, market wins.
- When a great team meets a great market, something special happens.
When you have product / market fit, thats when things go gangbusters. You don’t have enough supply to fulfil orders. Revenue just keeps pouring in. You can’t put on enough sales staff to take all the orders.
Naval Ravikant described it an interview as a key fitting a lock. The fit has to be clean, true and precise. It has to slide in and click open. The only way to do that is to keep refining and polishing that key and it is the only key that will open that lock. True product market fit has to be extremely precise.
At Native Tongue we’re still on that journey to find the right key for that lock. Or parking our car into that really tight car space*.
I’m out like tight car spaces,
Matthew Ho
p.s. I parked it in four moves. But I had parked too close to the wall, so it was difficult to open the door. I didn’t quite have car/car space fit.