Product-Market Fit (PMF)

Product Market Fit (PMF) is a term used to describe the degree to which a product is able to meet a market’s overall demand for it. In other words, it’s an important metric for determining whether or not a product is capable of solving a real customer problem.

Good PMF happens when an organization has been successful in building and optimizing the right product to solve a customer’s needs. Although it’s a relatively simple concept, it can be difficult to achieve in practice because it requires a truly in-depth understanding of your target market.

PMF is several steps beyond minimum viable product, where a basic iteration of a product is released to a small sample of a target audience to gauge feedback with a view to refining it further. Due to the inherent difficulties in achieving solid PMF, it’s a metric that distinguishes the very best brands from everyone else.