Is Product-Market Fit a Mirage?

"Don't worry about television. It's the greatest thing since sliced bread."

• Red Skelton

The mythical, unattainable product-market fit. Everyone talks about it. Most founders chase it. What is it?

By definition: how much your product satisfies actual market demand. In plain terms: does your product solve a real problem your user has?

Does it relieve a pain they feel? Does it deliver a gain they've been looking for? Does it actually answer what they need?

There's a saying about selling ice to Eskimos. If you can do it, sure, you're a good salesman. You're also a charlatan. Selling something people don't need is a short game. A product that genuinely fits a market need is what compounds.

PMF can still feel unreachable. But is it?

You don't need to nail it first try. Nobody does. What you can do is make an offer, listen to the response, iterate, improve, and go again. PMF is less a destination than a direction, continuously moving toward a better answer to your market's real need. The closer you get, the faster they adopt and the more they tell others.

Nobody asked for sliced bread. It arrived anyway, answered something people didn't know they needed, and it's still in every kitchen today.