Draft

Two common approaches are often employed in lean product development:

• Problem/Solution Fit
• Product/Market Fit

Working with committed and energetic startups creating new products, I've found these approaches valuable in increasing the chances that we're building the right thing.

Yet, in an enterprise environment, these two approach are not sufficient.

A startup's primary goal is to find product/market fit. Else, the startup will fail.

An enterprise can seed a dozen ideas with a million dollar runway, but the result of that investment must be re-absorbed into the corporation, or spun-out. Rarely, can it survive in the same environment in which created it. Corporations have a habit of imposting structural requirements on product teams that can distort the Product/Market fit.

I realized that the Product must fit with the Business, and vice versa, otherwise the effort will encounter resistance and fail. I call this Product/Business Fit.