Ah the elusive product-market fit. If you’re a Twitter regular, you know that PMF is often dubbed as the holy grail of startups. And for good reason.

After all, it’s right at the intersection of your product and the market.

Common business wisdom states that a good product is only as good as the market it exists in.

If Einstein were here, he would probably agree and say -that a product is only perceived as good relative to the environment its in.

A lot has been said about what constitutes a good product-market fit. I don’t want to rehash that.

Rather, I wish to offer a different perspective on how we can begin to think about products and the markets they exist in. A perspective that is based on first principles.

What is a product: The Scope.