Earlier, I discussed our common obsession with Product Market Fit that has led to false beliefs such as “Product Market Fit is the only thing that matters.” A byproduct of that false belief are statements such as:

“We are focused on product-market fit right now. Once we have that we’ll test a bunch of different channels.”

There are two major issues with this statement. I’ll break them down separately.

1. Products Are Built To Fit Channels, Not The Other Way Around

The first issue with that statement is that it is saying that channels will mold to the product you are building and as a result you think about product and channel separately in silos. But if you think about your product and channels in silos, then you will end up trying to fit a square peg through a round hole. Why? Because…

Products are built to fit with channels. Channels do not mold to products.

Let that statement sink in for a second because it is an important one.

Products are built to fit with channels, not the other way around. The reason for this is that you do not define the rules of the channel. The channel defines the rule of the channel.

Facebook defines the rules of what content and feed items appear in people’s feeds. They also define what is allowed via their API’s. They also define which ads get shown and how expensive they are.

defines the rules of what content and feed items appear in people’s feeds. They also define what is allowed via their API’s. They also define which ads get shown and how expensive they are. Google defines what content appears in the top ten search results. They also control what the top ten search results look like. They determine what ads appear and the rules that govern their cost.

defines what content appears in the top ten search results. They also control what the top ten search results look like. They determine what ads appear and the rules that govern their cost. Email clients such as Gmail determine what is spam, what ends up in the promo box, and what the content format is allowed in emails.

We could run through this for every major distribution channel out there.

You control your product, you do not control the channel. So you need to change the things within your control to fit with the things that you do not control.

What are some general elements of products that fit with different categories of channels:

Virality . For virality to be a high ceiling channel, a product at a minimum needs Quick Time To Value. Virality thrives when the viral cycles are short. Broad Value Prop . Value prop of the product needs to be applicable to large percentage of a user's network (branching factor). Network Makes Product Better. Ideally the product value increases the more of your network is on it.

. For virality to be a high ceiling channel, a product at a minimum needs Paid Marketing. To have product channel fit with paid marketing: Quick Time To Value - Users have less patience to find value when coming from an ad. Medium to Broad Value Prop - Value prop needs to be fairly broad due to targeting constraints of ad channels. Transactional Model - Product is built to extract transactional value to fund paid marketing.

To have product channel fit with paid marketing: UGC SEO. To have product channel fit with UGC SEO: UGC - Product needs to enable users creating millions of pieces of unique content. Motivation to Contribute - Product needs to have the core motivation to contribute content.

To have product channel fit with UGC SEO:

2. The Power Law of Distribution

The second problem with that original statement is “we’ll test a bunch of different channels.”

In his book, Zero To One, Peter Thiel pointed out why this is wrong:

“The kitchen sink approach doesn’t work. Most companies get zero distribution channels to work. If you get just one channel to work you have a great business. If you try for several but don’t nail one, you’re finished. Distribution follows the power law."

That last part is key - “distribution follows the power law.” In other words, at a given moment in time a company that has product channel fit will get 70%+ of their growth from one channel.