Working in product management, it is very common to hear the term product - market fit. There needs to be a market need or demand with a willingness to pay and there must be a product that addresses that need or demand at a price point that matches with the willingness to pay.

Otherwise, there is no product - market fit.

Similarly, there is such a thing as an employee - org fit. Just as a fantastic product can fail if there is no market for it, a talented employee can fail if she doesn't match the culture of the organization she works in.

It is important for both the employee and the organization to achieve a fit. Otherwise, neither will benefit from the association.

This is the reason, while interviewing candidates, the interviews don't just comprise evaluation for competency, but also comprises evaluation for a cultural fit.

While competency is more objective and easier to test for, cultural fit is a much harder thing to test for. Hence, the probability of going wrong is higher.

At the same time, culture is fluid, both for the individual and for the organization she joins, which means that the goalposts are not fixed either.

What we can aim for is to direct the flow in a direction closer to a perfect match, rather than away from it.