Love Island certainly taught us a lot about the nature of romantic relationships. The Big Brother is always watching nature of this successful reality TV show showed spectacularly beautiful people being subject to ridiculous challenges, but also the nature of romance, and whether the people that they consider “100% [their] type on paper” are actually right for them. And, although a number of these relationships did not last the tests of time after leaving the Love Island villa, the personalities that came from this show certainly learned a lot during the sow, and after it had concluded.
But why are we discussing Love Island?
The iconic quote “100% my type on paper” certainly described the nature of a concept within the business world, if you look at it from a different perspective!
The idea of Fit was used by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda and Alan Smith in their book: Value Proposition Design – How To Create Products and Services Customers Want. In the book, they explain that there are different types of Fit, each holding more weighting through developing a product.
The first was On Paper Fit: which focuses on a problem solving basis. For an Islander, this would be the evidence based declaration that their type is consistently tall dark and handsome etc. and where the idea of someone or something being “100% my type on paper” came from. What this means for a business is acknowledging that there is a pattern which can be built upon, that there is evidence that an idea can serve a purpose for the consumer, whether it is to assist them with daily tasks, which they refer to as “jobs”, the difficulties they experience on a daily basis, referred to as “pains”, or to further elevate the rewards of daily life, also known as the “gains”.
After establishing your idea on paper, and how it would theoretically work, a product reaches the next stage, where production must work out where it would fit in the market, which is aptly called Product-Market Fit:
Product-Market Fit looks at whether the proof that you would be taking more than you give to the market, whether there is enough of a demand to make profit and demonstrate value.
You must be wondering, how does this kind of fit work through the lens of Love Island?
Think about the previous seasons, where fan-favourite unlucky-in-love personalities from the show find themselves stricken down without any means of staying in the villa. Then lo and behold, two new islanders appear leaving that fan-favourite able to choose a partner. Product-Market Fit looks at the people introduced to add drama to the villa as plot devices for this reality TV show: stirring the pot, versus being a perfect theoretical match. It’s a game of numbers, of risk, of alliances to keep both the people in the villa happy, and also the masses watching them entertained.
Doctor Love, Alex George was on Season Four, and was known for being a NHS doctor, and immensely unlucky in love during his time on the show, for the majority of the time, the game of Love or Money was played as alliances, especially at the beginning, residents of the villa valuing Alex’s friendship over the potential for romancing a total stranger. He was thrown many a bone to keep his head above water and stay in the villa with his friends, because the Islanders loved him, just as the masses did.
The last type of Fit is Business Model Fit: where there is proof that your idea can be implemented, and a product will prove profitable as opposed to too much of a gamble. This kind of fit looks at the nature of the business model, and whether producing such products, services etc. would actually be a fruitful investment for a company to make.
Through the eyes of the reality TV show, the Business Model Fit would refer to when the viewers’ insights get played into the show. Working out what kind of people the Islanders want in the villa as well as what kind of people would stir the pot and provide interesting reality TV. By having evidence, from previous seasons, from current participant VTs and through viewer feedback and insight, the show was able to be profitable and successful, only the best people whether they are charismatic, or rowdy, or sappy and romantic, go the distance and make it to the finale. For the producers, it is about profitability, and to keep people tuning in.
Based in London, U.K., and founded in 2016 by Arvind Mishra The Agile Works (www.TheAgileWorks.com), is an up-and-coming recruitment and Agile consulting company. Arvind is a Certified SAFe SPC and regularly delivers both private and public SAFe certification workshops.
He is a design thinking expert, Sr. enterprise, portfolio Agile Coach with over a decade of experience working as an Agile coach in diverse industries such as banking, pharma, retail, auto, oil, gas, consulting and government.
The Agile Works; a small team of three strive to help shape the leadership's mind-set and values in readiness for their business transformation journey challenges. With Arvind at the helm, we strive to provide you with the agility tools to make your company that can thrive, and not just survive.
To book a consultation, or for any enquiries, you can contact Arvind via the following email address: arvind@theagileworks.com
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