BOOK OFFICE HOURS

Want to talk about designing your category?

Perhaps you've read the book Play Bigger, co-authored by CDA partner Kevin Maney, and have questions about category design. Book a slot on our calendar to bounce ideas off a Category Design Advisors partner – pro bono.

Book your OFFICE HOURS
4 Min

IKEA’s Category Formula: How to See New Categories During Great Change
"When you’re clear about the problem, it’s amazing how the category manifests itself.”
 Ragy Thomas, CEO, Sprinklr
"It’s been an epic feat to get to this point, and the CDA team gave us the push we need to get uncomfortable, be bold, and to think differently.”
 Alyssa Merwin-Henderson, VP Global Sales Solutions, LinkedIn®
"Category Design Advisors quickly became part of the Ripples team – if we need category advice, we just tap them in."
 Yossi Meshulam, CEO, Ripples
"Our portfolio companies spent a half day understanding category design thinking and walked away with actionable takeaways." Craig Rosenberg, Chief Platform Officer, Scale Venture Partners

Crowds are good if you want to hide.

Category design puts your company in a unique position – apart from the crowd.

1

What’s the problem to solve?

2

What solution must exist?

3

Why are you that solution?

Learn about the CDA methodology
3 Min

How Category Design Helps Discover Your Why

"We realized very quickly we were able to define the company that way."

Raj Narayanswamy, CEO Replicon

Read more CASE STUDY

Case Study

Case Study

Case Study

Case Study

Case Study

Case Study

Learn from the experts

Category Design Resources

New Ways to Solve Category Design Problems for Early Stage Companies and Investors

You’re on the leadership team of an early-stage startup. Maybe you got turned on to category design when you read the book Play Bigger.Read More

The Enduring Power of Winning a Market Category

Any ambitious company should want to do everything it can to create and win a market category.

Over the years at Category Design Advisors, we’ve often...Read More

How To Turn Category Design Into a Video: 3 Case Studies

At the heart of category design is a story – a story we call a Point of View (POV). Stories have been an effective selling technique for ages. Don’t just...Read More

What Backcasting and the Adjacent Possible Can Tell You About an Innovation (Like ChatGPT)

Put two category design concepts together – adjacent possible and backcasting – and you can get an interesting way to look at the meaning of and prospects for ChatGPT.

And,...Read More

Kevin Maney joins Larry Olsen on the MindSet Playbook Podcast

Kevin Maney joins Larry Olsen on the MindSet Playbook Podcast 40 MIN

Play Bigger

Play Bigger

How Category Design Drives Decisions and Alignment

How Category Design Drives Decisions and Alignment Case Study
4 MIN

How White Claw Won and Shaped Its Category

The story of hard seltzer is a rare opportunity to witness how a “dominant design” got chosen in a category.

As I wrote before, economist Paul Geroski’s...Read More

3 MIN

Category Designers See Opportunity In a Recession

If you think that today’s down economy means that no company should be spending resources on creating and building a new market category, consider the situation facing one of the great...Read More

How Category Creation Can Win New Attention for an Old Company

How Category Creation Can Win New Attention for an Old Company Case Study

How category design mobilizes employees and helps the board

How category design mobilizes employees and helps the board Case Study
4 MIN

IKEA’s Category Formula: How to See New Categories During Great Change

To spot an opportunity to create a new market category, look for the intersection of context, missing and innovation.

In category design, we think of it as a formula: f (category) = context + missing +...Read More