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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 strategic category design. Book a slot on our calendar to bounce ideas off a Category Design Advisors partner – pro bono.

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Min

The Enduring Power of Winning a Market Category
"We’re seen as different from other vendors in the space. Every time I have a conversation with CIOs and CEOs, they immediately get it... We’re seen now as the Time Intelligence company.” Raj Narayanswamy, CEO Replicon
“A fresh perspective helped. The packaging, structure of the concept – we wouldn’t have gotten so far if not for an external force making us think longer term.” Brian Leonard and Stacy Brown-Philpot , TaskRabbit
“The category design process helped us dramatically sharpen and improve our category and direction, and develop messaging and positioning around it.”
 Assaf Resnick, CEO, BigPanda
"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

Orchestrate a business strategy that vaults your company to the elite level.

Strategic 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
Min

Andreessen Proposed Product/Market Fit, But It Really Is Market/Product Fit

“A fresh perspective helped. The packaging, structure of the concept – we wouldn’t have gotten so far if not for an external force making us think longer term.”

Brian Leonard and Stacy Brown-Philpot , TaskRabbit

Learn from the experts

Category Design Resources

2024 Looks Like a Rare Window for the Boldest Companies to Define and Win Their Categories

So 2023 sucked for the startup ecosystem. But there are signs that 2024 will bring opportunities for companies to reset, reload and win their markets.

Sure, it’s not going to...Read More

Video Case Studies: Four CEOs On How Category Design Drove Real Outcomes

We often get asked about measurable outcomes of category design. When we work on a project with a client, together we identify a category-creation opportunity, develop a category point of...Read More

Cognitive Biases and Category Design: A Salute to Daniel Kahneman

While researching and writing the book Play Bigger, we started to realize that good category design required an understanding of cognitive biases and how they work.  So we turned...Read More

Naming Your Category – 7 Guidelines

How do you name an innovation?

When we work with companies to help them identify and define a new market category, part of defining it is giving it a name....Read More

Mind Space: Lessons From the Creation of the Electric Car Category

Creating a new market category means opening up a new space in your audience’s brains.

The New York Times recently published a story about how electric cars are finally...Read More

Navigating the Innovation Spectrum: Strategic Insights for Category Designers

When creating a new market category, an interesting question to consider is: Where will your product land on the continuum from emergent to hierarchical – what we call...Read More

Inspired by Maya Angelou, Strategic Category Design Leverages Emotion

In the busy landscape of startups and innovation, new products and services constantly flood the market. Standing out is a necessity for survival. 

One proven way...Read More

How Red-Hot Guidewheel Leveraged Category Design Into a $31M B Round

When we first worked with Lauren Dunford, during Covid, she was running a seed-stage company called Safi that had been started in Kenya. It was a small...Read More

Suffering from One of These 7 Business Conditions? Category Design Is Your Rx

As advisors who work with company leadership teams on category design, sometimes we’re like personal trainers – the company is in good shape and knows what it wants to accomplish,...Read More

Andreessen Proposed Product/Market Fit, But It Really Is Market/Product Fit

Sixteen years ago, in June 2007, Marc Andreessen wrote a blog post titled “The only thing that matters.” It was the first use of the term “product/market fit” –...Read More

Category-Led Growth: The “-Led Growth” Strategy That Ensures the Others Succeed

Enduring, impactful, high-growth companies give us something new — something that didn’t exist before. But if it didn’t exist before, the challenge is to create powerful demand.

That’s the ultimate...Read More

Perception vs. Perspective: The Value of Seeing Your Business From the Outside In

When you’re inside a company, especially if you’re a founder, one of the hardest things to do is to clearly see your company and product from the outside-in...Read More