Category Design Examples, Videos & Books

The Transformation Principles: How General Catalyst Builds Category Defining Companies

This past week, The Transformation Principles, a book I co-authored with General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja, was published. It is getting attention from journalists and business leaders who...Read More

America’s Intel Stake is a Bet on a Category Design Miracle

Through a category design lens, the American people should temper any excitement about their new 10% stake in Intel.

That is, unless Intel...Read More

Category Design Lessons From the Fall of Humane AI

On February 28, Humane AI and its AI Pin ceased to exist. Through our category design lens, that outcome long seemed...Read More

In Category Design, Name the Villain and the Thing

Names are a powerful way to get into people’s brains. Give something complex a sticky name, and it becomes much more memorable than all the details. It turns...Read More

Pitch VCs On The Category You’ll Create, Not Just Your Company

There’s something we always tell startups about pitching to VCs or seed investors – something that founders rarely get right:

Pitch the category first, and then why your...Read More

How the Teachings of Aristotle Apply to Category Design

The concepts that make category design so effective are deeply rooted in human behavior. They are timeless.

Around 350 BC, in ancient Greece, Aristotle introduced the...Read More

A Category Designer’s Pitch Deck: Turning Investors Into Believers

When a company pitches investors for funding, a category design approach makes the story and pitch deck more powerful.

The smartest investors first want to see...Read More

Write the Rules, Win the Game: How to Lead and Dominate in a New Market Category

An important part of category design is what we call setting the rules for a new market category.

The company that successfully...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

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

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

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

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

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

The Ultimate Category POV – The TED Main Stage

We often tell founders to pitch their company – to investors, customers, the public or anyone – as if giving a TED Talk. And the best TED Talks...Read More

Consider the Elephant: Why Your Company’s POV Should Touch Emotions

Emotions open the door. Facts seal the deal. That works far better than the other way around.

We’ve worked on category design with hundreds of startup...Read More

Strategic Category Design and Vision Entropy: Insights from Teledesic’s Demise

As a journalist in the late-1990s, I wrote a number of articles about the exciting promise of a company called Teledesic. And then, in the early-2000s, Teledesic spun out of...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

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

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

How To Turn A Category Point Of View 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

40 MIN

Play Bigger

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

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

53 MIN

353 Russia Could Have Been Legendary: Russia’s Turbulent Transition

69 MIN

Million Dollar Stories: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets

37 MIN

Presentation Hell

40 MIN

Seeing New Categories in Old Sectors: The Story of The Sports Bra

One of the questions we sometimes get about category design goes like this: Category design seems to be about creating new technology, but can new non-tech categories be created in...Read More

Category Design – The Key to Competitive Advantage

40 MIN

How to Create A New B2B Category

24 MIN

How to Design a Category for Your Brand w/John Rougeux

24 MIN

Attract Your Ideal Customers w/John Rougeux

50 MIN

Reimagining Business Strategies w/Kevin Maney

24 MIN

Manage Smarter w/Kevin Maney

26 MIN

How to Become the Category Leader in 2023 w/Kevin Maney

29 MIN

How to Create New Business Opportunities Through Category Creation

30 MIN

Disrupting The Status Quo: Mastering Category Design For Business Success

36 MIN

Radically Different: Specializing Your Business With Category Design w/John Rougeux

43 MIN

Kevin Maney – Be a Category Leader

38 MIN

Celebrating Female Category Designers on #InternationalWomensDay

For International Women’s Day, we want to celebrate all the female category designers out there. These legendary category designers have successfully implemented their category strategies and created their...Read More

Ready to Create your Category?

Book Office Hours

Category Design Resources for the New Year

As Category Design Advisors enters its seventh year, we’ve launched a new website and organized a Resources page that makes it easier to find category-creation stories and new...Read More

Kevin Maney & The Power of Being Unscaled

1:19 MIN

Intended Consequences

Positioning

Being Different Matters: Talking the Future of AI with Author Kevin Maney

27 MIN

3 MIN

LinkedIn Sales Solutions and the “Deep” Category Design Lightning Strike of 2022

This week, LinkedIn’s Sales Solution business unit pulled off a pitch-perfect, multi-threaded lightning strike to introduce the “deep sales” category it is creating.

Early this past summer, the LSS leadership...Read More

3 MIN

How Covey’s “The Seven Habits” Applies to Category Design

I had never read Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The book came out in 1989, shot onto bestseller lists and has since sold...Read More

How Category Designers Create The Future

1:09 MIN

Where Good Ideas Come From

B2B Category Creators

53 MIN

Resources

The Transformation Principles: How General Catalyst Builds Category Defining Companies

America’s Intel Stake is a Bet on a Category Design Miracle

Category Design Lessons From the Fall of Humane AI

In Category Design, Name the Villain and the Thing

Pitch VCs On The Category You’ll Create, Not Just Your Company

How the Teachings of Aristotle Apply to Category Design

A Category Designer’s Pitch Deck: Turning Investors Into Believers

Write the Rules, Win the Game: How to Lead and Dominate in a New Market Category

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

Navigating the Innovation Spectrum: Strategic Insights for Category Designers

Inspired by Maya Angelou, Strategic Category Design Leverages Emotion

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

Naming Your Category – 7 Guidelines

Cognitive Biases and Category Design: A Salute to Daniel Kahneman

The Enduring Power of Winning a Market Category

The Ultimate Category POV – The TED Main Stage

Consider the Elephant: Why Your Company’s POV Should Touch Emotions

Strategic Category Design and Vision Entropy: Insights from Teledesic’s Demise

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

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

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

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

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

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

How To Turn A Category Point Of View Into a Video: 3 Case Studies

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

Kevin Maney joins Larry Olsen on the MindSet Playbook Podcast

Play Bigger

How White Claw Won and Shaped Its Category

Category Designers See Opportunity In a Recession

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

353 Russia Could Have Been Legendary: Russia’s Turbulent Transition

Million Dollar Stories: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets

Presentation Hell

Seeing New Categories in Old Sectors: The Story of The Sports Bra

Category Design – The Key to Competitive Advantage

How to Create A New B2B Category

How to Design a Category for Your Brand w/John Rougeux

Attract Your Ideal Customers w/John Rougeux

Reimagining Business Strategies w/Kevin Maney

Manage Smarter w/Kevin Maney

How to Become the Category Leader in 2023 w/Kevin Maney

How to Create New Business Opportunities Through Category Creation

Disrupting The Status Quo: Mastering Category Design For Business Success

Radically Different: Specializing Your Business With Category Design w/John Rougeux

Kevin Maney – Be a Category Leader

Celebrating Female Category Designers on #InternationalWomensDay

Ready to Create your Category?

Category Design Resources for the New Year

Kevin Maney & The Power of Being Unscaled

Intended Consequences

Positioning

Being Different Matters: Talking the Future of AI with Author Kevin Maney

LinkedIn Sales Solutions and the “Deep” Category Design Lightning Strike of 2022

How Covey’s “The Seven Habits” Applies to Category Design

How Category Designers Create The Future

Where Good Ideas Come From

B2B Category Creators

How Category Designers Create The Future on the Follow Your Different Podcast featuring Kevin Maney

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Category Creation: Why Category Design Thinking Is Necessary In Times of Crisis w/ Kevin Maney & Mike Damphouss‪e‬

Category creator Ephesoft gets acquired by Kofax

Ready to Create your Category?

Tech drove the world into turmoil; it’s a huge category opportunity

How Category Design Helps Discover Your Why

Kevin Maney joins Larry Olsen on the MindSet Playbook Podcast

eBook: 9 Key Lessons for ALL Category Designers

Download our eBook

Category Creation

How To Create Different Futures with Kevin Maney

London Category Design Dinner

Responsible Category Designers Will Change Business Innovation As We Know It

4 Drivers That Impact Category Creation

Category Naming as a Brand – Sriracha

Behind the Cloud

A Conversational Guide to Category Building

Kevin Maney on designing your own category

Fast Frontiers-Category Design

Category Names & Proprietary Eponyms–The Category Design Gold Standard