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Where the category design curious go to become category design capable… Category Thinkers is a podcast dedicated to exploring and demystifying the world of category design. Our mission is to help you identify, understand, and apply category design principles to your own ventures, no matter the industry or stage of your business journey. We believe that embracing category design strategies can unlock the potential of any business or individual, and we aim to debunk the notion that its application is limited to specific situations.
40 Episodes
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In this podcast episode, Hywel Carver, CEO of Skiller Whale, shares his company's category design journey after attending a workshop by Category Design Advisors, sponsored by Concept Ventures. He discusses the challenges they faced in defining their offering and how the workshop, along with the book "Play Bigger," helped them create a new category called "Live Team Coaching." The process involved the entire senior leadership team and emphasized the importance of alignment and internal collabo...
Commercial real estate isn’t usually a place that is associated with technological innovation, neither is the HVAC industry, but that makes it ripe for category design. Meet Frederik Hendriksen, the founder of Rensair. Explore their groundbreaking smart ventilation system, seamlessly integrating hardware and software to optimize energy efficiency and indoor air quality in commercial buildings. Triggered by the massive shift in context during Covid, Rensair has pushed to transform their catego...
In this episode, John Rougeux interviews Lauren Pufpaf, the President, COO, and co-founder of Feed Media Group. Lauren’s company was founded on the insight that apps need the right music experience to fully engage users. But as the company grew, they learned that they weren’t going after a big enough problem. Listen in to learn how Lauren and her team used category design to shift their thinking. This episode is sponsored by: Category Design Advisors BeTheStage.live Flag & Frontier
A.I. has created a massive shift in context, and with that comes massive opportunities for category designers, but it also means a flood of competitors into the same space. Brian Schiff had capitalized on this shift, focusing on leveraging A.I. to take customer support from a cost center to a profit center, and is now using category design to avoid commoditization as the lookalikes show up in his space. This conversation is moderated by the founders of Category Thinkers, John Rougeux and Mik...
Al Ramadan is the CEO of Play Bigger, LLC and one of the co-authors of “Play Bigger,” and a dedicated board member of Save The Waves Coalition. In this replay of our live AMA event, we’ll dive deep into the art of category design. Discover how shifts in context—ranging from environmental changes to global events like pandemics, wars, or financial crises—can spark innovative solutions and new categories. We’ll unpack how category designers are fortunate to have a skill that extends beyond star...
In this episode, we interview Rebecca Kirstein Resch, the founder and CEO at inqli. Rebecca’s company is dedicated to helping workplace teams tap into the power of ‘tacit knowledge.’ She’s been using category design as a framework for uncovering new problems and now has a clear story about why a new type of solution called ‘social knowledge sharing’ needs to exist. Listen in to hear the insights Rebecca has unlocked through her founder’s journey and how she’s thinking about the future. ...
In this episode, Nick Tippmann, former CMO of medtech company Greenlight Guru, joins Pablo, Damp, and John to break down his journey as a marketer turned investor. Nick shares why vertical SaaS companies should think like category designers and how he evaluates the category potential of early-stage startups. We discuss: How Greenlight Guru tipped from tool to platform to category, Why he believes vertical SaaS is fertile ground for category designers, How he evaluates the cate...
In this episode, we’re joined by Dan Gottlieb, a Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. Dan shares his take on how analysts like him define categories and when to establish a new one. He also unpacks how startups can stand out in crowded categories by defining their “critical capabilities” and shares how and when startups should educate analysts like him about their solutions. This episode was hosted by John Rougeux and Mike "Damp" Damphousse, and sponsored by: Category Design Advisors...
Sangram Vajre is one of the best-known category designers in B2B SaaS, with community and events being critical parts of his playbook. Not only did Sangram bring the account-based marketing category to life during his time at Terminus, but he's also used the same playbook to launch a successful paid community (Peak), and now a service business (GTM Partners). In this recording of our life AMA with Sangram, you’ll learn how community and events can help drive your category strategy. We touch o...
In this episode, Brad Luttrell joins us to talk through how he discovered category design a year and a half ago, why it was the strategy Holler Commerce needed to adopt, and what he has done to design social commerce as a service category ever since. He speaks with our co-founder, John Rougeux and Damp, about: Whether category design is a choice or a need, and whyHow he rethought his product strategy with a category lensWhat he is doing to build a moat by being radically different This...
In this episode, Ken Rutsky joins us to explore a concept he calls ‘category memetics.’ It’s the idea that new categories can act like memes – they can enter the mind, replicate, and rapidly spread to others. Ken shares his insights on how to create a successful category meme and unpacks some of the research he uncovered that led to these insights. Listen now to: Hear how memes can act as a cultural transmission tool in businessUnderstand how to create effective category language L...
It takes a lot of time and commitment to write a great strategic narrative, but if you can use battle tested frameworks, they will save you time, money and even heartbreak. Strategy and brand design expert Josh Lowman walks us through the three tools he uses to quickly pitch and vet new category ideas, and engages with our community in our monthly AMA. He covers topics like: How the "shift" affects the category narrative, and how it differs between technological an...
Scott Albro, co-founder and CEO of Goldie shares his insights on why analyst buy-in is crucial for category success, strategies for effectively communicating your category vision, and real-world examples from his time at TOPO. For those unfamiliar, TOPO, Inc. was a research and advisory firm that provided insights and consulting services to high-growth companies. Under Scott's leadership, TOPO became a beacon for businesses looking to understand and conquer their markets before being a...
Innovative companies must convince buyers and analysts why their solutions differ from the status quo, and why that difference matters. But sometimes, developing the right narrative can be a challenge. This is where a well-crafted point of view (POV) can help. In this episode, we’re joined by David West, co-founder and CEO of Proscia. After attending a category design workshop, David was finally able to get the market to understand why his company’s solution in pathology was such an important...
Category design principles can be applied in different ways, for different outcomes. And while sometimes it’s clear that your business needs to act like a category designer, other times the answer is less straightforward. In this episode, we’re joined by Jonathan Gandolf, founder and CEO of The Juice. Jonathan was introduced to category design early in his career, and used the discipline in software and even breweries. Now, at The Juice, he’s in the midst of deciding if and how category desig...
In this episode, Jared Robin, founder of RevGenius, shares his take on how category design and community can mutually reinforce each other. In 2020, Jared took a small LinkedIn group and turned it into a community that now has over 40,000 members. In our conversation, you’ll hear all about Jared’s journey and how he plans to build community going forward – all with a category design lens. Episode highlights include: Jared's path to discovering category design and how it has shaped his t...
In this episode, we’re joined by Pietro Bezza, co-founder and managing partner at Connect Ventures. Pietro shares a framework he calls “minimal viable category design,” which focuses on helping early stage startups have the right conversations about the problem they’re solving and their plans for evangelizing it. Listen now to find out: The challenges of pursuing “product/market” fit instead of “market/product” fitWhat Pietro looks for when evaluating early stage startups for inve...
After Kevin Maney co-authored the book Play Bigger in 2016, he and Mike Damphousse founded Category Design Advisors to guide CEOs in implementing category design. That was seven years ago. Now, after over 40 client engagements and joined by John Rougeux, the team decided it was time to rework its own category Point of View. In this recording of a live AMA, the CDA team shares why they decided to apply category design to themselves, the process they used to redefine their Point of View, an...
In this podcast episode, James Carbary, founder of Sweet Fish Media, discusses how he went from running a blog writing agency to becoming the category king of B2B podcasting, thanks to category design. He debunks the myth that category design is only for VC-backed companies or those with large budgets and shares his pivot into designing a new category around owned media. This episode was moderated by John Rougeux. This episode is sponsored by: Category Design AdvisorsBeTheStage.live
In 2020, Doug Camplejohn was working at Salesforce when a global pandemic suddenly changed the world. He soon realized that there might be an opportunity to address the new ways in which people found themselves working. That’s when he decided to start Airspeed, a family of apps that helps employees feel connected and celebrated. Through the lens of category design, we dive into his journey, including: How he determined if his idea represented a new category opportunityHis process for identi...
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