It is usually the right instinct, badly executed. Naming the problem is what makes a category feel inevitable, because the buyer recognises the pain before they evaluate the tool, and it is why phrases like inbound marketing or revenue intelligence worked. The mistake is stopping there and never telling anyone what kind of thing you are, so the buyer nods at the problem and then has no idea what to put in the budget line. Name the problem in the headline, name the product category in the next breath.
4 hand-picked resources, 4 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it Lochhead walks through frame it, name it, claim it, and is unusually direct about the better trap of competing on incremental product improvement. Good for hearing category design argued by the person who named it.
On Lenny's Podcast by Lenny Rachitsky 1 hr 20 min
Why we picked it The company's own account of why it moved from conversation intelligence to revenue intelligence, including the buyer problem that forced the rename. This is the primary source on the most copied category play of the last decade.
From Gong by Jonathan Costet 10 min read
Open gong.io →Why we picked it The five part narrative structure (name the shift, name winners and losers, show the promised land, position capabilities as magic, prove it) that most modern B2B decks are downstream of. Concrete enough to rebuild your deck from in an afternoon.
From Mission.org by Andy Raskin 11 min read
Open medium.com →Why we picked it Their public teardowns and positioning strategies are the fastest way to see the same product framed four or five different ways. Steal the framing patterns even if you never buy the sprint.
From fletchpmm.com by Anthony Pierri and Robert Kaminski Browse
Open fletchpmm.com →How category design reads from a different seat.
The same ground, over in Brand, web & content, our Starting Up track.
The same ground, over in Find your idea & build the brand, our D2C track.
