Category Thinkers
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.
Episodes
40 episodes
Voyage in Carving Out a Learning and Skill Development Category w/ Hywel Carver
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 Co...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 39
•
57:11
Designing a Category In an Old School Industry w/ Frederik Hendriksen
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 Fr...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 38
•
48:28
How to Right-Size the Problem You’re Solving w/ Lauren Pufpaf
In this episode, John Rougeux interviews Lauren Pufpaf, the President, COO, and co-founder of Feed Me...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 37
•
44:30
Keeping Your Point Of View Unique In A Wave Of Competition w/ Brian Schiff
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 Sc...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 36
•
54:38
Al Ramadan of Play Bigger – Category Design Beyond Tech Startups – Changing the World
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,...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 35
•
1:03:35
How Category Design Reveals Buyer Problems w/ Rebecca Kirstein Resch
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.’ Sh...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 34
•
51:41
Why Vertical SaaS is Fertile Ground for Category Design w/ Nick Tippmann
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...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 33
•
47:09
How a Gartner Analyst Looks at Categories
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 a...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 32
•
51:27
Sangram Vajre’s Events and Community Playbook
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 marketin...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 31
•
1:03:24
Do You Need Category Design (Or Is It A Choice)? w/ Brad Luttrell
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 ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 30
•
54:33
How Category Memetics Can Help A New Category Stick w/ Ken Rutsky
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 t...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 29
•
53:18
3 Tools for Category Concepts w/ Josh Lowman
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
•
Season 1
•
Episode 28
•
1:04:40
Getting Analysts To Buy Into Your Category Design w/ Scott Albro
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-w...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 27
•
53:23
How to Condition The Market w/ David West, CEO of Proscia
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...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 26
•
51:21
"When Should You Design a Category?" w/ Jonathan Gandolf
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...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 25
•
44:54
How Community & Category Design Go Hand in Hand w/ Jared Robin, Founder of RevGenius
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 membe...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 24
•
55:16
Minimal Viable Category Design w/ Pietro Bezza
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 hel...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 23
•
46:13
After 7 Years, Why Did Category Design Advisors Rewrite Their Own Point of View?
After Kevin Maney co-authored the book Play Bigger in 2016, he and Mike Damphousse founded Category Design Advisors to guide CEOs in imple...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 22
•
52:28
Designing A Category As A Bootstrapped Service Agency w/ James Carbary
In this podcast episode, James Carbary, founder of Sweet Fish Media, discusses how he went from running a blog writing agency to becoming the cate...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 21
•
38:39
Taking Advantage of a Context Shift Through Category Design w/ Doug Camplejohn
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 peo...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 20
•
41:20
Founder Clarity Through Category Design for Fundraising, Product, and Culture w/ Lauren Dunford, CEO of Guidewheel
In this episode, Lauren discusses the importance of category design for startups. We delve into startup challenges that are addressed by category design. Lauren shares how they've used Guidewheel’s FactoryOps category point of view to attrac...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 19
•
43:20
Nearbound and the Early Stages of Category Design w/ Jared Fuller and Isaac Morehouse
Jared Fuller and Isaac Morehouse were the dynamic duo behind our recent conversation about nearbound – a ra...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 18
•
50:54
Getting Sales’ Buy In For Category Design w/ Dan Tyre
This week’s show is with Dan Tyre, a legendary executive at HubSpot. Hired as employee number six, Dan talks about the backstory of the inbound category, how to get sales to ...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 17
•
52:35