The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.
⚡Myth Buster· 1
⚡Myth Buster29:00
Why 'Just Better' Products Like Threads Fail
Threads had arguably the greatest distribution advantage in software history, a top-10 brand, and a free product, yet it cratered because it attacked a well-understood problem with a direct, 'just better' copy of Twitter. Lochhead cites the same 'better trap' behind the Amazon Fire Phone, Red Bull Cola, and Microsoft stores. Problems create categories, not the other way around.
Threads had a billion-user brand and the best distribution ever, and still failed
Copying a known solution to a known problem gives the world no reason to switch
The Amazon Fire Phone, Red Bull Cola, and Microsoft stores all failed as 'better' copies
To win you must solve a new problem or reframe an existing one very differently
“Here's the aha. Problems create categories.”
“can't take an existing problem with an existing solution, launch exactly the same [ __ ] tell the world it's better and have the world embrace it.…”
#better-trap#category-design#threads#product
◆Hot Take· 3
◆Hot Take1:10:30
Why Product-Market Fit Is a Dangerous Idea
Lochhead argues product-market fit is backwards: it tells you to fit your product into a market someone else designed. Threads achieved product-market fit faster than anything in history and still failed. Categories make products, so you should design a market category for your product rather than squeeze it into an existing one.
Product-market fit means fitting your product into an existing market
Threads hit product-market fit faster than any product ever and still failed
Categories make products, not the other way around
Design a market category for your product instead of fitting into one
“Threads achieved product market fit faster than any product in the history of the world. Categories make products. Not the other way around.”
“what you want is you want to design a market category for your product, not fit your product into a market category.”
Contradicting the 'share your startup journey' advice, Lochhead insists customers only care about themselves, their problems, and their opportunities. Backing it with Nielsen data from their book Snow Leopard, he notes the number one category of business/non-fiction books is personal growth and self-help, because people buy things about themselves, not about your product.
The 'share your founder journey' advice is misguided; nobody cares about it
Customers care about their own needs, wants, problems, and opportunities
Nielsen data showed personal growth/self-help is the #1 non-fiction book category
Categories are about customers; branding and marketing are about your product
“No one gives a [ __ ] about your journey. They really don't. You know what they care about? Themselves.”
“categories are about customers and their wants, needs, problems, and opportunities. Branding and marketing is about our product.”
#marketing#storytelling#customer-focus#hot-take
◆Hot Take1:16:00
Why Positioning Is 'For Losers'
Lochhead's spiciest take: positioning, by definition, means positioning against competitors, which means you've already accepted fighting for the 24% of demand someone else designed. He reframes positioning as 'category design for the cowards,' a way to carve a small niche instead of daring to create your own space.
Positioning always implies positioning against competitors
Positioning against competitors means fighting for the leftover 24% of demand
He calls modern positioning 'for losers' and 'category design for the cowards'
Differentiation at the product-to-product level is the same trap
“positioning in the modern context is for losers.”
“positioning has become sort of category design for the cowards.”
Lochhead shares peer-reviewed data from studying every US venture-backed tech company from 2000 to 2015. On average, one company (the category king or queen) captures 76% of the total market cap in its category, leaving everyone else to fight over the remaining ~24%. Choosing to compete rather than create a category is the unexamined decision most entrepreneurs make.
The study measured market cap/valuation across a whole category, not market share
One company earns roughly two-thirds (76%) of all value in a tech category
Competing means unknowingly fighting for the leftover 24% of demand
We admire the people who broke new ground, not the second or fifth best in a category
“In tech market categories, on average, one company earns 2/3, 76% to be exact, of the total value created as measured by market cap and/or…”
“we have unwittingly said, "We're going to fight for the 24%."”
#category-design#market-cap#strategy#data
✶Explainer39:00
Reflexive vs Reflective Thinking
Drawing on Roger Martin, Lochhead distinguishes reflexive thinking (instant, automatic reactions like a knee jerk or swerving to avoid a crash) from reflective thinking (actually questioning why you believe what you believe). Most people, and most entrepreneurs, run on reflex and assume the future continues the past. Legendary founders instead design a different future.
Reflexive thinking is automatic reaction; reflective thinking questions your own beliefs
Most people mistake reflexive thinking for reflective thinking
People unconsciously assume the future is a continuation of the past
Great entrepreneurs are 'visitors from the future,' obsessed enough to make it real
“At a high level, there's two kinds of thinking. Reflective and reflexive.”
“the greatest entrepreneurs are visitors from the future telling us how it's going to be.”
Lochhead introduces 'super consumers,' the roughly 8 to 10% of buyers in a category who account for the vast majority of profits and, more importantly, act as the category's thought leaders and taste-makers. Understanding who and where your supers are, and reaching them in the native digital world, is the ultimate low-cost growth engine.
Roughly 8 to 10% of a category's buyers produce most of the profits
Super consumers are the zeitgeists and thought leaders others aspire to
Find where your supers hang out, primarily in the native digital world
Reaching supers with a strong point of view can drive word-of-mouth cheaply
“it turns out that in most categories, roughly 8 to 10% of the buyers are responsible for the vast majority of the profits.”
“they are the zeitgeists. They are the thought leaders in the industry.”
#super-consumers#icp#growth#word-of-mouth
❝Story· 7
❝Story05:00
Why He Advertises His Own Negative Reviews
Lochhead explains why he ran a full-page ad and website wall of his worst reviews. Part sense of humor, part reassurance for creators terrified of criticism: anyone doing anything genuinely new gets attacked. He argues criticism is the price of trying to break new ground.
He may be the only podcaster to run a full-page magazine ad using only negative quotes
Every creator who puts themselves into their work feels devastated by criticism
Picasso, the Beatles, Elvis, and early hip-hop were all ridiculed before being celebrated
Displaying the criticism is a way to normalize it and not take yourself too seriously
“but I believe I'm the only podcaster in history to run a full-page ad in Podcast Magazine with just negative quotes in it.”
“Picasso was called stupid, the Beatles were called terrible, Elvis was called terrible.”
#criticism#creators#branding#resilience
❝Story17:30
How Purell's Maker Reframed 'Washing Your Hands'
Gojo Industries, founded ~80 years ago by a husband-and-wife team, hated the disgusting bar soap in their factory. Instead of asking 'how do I wash my hands,' they reframed the problem and invented liquid soap, then later hand sanitizer (Purell). The lesson: stay obsessed with the problem, not your beloved solution.
The founder reframed the problem as washing hands without a disgusting bar of soap
That reframing created the liquid soap category
Later they asked how to wash hands without water, creating hand sanitizer (Purell)
Most entrepreneurs fall in love with the solution instead of staying on the problem
“And Gojo Industries created a whole new category called liquid soap.”
“Gojo focus on the problem, not just the solution. So they stay obsessed with the problem.”
#problem-framing#category-design#product#examples
❝Story23:00
Why Gong Got Stuck and Clari Won RevOps
Gong smartly picked a tight slice of the emerging revenue/RevOps space and dominated it as a startup. But its mistake was staying in that micro-niche instead of expanding to frame the larger category. Clari claimed the bigger agenda, leaving Gong the choice of staying niche and diminishing or becoming a late Clari copycat.
Picking a tight niche is the right startup move early on
The mistake is never expanding to set the agenda for the bigger category
Your biggest barrier to growth eventually becomes your own current category
Clari framed the larger RevOps category and now leads the space
“they realize their biggest barrier to growth going forward is their current category. Because you can only be as big and successful as your market…”
“Clari's crushing everybody in this space right now.”
#category-design#rev-ops#startups#niche
❝Story44:30
How Lomi Created the Smart Home Composter Category
Lomi is the first kitchen appliance in 20 years to earn a permanent spot on the counter. It composts food scraps in three to six hours instead of three to six months, pairing a personal motivation (no more messy garbage) with an altruistic one (fighting climate change and a dirt crisis). They created demand for a ~$400 device in a market that was literally zero.
Composting that took three to six months now takes three to six hours
Lomi paired a personal upset (messy garbage) with an environmental mission
The smart home composter market was zero dollars before they launched it
Their category vision was compelling enough that Jay-Z was an early investor
“what used to take three to six months to compost gets composted in three to six hours.”
“And their vision for the new category was so compelling, Jay-Z was one of their first investors.”
#category-design#lomi#hardware#examples
❝Story49:30
How Otis Sold Elevators as 'Vertical Railways'
Otis invented the safety elevator but people saw it as a solution with no problem. By renaming it a 'vertical railway,' a term people already understood, he reframed the category and unlocked the idea of tall buildings. It is a masterclass in languaging: using strategic language to change how people think.
The 'safety elevator' name failed because people saw no problem it solved
Renaming it a 'vertical railway' connected to something people already understood
Languaging is the strategic use of language to change thinking
Reframing the problem opened people's minds to skyscrapers
“So what does Alicia call it? The vertical railway.”
“And thanks to Alicia Otis, we have tall buildings.”
#languaging#category-design#otis#naming
❝Story54:00
Starbucks Taught You New Words So It Could Charge $3
When Starbucks launched, coffee cost about 10 cents. To charge three dollars, they couldn't sell the same thing under the same name, so they invented new languaging (grande, venti, latte) to justify radical value and price differentiation. Lochhead adds his contrarian aside that Starbucks is really a milk company, not a coffee company.
To charge far more than the going rate, you must change the language
'Double grande latte' was not language anyone used 25 years ago
New languaging enables radical value and price differentiation
By volume, Starbucks is the number one milk seller in the country
“if you want to charge three bucks for something that heretofore has been 10 cents or a quarter, change the language.”
“They're the number one milk seller in the country. They're a milk company, not a coffee company”
#languaging#starbucks#pricing#branding
❝Story1:19:30
How Spinning and Peloton 'Dammed the Demand'
Category designers compete against the status quo, not against other products. Spinning redirected demand from risky road cycling to indoor classes ('why risk your life on a bike'), and Peloton then redirected demand again ('why drive to the gym when you could do it at home'). This is 'damming the demand': you thought you wanted this, but what you really need is that.
Category designers compete against the status quo, not brand-to-brand
Spinning redirected cyclists worried about accidents into indoor classes
Peloton dammed Spinning's demand with an at-home reframe, never attacking it
Damming the demand means: you thought you wanted this, but you really need that
“They say, "Why drive to the gym when you could do it at home?" They dam the demand for Spinning. They don't compete against it.”
“The enemy is the status quo. That is to say the way it is now.”
#dam-the-demand#category-design#peloton#spinning
✦Tool· 1
✦Tool1:40:00
The 'Is There Anything Else?' Question
Lochhead's favorite interview and conversation tool is simply asking, at the end, 'is there anything else?' After hours of detailed discussion, the single most important thing a person needs to communicate often surfaces only after that open prompt. He uses it in interviews, podcasts, and even hospital conversations with doctors.
He ends every podcast, and many transitions, with 'is there anything else?'
The most important point often only emerges after that question
He uses it in job interviews, podcasts, and medical situations
It is the most powerful open-ended question you can ask
“I end every single one of my podcasts with, is there anything else?”
“the most important thing for that person to communicate comes out then.”