Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more)

September 17, 2023

AI Summary

5 min read

Christopher Lochhead explains category design as a strategy for entrepreneurs and marketers to create and dominate new market categories rather than competing in existing ones, drawing from his experience as a former CMO and co-author of books like Play Bigger and The 22 Laws of Category Design. He uses data, historical examples, and startup cases to show how this approach captures most economic value while critiquing common product-focused myths.

Core Mechanism of Category Design

Category design involves framing, naming, and claiming a new problem (or reframing an old one) to make a solution irreplaceable. Unlike product innovation alone, it designs the market itself—problems create categories, not vice versa. Data from a peer-reviewed HBR analysis of U.S. venture-backed tech firms (2000–2015) shows one company typically claims 76% of total category value (by market cap), leaving 24% for others. Examples include Gojo Industries reframing handwashing "without disgusting bar soap" into liquid soap and hand sanitizer (Purell), and Lomi as the "smart home composter" that turns food scraps into nutrient-rich dirt in hours, earning counter space in kitchens.

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What you'll learn

1 `* (00:00:00) **Intro Banter and Guest Praise**`
2 `* (00:12:23) **Category Design Defined vs. Competing in Existing Markets**`
3 `* (00:23:07) **Category Examples and Expansion Pitfalls**`
4 `* (00:29:19) **The "Better Trap" Warning Signs and Failures**`
5 `* (00:39:08) **Framing, Naming, Claiming: Languaging Process**`
6 `* (01:08:53) **Critiques: Product-Market Fit, Positioning, Differentiation**`
7 `* (01:26:05) **Key Laws, GTM: Lightning Strikes, Super Consumers, WOM**`

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

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Christopher Lochhead is a 14-time #1 bestselling author, top podcaster, and former 3x public tech company CMO and has been an advisor to over 50 VC-backed tech startups. He is best known as a “godfather” of category design, and Adobe named his book Play Bigger one of “the five greatest marketing books of all time.” In this episode, we discuss:• What exactly category design is

• The “Frame It, Name It, Claim It” framework

• How to go about designing your category

• Why “languaging” is so powerful

• Rating yourself on the category design scorecard

• Why Chris considers “product-market fit” a dangerous concept

• Chris’s spicy take on positioning

• The “better trap” and why it’s crucial to avoid it

• The magic triangle of product, company, and category

• How to embrace negative feedback

• Why the greatest time in the history of innovation is now

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-become-a-category-pirate-christopher