How to become a category pirate | Christopher Lochhead (author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, Category Pirates, more‪)‬ Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

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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.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-become-a-category-pirate-christopher-lochhead-author-of-play-bigger-niche-down-category/
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Where to find Christopher Lochhead:
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lochhead
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherlochhead/
• Website: https://www.categorypirates.com/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Chris’s background
(05:08) Why Chris shares his negative criticism on his website
(11:58) A simple explanation of category design
(18:00) How Purell mastered category design
(23:07) What Gong got right (and wrong)
(29:01) The “better trap” and why it’s crucial to avoid it
(38:51) Reflective thinking vs. reflexive thinking
(44:45) How Lomi created a revolutionary solution for food waste 
(48:50) The “Frame It, Name It, Claim It” framework 
(49:08) The concept of “languaging” 
(54:00) Examples of languaging 
(59:19) Spend more time on the problem than the solution
(1:01:37) The power of “backcasting”
(1:07:33) The truth behind building legendary brands
(1:10:39) The problem with product-market fit
(1:16:11) Chris’s spicy take on positioning
(1:19:20) “Damming the demand”
(1:24:49) Laws from Chris’s book The 22 Laws of Category Design
(1:29:46) Word of mouth: the most powerful form of marketing
(1:34:05) Chris’s closing message to listeners
(1:39:01) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Rick Rubin Says Trust Your Gut, Not Your Audience: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rick-rubin-says-trust-your-gut-not-your-audience/id1570872415?i=1000606447333
• How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-identify-your-ideal-customer
• Grant Cardone on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantCardone
• Tai Lopez on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tailopez
• The Difference Between a First Mover and a Category Creator: https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-difference-between-a-first-mover-and-a-category-creator
• Gojo Industries: https://www.gojo.com/
• Gartner reports: https://www.gartner.com/
• Forrester reports: https://www.forrester.com/bold
• Gong: https://www.gong.io/
• Clari: https://www.clari.com/
• Threads, Instagram’s “Twitter Killer,” Has Arrived: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/05/technology/threads-app-meta-twitter-killer.html
• Kevin Maney: https://kevinmaney.com/
• Red Bull cola: https://www.redbull.com/int-en/theorganics/organics-simply-cola
• Microsoft Copied Apple’s Successful Retail Plan. Now It’s Shutting the Whole Thing Down: https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/microsoft-copied-apples-successful-retail-plan-now-its-shutting-whole-thing-down.html
• A New Way to Think, with W