Podcast Summary
Importance of Category Validation, Thought Leadership, and Content Creation: To build a successful new category, validate it with analysts, establish thought leadership, identify unique value propositions and pain points, create content to educate buyers, consider branding/rebranding, and differentiate with opinionated software. AssemblyAI and Stych can help reduce friction in onboarding flows.
When building a new category, it's important to validate it with analysts and directory sites, establish thought leadership, and create content to educate buyers.This includes identifying unique value propositions and pain points the category solves.Building a brand and rebranding can also be important in the growth and success of a product.Additionally, creating opinionated software can differentiate a product in a crowded market.AssemblyAI and Stych are two companies that offer product solutions for transcription and authentication, respectively, and can help reduce friction in onboarding flows.
Using Technology to Revolutionize Employee Progression: Barbra Gago is creating a platform for employee progression that replaces traditional performance reviews. When creating a new category, prioritize language and pain points of potential customers, and don't be afraid to embrace competition.
Barbra Gago, a leader in the people tech space, is building an employee progression platform to help leaders coach and develop their teams effectively.She aims to kill performance reviews as her platform offers enough structure and transparency in the process that creates accountability on both sides.She also has experience in category creation and suggests that when thinking about category creation, one should consider the scope of what they are trying to do to not limit themselves to a small category.Instead, it's important to think about the language and pain points of potential customers, competition, and budget.Category creation is validated when new companies come into the space, and it's okay to compete with them.
Understanding product categories can be a game changer for businesses looking to pitch their products effectively and build a repeatable sales process.: By understanding the pain points a specific product category addresses, businesses can tailor their sales pitch to target the right audience. Creating a new category can lead to market dominance, but can also be risky.
A product category is a grouping of products that solve a specific pain point or set of pain points for customers.Categories can be wide or narrow, and are typically defined based on feature sets.Understanding categories can help businesses pitch their products effectively and build a repeatable sales process.Creating a new category can have benefits, such as establishing leadership in a market and defining what's important, but it can also be risky and lead to wasted resources.Examples of categories include customer success platforms, market automation, and performance management.
Elevating Existing Categories to Create Value: It's not always necessary to create a new product category. Improving and optimizing existing categories can make them more valuable to users. Listening to customer feedback is important in creating a cohesive vision.
Barbra Gago, a marketing leader, shares her experiences in creating new product categories.She learned that it's not always necessary to create a new category.Instead, one can spend time and money to elevate the value of an existing category.By optimizing and improving the existing category, companies can make it much more valuable to users.However, if there is a vision for a new product category, companies can work on it in parallel with existing categories.In this process, listening to customer inputs and feedback is important to frame the new vision cohesively.
Creating a New Category for Your Product: Creating a new category for your product requires understanding your customers and their pain points, differentiating it from other categories, and validating it with PR and directory sites. It's not necessary for established companies in existing categories.
Creating a new category for your product can be a meaningful effort if you're not getting traction in any other category and if you are not already well established.The process involves understanding your customers, their pain points and how they talk about the product to differentiate it from other categories in the market.PR and building relationships with directory sites such as Gartner and Forrester can help to validate the new category.Generating thought leadership and educational content to educate buyers is important too.However, creating a new category is a lot of work and is not fruitful for companies that are already established or squarely in an existing category.
The Emergence of New Categories in the Tech Industry: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the creation of new tech categories like Deel and Oyster to manage remote workforces. Building a new category requires thought leadership, educating the market, and compliance with security measures like SOC 2.
Market demand and inflection points are driving the creation of new categories in the tech industry.A prime example is the rapid rise of employment platforms like Deel and Oyster, which have cropped up due to the need for managing distributed workforces during the COVID-19 pandemic.While companies can position themselves in existing categories like performance management, investing in building a new category requires thought leadership and content creation.The category creation process requires a bottoms-up approach, educating the market on the benefits and differences of the new category.Compliance with security measures like SOC 2 is crucial for businesses storing data in the cloud.
Streamlining SOC 2 Audits with Vanta and Insights on Rebranding: Vanta streamlines SOC 2 audits and offers a discount of $1,000 for Lenny's podcast listeners. Rebranding is important for growth; consider if the original name reflects potential, and gather feedback from early adopters.
Vanta is a tool that helps fast-growing companies automate up to 90% of the work required for SOC 2 audits, which can typically take months.With Vanta, companies can be ready for audits in just weeks.Additionally, Lenny's podcast listeners can receive a discount of $1,000 off Vanta.Rebranding can be important for companies as they grow and mature, and it's better to do it sooner rather than later.When considering a rebrand, it's important to think about whether the name of the company or product reflects its potential and whether a new name will better serve the branding goals.When rebranding, it's also important to consider the opinions and feedback from early adopters of the original brand.
The Importance of Rebranding for a Company's Success: Rebranding involves more than just changing a logo or website - it requires involving stakeholders, being authentic, and creating a love mark. When done right, rebranding can create defensibility and drive success.
Rebranding involves mobilizing and aligning the entire company towards a clear vision and process, and being transparent about it.Rebranding includes changing the visual aesthetic, website URL, and more.It's important to involve stakeholders and customers in the process, get feedback, and make sure everyone feels good about the outcome.Rebranding requires a lot of work, but it creates defensibility for a product and a brand in the market.It can also create a love mark, a brand that people really love and are invested in, but it needs to be authentic to work.Ultimately, rebranding can be powerful for a company.
The Importance of Branding for Startups: Startups should prioritize branding early, creating an authentic and human brand tied to the company's values, and visual system to create an emotional connection with customers. A great brand won't help if the product is subpar, both product, and brand should be top-notch.
Branding is important for startups to establish a strong identity and attract and retain customers.It's crucial to think about branding as early as possible and incorporate it into the company's values and DNA.A strong brand should be authentic, human, and tied to the company's mission and values.By integrating values into branding, it helps create an emotional connection with customers and makes the brand more relatable.A visual system or language can also transcend language barriers and bring together different perspectives.A great brand alone won't help if the product is subpar, so both the product and brand should be top-notch.
Importance of Defining Company Values and Branding for Scalability: For a company to scale, it's necessary to define values through a structured process of brain dumping, grouping, and voting. A great branding system should include logo, color palette, typography, photography, illustrations, and voice of the brand. Additionally, using opinionated software can ensure a consistent approach to working or behaving.
In creating a company's values, it is important to involve the leadership team in a structured process of brain dumping, grouping, and voting to articulate and define the values.Definitions can be done by someone who is good at writing, and feedback can be given to improve it.As for a company's brand, it includes the logo, color palette, typography, photography or illustrations, and the voice of the brand.Creating a brand system that is an extension of all visual and verbal communication is key to scaling the brand.Opinionated software refers to software platforms that have best practices or rules that enforce a specific way of behaving or working.
Building Values-Driven Solutions: Companies can combat systemic bias in performance evaluations by enforcing rules and creating transparency. Employees will be evaluated more fairly and have a better sense of career progression. Recommended books for management, strategic thinking, and personal enjoyment.
Barbra Gago, CEO of a performance evaluation platform, explains the importance of building a product that is anchored in values and principles.Atlassian and Greenhouse serve as examples of companies that built solutions around already established growing best practices, whereas Gago's company is looking to provide an opinionated solution to create more transparency and accountability in performance evaluations to combat systemic bias.By enforcing certain rules and creating transparency, companies can evaluate employees more fairly and provide them with a better sense of career progression.Radical Candor, The Art of War, and Kafka on the Shore are books Gago recommends for management, strategic thinking, and personal enjoyment.
Recommendations, Insights, and Inspiration from Barbra Gago: Get inspired by reading Kafka on the Shore, listening to Cautionary Tales, and watching Sandman. When interviewing, ask for top accomplishments to understand values. Connect with Gago on LinkedIn for feedback on employee progression.
Barbra Gago recommends reading Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami and listening to the podcast Cautionary Tales, which explores biases and their impact on historical events.She also enjoyed watching the TV show Sandman, based on an eight-part graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman.During interviews, she likes asking for the top 10 accomplishments of the interviewee to understand their values and what they consider important.Gago respects Nancy Duarte as a thought leader in storytelling and visual communication.People can find her on LinkedIn and reach out for feedback on their experiences with employee progression through her company, Pando.
