This week on the Digital Velocity Podcast, Kevin Maney of Category Design Advisors joins Erik and Tim to discuss how the category design process can help businesses win new markets and gain economic advantages.
The category design process offers companies the framework to take a business to another level. Kevin says,
“…if you are a founder of a company, why would you not want to try to improve your odds of being the one that ends up winning that category and taking all the economics? Because otherwise, you’re just scraping for market share in somebody else’s category. So, then if that’s the beginning of your thinking, okay, yes, of course. If I’m running a company and I want to really make something of this company, then that means the mindset should be, I should want to be a category leader. Then how do you reverse engineer how to become that or how to at least improve your odds of becoming that?”
Kevin continues,
“If you are one of those founders, then this way of thinking, of thinking outside in, what is the problem to be solved? What does that category look like? What are the rules that should be around it? What does a solution look like? And define that first, and then take it inside and say, now we’re going to build a company that satisfies that category. That becomes a very interesting and novel way to think about what you’re creating as a company.”
Winning a new market not only offers companies the satisfaction of solving problems in that particular market but also brings financial rewards. Kevin explains,
“But the nature of the beast in digital markets is that if you win the category, if you become that category winner, as we define it in the book, you are a virtual monopoly because you are taking away 75, 80% of the market share of that particular category.”
Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about the benefits of using the category design process.
About the Guest:
Kevin Maney is a founding partner of Category Design Advisors (CDA), a bestselling author, an award-winning columnist, and a TV commentator.
Kevin is co-author of the book Play Bigger, which has sold more than 100,000 copies globally and created a category design movement among entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and CEOs. Using the category design process Kevin co-created, CDA has helped more than 50 companies discover, define and get on track to dominate new markets.
Kevin has been writing about technology for 30 years and has interviewed most of the tech pioneers you can name. He wrote a column for Newsweek and has been a contributor to Fortune, The Atlantic, Wired, and ABC News. He was a contributing editor at Conde Nast Portfolio and a columnist and editor at USA Today. His book The Maverick and His Machine is considered the de facto history of IBM.
He’s appeared frequently on television and radio, including CNN, CBS Sunday Morning, and NPR.
He also writes music for and plays in a New York band, Total Blam Blam.