Insights

A brand transformation rarely stalls because the idea was wrong. It stalls because nobody owned what happened after launch. Three places to look, in order, before anyone proposes a relaunch.

Why a Dutch guitar maker that knows exactly who they are ends up with fans, not just customers. A case study from the owner of four of their guitars.

If strategy matters so much, why is there never time for it? Being too busy is a choice, and every delayed start costs more than it seems.

The fix for initiatives that move fast and add up to nothing is to settle the destination first. That's good advice, and it's not really about AI.

Leaders guess their organization has about 10% variance in its judgments. Measured, it's usually north of 50%. The same gap exists in how your company describes itself, and it can't be fixed by averaging.

We defined Runway's category in 2024. When it came time to rebuild our own site, we ended up hosting it there ourselves.

Feature comparisons put you on someone else's playing field. Category design lets you set the rules instead.

Procreate took a clear stance against generative AI. That's a point of view, and most companies never manage to state one when a new technology arrives.

The signals that tell you a company you back has a positioning problem, and what to do when you hear them.

A working definition, the three things that actually produce it, and why the document that fixes your positioning also fixes your culture problem.

Most rebrands underdeliver for the same handful of reasons, and almost none of them are visual design problems. Ten mistakes, grouped by the stage where they happen.

In 2022 we argued Zuckerberg's Meta keynote was a textbook Lightning Strike. The execution was near-perfect. The category still collapsed, and that's the more useful lesson.

In 2020 I helped merge a scattered group of volunteer projects into the TCN Protocol, which Apple and Google built on. Three lessons that transfer.