Our brains deal with information overload by making decisions that feel comfortable. This is not based on facts and logic but on our instincts. That is why conditioning the mind of those you want to persuade is key to category design and to creating greatness. Common biases include:<ul><li>The anchoring effect: New information affects how we think about all information in that category.</li><li>Groupthink: We tend to believe things other people believe.</li><li>Conformity bias: We often believe similarly to others in our group.</li><li>Choice supportive: When we choose something, we tend to believe it will always be better.</li></ul>

Why our brains need categories

Legendary startup founders create categories, not just products/companies.
Traits of legendary startups:
<ul>
<li>They have remarkable teams</li>
<li>They have breakthrough products that change the future</li>
<li>Instead of improving a product, they design a new category that transcends the products of today</li>
</ul>

The legendary founder

Identify the primary way your product breaks free from the present.<ul><li>How do you want the world to think differently about a problem?</li><li>How do you want to introduce them to a different future, not a better product?</li><li>How is the world you propose different from the current world?</li></ul>

Identify your founding insights

Get the people that are important to your ecosystem to move toward the future of your design. For example, when Clarence Birdseye found a way to flash freeze fruits, vegetables and meats, he didn't stop there. He had to develop packaging to keep it fresh and convince the railroads to design specific cars that would keep it fresh in transit; he had to persuade supermarkets to obtain freezers and appeal to customers to buy it.

Mobilise your movement

Category design is how you condition the minds of people to move with you to a different future.Just like items in a supermarket, categories take up specific containers in people's minds. There are four key steps to creating a category.<ol><li>Identify your founding insights, then use them to identify your difference. </li><li>Create your category design blueprint. </li><li>Define your provocative point of view.</li><li>Mobilize your movement.</li></ol>

4 Steps to create a category

A strong point of view will help people to embrace your idea. Your point of view should draw a distinction between what the world is and the world you're proposing without mentioning your competitors in any way.

Define your provocative point of view

Map the entire ecosystem that will put your category in motion. <ul><li>Who are the players that need to help you evangelize the category?</li><li>Who will be threatened by your proposed future?</li><li>What will they do to stop you?</li></ul>

Create your category design blueprint

Conventional startup founders think like traditional marketing people. They will map and segment a market, and then try to compete in that market. However, legendary startup founders design categories, not products. By doing this, there is no comparison or competition—only others who will eventually be compared to them.

Startups change the future so they MUST be different, rather than better. Christopher Lochhead shows us how category designers realize that different is believable from a startup, but better is not. Any powerful startup idea pre-supposes an exponentially different future, which means your startup MUST change the way the people think about the future rather than incrementally improve on the products they already use. Different forces a choice rather than a comparison. And different sticks, while better gets lost in the noise. In this lesson of greatness, we cover the specific steps involved in applying category design to your startup.

4 Steps to create a category

Lessons of Greatness: Design your category

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