Question 1

What are the key takeaways from Barbra Gago's episode on Lenny's Podcast?

Accepted Answer

1. Category creation is only worth pursuing when your product's scope far exceeds existing categories -- if buyers already have budget and language for what you do, elevate the existing category instead of inventing a new one. 2. A new category isn't real until competitors validate it by entering the space -- welcoming competition is actually a sign that category creation is working. 3. The best positioning and marketing language comes directly from customers -- listen to how they describe their pain points and build your category narrative around their words, not your own. 4. Rebranding should be treated like a product development process with sprints, owners, and cross-functional involvement -- not a marketing team vanity project done in isolation. 5. Opinionated software that enforces best practices through product constraints creates stronger differentiation and better outcomes than fully flexible tools that leave users to figure out processes on their own.

Question 2

What does Barbra Gago say about category-creation and positioning?

Accepted Answer

"When you're thinking about category creation, it's really, for us, it was really about the scope of what we're trying to do and not wanting to be in something too small. With Miro, the platform that it is, there is so much possibility. I used to joke that it was the ever expanding universe. But online whiteboard was really small." - Barbra Gago "Ultimately, you're not building a category until there is competition. It's not officially actually a category until there's more companies that do that. It's actually okay when new companies come in that say they're that category because it's just validating the fact that there is a new category." - Barbra Gago "Instead of spending the time and money to build a new category, we were going to spend the time and money to elevate the value of this category. So rather than changing the category to something else, we were just going to spend all of our resources to make this whole category much more valuable to the users." - Barbra Gago

Question 3

What are Barbra Gago's views on category-creation, positioning, ambition?

Accepted Answer

Barbra Gago: "When you're thinking about category creation, it's really, for us, it was really about the scope of what we're trying to do and not wanting to be in something too small. With Miro, the platform that it is, there is so much possibility. I used to joke that it was the ever expanding universe. But online whiteboard was really small." Barbra Gago: "Ultimately, you're not building a category until there is competition. It's not officially actually a category until there's more companies that do that. It's actually okay when new companies come in that say they're that category because it's just validating the fact that there is a new category."

Barbra Gago

Category creation and brand building | Barbra Gago (Pando, Miro, Greenhouse, Culture Amp)

TRANSCRIPT

Barbra Gago

Category creation and brand building | Barbra Gago (Pando, Miro, Greenhouse, Culture Amp)

Barbra Gago

Category creation and brand building | Barbra Gago (Pando, Miro, Greenhouse, Culture Amp)

TRANSCRIPT

Barbra Gago

Category creation and brand building | Barbra Gago (Pando, Miro, Greenhouse, Culture Amp)