Following his comments on building your brand around the problem instead of the product, Dave transitioned into a short explanation of another key element of category design: Product/Category Fit.
He added, “There's another notion around category design that I think is important and it revolves around a thing we call problem/category fit.
Again, we all hear about product/market fit, which is still very important. You've got to build brilliant products. If you don't build a brilliant product in today's world you don't even stand a chance because people are very conditioned to really enjoy technology and products that actually work.
But if you shift your mindset to this notion of problem/category fit, it will allow you to start to reconcile whether or not you're in the right category, whether or not you have the right problem, whether or not your category and problem are aligned.
While we’re talking about this, I wanted to share a very simple test, and this is something that I talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs about and it seems to help them figure out if they’re solving the right problem or are they even in the right category?
So, if you can do that work earlier around your problem definition. Whether it's 10 words, or 15 words, or 25 words, it doesn't matter. If you can get grounded in what problem you solve and you stare at that and you say, ‘Okay, that problem's solved.’
Then you can ask yourself a pretty simple question: ‘Does the category that you're currently in solve that problem?’
If the answer is Yes, then you're in the right category.
If you don't have to think about it and the answer is really clear, ‘Yep I'm in this category and it's perfectly aligned with the problem I solve,’ then you can move forward and start thinking about your point of view and your marketing and your position.
But if the answer is No, now you have a choice.
You either need to switch the problem you solve or you need to reframe the category that you're in or create a new category.”
