When an existing category accurately explains a product, creating a new one can add unnecessary cost and confusion. But when the old language hides the problem or forces a truly different approach into the wrong frame, category design can help a company teach the market a new way to see.
Brand in the age of abundant content
What is category design?
Category design is the discipline of defining, developing, and shaping a market category so people understand a problem, recognize a new approach, and evaluate solutions through a different frame. The term was popularized by the authors of *Play Bigger*, who connect category design with product, company, and brand design.
In one sentence
Positioning helps you win a comparison; category design can change what the comparison is about.
Why it matters
The work of category design
- Name a consequential problem that the old world normalizes.
- Articulate a point of view about why that problem exists.
- Define the new approach and the principles that distinguish it.
- Build product, company, brand, and ecosystem evidence around the claim.
- Help others use and extend the category language.
Original example
A startup that combines company knowledge, expert judgment, AI agents, and execution could call itself another “AI marketing platform.” A category-design approach might define the problem as the gap between abundant AI outputs and finished GTM outcomes, then introduce “GTM systems of intelligence” as the missing layer. The company must then do more than coin a phrase: it must publish the worldview, build the product around it, show proof, and invite customers and partners into the idea.
What people get wrong
Inventing a label is not category design. Neither is declaring yourself the category leader on a homepage. Categories become real when customers use the language, competitors respond to it, analysts or practitioners recognize it, and the market understands the new problem and choice.
Scott’s take
Category design is seductive because it sounds like escaping competition. In reality, it creates a larger burden of education. Use it when the old frame truly makes the new value harder to see—not simply because an existing category feels crowded.
Evidence and further reading
Related terms
- PositioningPositioning gives buyers the right mental frame—and a reason to choose you within it.
- Brand strategyBrand strategy decides what you want to be known for and how you will make that belief true.
- Go-to-market strategyGTM strategy is the coordinated answer to who, why, what, where, and how a company grows.
- System of intelligenceA system of record remembers; a system of intelligence helps decide.
Established concept
Written by Scott Salkin, a founder, operator, and former B2B software CMO. Published August 4, 2026. Last reviewed August 4, 2026.