Same, same, but different
The internal machinery of life, the chemistry of the parts, is something beautiful. And it turns out that all life is interconnected with all other life.
Richard P. Feynman
As someone who’s been working in sales and marketing for the past 15 years, I’ve lost track of how many conversations I’ve had with people who ask, “what makes you different”?
The concept of differentiation is critical to people’s perception of the positioning of your service or product, which is why I’ve always found it ironic that so often when I look at and listen to people at industry events, everyone appears very much the same.
Companies are keen to make great play of how different they are and frequently link this to some product feature or ‘proprietary algorithm’ which no one uses. But, in reality, the same problem is presented in the same way with a very similar solution.
In How Brands Grow, Byron Sharp suggests that customers are not attracted to what makes your product or service different, but the benefits of the category. For example, broadly speaking one ad agency looks like another if you’re in the market for some creative ideas and a plan of how to get customers to see them. What makes a company stand out, according to Sharp, is its distinctiveness — e.g. its values and culture.
A company’s ‘distinctiveness’ is moot, however, if you instead define an entirely new category.
I’m fascinated by category design — the idea that unless you just want to cling on to the coattails of the category leader (read Google in search, Salesforce in cloud CRM services, and any number of smaller niches) you need to define the category and own it.
I’m engaging in a category design process — both personal and commercial — by defining my place in the world and looking to identify what makes me unique in solving a problem people care about. Jeff Bezos knows a little about successfully achieving this and suggests that you, ‘identify a new need that your skills will let you solve, or identify a skill that you have and find a need.’
Using Ikigai as a guide, I identified my purpose. The next step is to consider how my new business will represent my point-of-view on the future of work.
Tech VC, Dave Peterson, frames the start of any pitch presentation from entrepreneurs looking for funding with three killer questions.
1. Can you explain to me like a five-year-old what problem you’re trying to solve?
2. If your company solves this problem perfectly, what category are you in?
3. If you win 85% of that category, what’s the size of your category potential?
I love this because, in three questions, he sums up what every business owner and executive should be thinking about as they position their company. An evolution of approaches outlined in classic marketing books like Positioning, Crossing the Chasm and The Innovator’s Dilemma, the idea of category design as the strategy is both compelling and persuasive.
Play Bigger (Christopher Lochhead et al) neatly distils how to apply this theory. The authors argue that “by definition, category design means stepping out into unknown territory. It requires absolute belief in a category that others don’t see. You are creating the future you want; not one anyone else has described.”
Category Design = Make demand
Branding = Fight for demand
After running a business for ten years that specialised in brand advertising campaigns this is an intriguing idea and gets to the heart of customer acquisition — why exactly would somebody choose to work with your company rather than the various other options out there? Well, here’s an idea, create a new category, and there’s no direct competition!
Committing to launching a new start-up and journaling the process has forced me to consider both what I’m passionate about and how to use my knowledge and skills. What’s become clear is the value of my expertise in innovating in the workplace and developing systems to manage my personal and work life.
I have evaluated the challenges placed on my physical and mental wellbeing at home while running a successful business and advising other companies on how to help theirs thrive.
And I can’t be the only one who is struggling to operate at a high level of performance at work while trying to manage the anxiety common to having a young family in a world of ever-increasing connectedness, uncertainly and complexity.
As Albert Einstein said, “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Partly innately and partly through research and hard work and experience, I’ve identified new systems to optimise how I manage my time, prioritise and communicate to reduce anxiety and increase performance.
My niche is understanding where parenthood and entrepreneurship intersect with wellness and performance at work. I’m obsessed with empowering every parent struggling to manage busy personal and work lives to develop the skills and understanding of how to use their time as effectively as possible.
Productivity is as much about choosing what not to do as prioritising what’s important, and the same is true of category design. Differentiation of a product or service is as much about who it’s not for than who it is. In this respect, my new company is not for organisations that believe the increased use of data and technology in the workplace is the only answer to communications and productivity questions. Nor is it for companies that think ‘flexible working’ just means working-from-home.
Technology, if implemented without consideration of the negatives as well as the positives, can be counterproductive, inducing stress and a feeling that you’re always ‘at work’. It can, however, play a valuable role in facilitating change. If used correctly, emerging technology can provide the tools to synchronise our time at home and work, maximising the outcomes of each.
AI is already presenting new possibilities for the augmentation of work and it will continue to produce exciting developments in a wide range of fields. Yet human beings retain an imitable ability to join dots in the abstract, presenting the potential for progress in ways that machines will never be able to achieve on their own.
To that end, how we create value as human beings in a way that benefits our families, communities and companies will be a critical factor in future work life. We must create a system that increases the chances of positive physical and mental health, as well as implementing a flexibly structured framework for work and personal life that contributes to financial wellbeing.
Structure comes from the alignment of organisational and individual goals, better job design and, importantly, a culture of mutual support and encouragement. After all, it isn’t always about the work you’re doing. It matters with whom you’re doing it.
Also, a focus on what physicist and entrepreneur, Safi Bahcall calls ‘project-skill fit’ (how suited employees are to the tasks they’re assigned) can have a dual benefit. Firstly, it improves not only improve business outcomes (better products, higher sales) but also encourages people to focus on where they can add the most value — in other words; it improves organisational fitness.”
A flexible approach to how, where, and when people work gives them a feeling of autonomy and inspires trust in a team. When combined with a broader understanding of chronobiology, time management coaching and techniques for achieving a ‘flow state’, this leads to improvements in creative problem solving and overall productivity.
The category of Work-Life Design addresses the need for organisations to create an environment that acknowledges a future in which their employees’ personal and work lives are closely aligned. Getting this right will give everyone — but, in particular, those like me who have young children — the opportunity to become both more effective at work and more present at home. And perhaps even a little happier.
