The Magic Triangle: Why Category Design Is The Single Point Of Failure

The Magic Triangle is the combination of product design, company design, and category design that produces legendary outcomes in the world of business.

All three elements—company design, product design, and category design—work together and balance each other to exert great force on a company’s success and value. And the legendary, enduring companies get these three elements of company design, product design, and category design in such a state of synchronicity that they reinforce each other.

Finally, the elite Category Kings & Queens recognize that each area of The Magic Triangle generates data about the future of the category.

Most companies with data scientists focus on gathering data about the product to improve the product. Or, they gather data about the company to improve the company. Or, they do “deep data dives” on customer behavior for the myopic purpose of improving “customer experience.” But very few companies gather and leverage data naturally generated by their products and company to forecast the future of the category.

This is what we call the Data Flywheel, which creates momentum for all three sides of The Magic Triangle:

• The product
• The company & underlying business model
• And the company’s leadership position in their chosen category
• When entrepreneurs successfully prosecute this Magic Triangle, they change the world.  
  

In this “mini-book” you will learn:

• How The Magic Triangle works.
• Why great products, alone, rarely become category queens (as told through the story of the invention of the wheel).
• The difference between having a mercenary business model versus a missionary business model.
• The problem with entrepreneurial mantras like “product-market fit” and “minimum viable product,” and why you should instead aim for Maximum Viable Category.
• How a company’s data flywheel can create massive category advantages.
• And more

Short, sweet, and jam-packed with incredibly valuable insights, this “mini-book” illustrates the 3 most important parts of building a company of consequence.