Hey John, it could be worth exploring how a POV is built into the product itself.
In order to even build a product, you have to have an opinion on how it should work.
While not every founder thinks they have a strategic narrative, they have a reason for why they built their product the way we did.
Some of these companies are obvious.
37 signals comes to mind—not only with Once but with Basecamp and others.
Linear is a recent one. I caught a podcast episode where the founder was talking about how Linear is built to represent what the believe is the epitome of modern product building.
“Opnionated” is a long established term in that world, I believe.
In a smaller way, our company is doing this. After a reset, we rediscovered that we’ve always been about this one core product idea. We actually had a branded feature that’s now been elevated to the “hero” product because of how much it represents our category narrative.
So there’s my thought, some writing or ideas that explore how the pov and product are so tightly aligned it wouldn’t make sense to talk about them separated.
Lastly, the CEO of Nothing design or something? Seems to be on the up and up. They are a consumer electronics company. I’m seeing them pop up on YouTube shorts pretty often. Their CEO is on their making content about content—like responding to an MKBHD review about their product. Anyway, strong POV and evangelizing it in a really modern and effective way.
Joe thanks for the thoughtful comment here. I think you are onto something.
The more businesses I look at the more I see how the POV manifests differently. In some cases, the POV comes across more clearly in what's communicated. Liquid Death's brand identity and advertising is an obvious example.
And to your point, I'm finding more cases with the POV shows up more in how the product itself broke from the status quo. FedEx, Burton snowboards, and the way LLMs are being trained today come to mind.
These approaches aren't mutually exclusive of course (a business can demonstrate its POV in its marketing and its product) but it sounds like there is lots to explore in the latter.
Would love to learn more about the category narrative you're working on sometime, too!
Hey John, it could be worth exploring how a POV is built into the product itself.
In order to even build a product, you have to have an opinion on how it should work.
While not every founder thinks they have a strategic narrative, they have a reason for why they built their product the way we did.
Some of these companies are obvious.
37 signals comes to mind—not only with Once but with Basecamp and others.
Linear is a recent one. I caught a podcast episode where the founder was talking about how Linear is built to represent what the believe is the epitome of modern product building.
“Opnionated” is a long established term in that world, I believe.
In a smaller way, our company is doing this. After a reset, we rediscovered that we’ve always been about this one core product idea. We actually had a branded feature that’s now been elevated to the “hero” product because of how much it represents our category narrative.
So there’s my thought, some writing or ideas that explore how the pov and product are so tightly aligned it wouldn’t make sense to talk about them separated.
Lastly, the CEO of Nothing design or something? Seems to be on the up and up. They are a consumer electronics company. I’m seeing them pop up on YouTube shorts pretty often. Their CEO is on their making content about content—like responding to an MKBHD review about their product. Anyway, strong POV and evangelizing it in a really modern and effective way.
Joe thanks for the thoughtful comment here. I think you are onto something.
The more businesses I look at the more I see how the POV manifests differently. In some cases, the POV comes across more clearly in what's communicated. Liquid Death's brand identity and advertising is an obvious example.
And to your point, I'm finding more cases with the POV shows up more in how the product itself broke from the status quo. FedEx, Burton snowboards, and the way LLMs are being trained today come to mind.
These approaches aren't mutually exclusive of course (a business can demonstrate its POV in its marketing and its product) but it sounds like there is lots to explore in the latter.
Would love to learn more about the category narrative you're working on sometime, too!
Admirable of you to share, John. Looking forward to reading what comes next.
Do keep your tone of voice though. It’s lovely and enjoyable to read.
Appreciate that, Chris! And don't worry, the tone of voice isn't going anywhere. I will keep writing the way I write! Hope you're great.