something you need to “convince” them of. Ultimately, “For me, the lightbulb that went off was when I realized Part IV: like any strategic decision, you’ll have better support that we were no longer the only company trying to long term if you help the CEO make the decision for make personal, one-to-one video a thing,” he shared. How to Talk With themselves. “Once I saw that the space had been validated by Your Team About Here’s what Conor advises. “Everybody comes to the competitors, and that there’s a major market taking CEO with tons of ideas. So if you’re trying to get your shape, I knew that we couldn’t afford to wait any longer Category Design own CEO to explore category design, don’t start by on category design. (and Get Them trying to provide the answer. Instead, ask questions. 3. Build buy-in across your Questions like: what do you think the future of our leadership team Excited) company will look like, and how do you think about our strategy? Making the call on category design needs to extend past You may even find out that your CEO doesn’t have a the CEO. Sure, your CEO can put down a mandate, desire to be a category leader, which will save you a but you’ll be much better off in the long run if your bunch of wasted effort. But once you know how she leadership team is supportive before the decision is thinks about those things, you’ll know how to frame made. You can’t just expect the conversation around category design.” “Don’t talk exclusively with your CEO and risk all people to get on At BombBomb, these conversations led to a few your capital there,” Conor told me. “At the same time, “ conclusions. First, it was clear that our business had you also need to build your case with the rest of your board immediately,” a strong desire to move into larger, more strategic leadership team. Because typically, once you bring up said Darin. “Instead, I accounts, and we had already made several investments category design, your CEO is going to talk to the other started this process by to help us get there. Secondly, we saw that our emerging executives to hear their thoughts. You want them to category was going to happen “with or without us,” and have a chance to think through this so they support having conversations we needed to make a conscious choice of how we were the discussion.” and asking questions, going to participate in that. Finally, we realized that Just like the conversation with your CEO, the worst the tenure and experience of our team could provide thing you can do when approaching your leadership helping our team see us with some advantages that could help us emerge as team is come in too hot, guns blazing, trying to convince for themselves that we the category leader. everyone that category design is the way to go. Ideally, might need to look at We then used these conclusions as a lens for discussing you want to let each person get there on their own. category design. Instead of looking at category design For now, focus on creating a situation in which your things differently.” in the abstract, we were able to talk about specific ways leadership team is open to and interested in the idea. it could help us achieve goals we already had in place. “You can’t just expect people to get on board — Conor McKluskey Remember, don’t expect your CEO to buy-in immediately,” said Darin. “Instead, I started this process immediately. Chances are, you needed some time by having conversations and asking questions, helping to work through this yourself, and that will only be our team see for themselves that we might need to look more true for your CEO. This was true for Conor, at things differently.” as he initially looked at category design as more of a Ask your leadership team some of the same questions marketing play. But as he read Play Bigger and had a you’ve presented to your CEO. For example, ask them chance to think through it, that changed. if they feel like the existing business strategy has them on the right path. Or if they feel like the company has The Newcomer’s Guide to Category Design 30