Good design is no longer good enough
A recipe for capturing attention, the world’s most valuable resource
Not to be “that guy,” but I have a thesis brewing for 2024.
The world's most precious resource isn’t gold or bitcoin; it’s attention.
If the last bull cycle gave an unfair advantage to those who were able to engineer software, the next will belong to those who are able to earn and sustain attention.
We’re in the early innings of what might be the biggest shift of our tiny, lil lives: AI is making it 10x easier to launch new things for 1/10th of the cost.
Just look at what Chamath tweeted the other day.
Welcome to the new normal: Where cheaply made products and services are flooding the market at an unprecedented rate.
For consumers, this means more choices and lower costs, but with so much competition, startups will need to work 10x harder to capture & maintain the attention of their audience.
Keep in mind — not all attention is created equal.
“Going viral,” or stealing attention is easy. It’s a growth hack; a short-term game. It’s the person streaking across the football field for five seconds of fame.
Earning attention is hard. It’s a foundation for growth; the engine that helps brands thrive over the long-haul. It’s an evangelist wearing your merch because it says something about them.
At the beginning of every project I ask clients what brands they're inspired by.
“Who do you look up to? What kinds of brands do you want to emulate?”
To no one’s surprise they mention the brands you’d typically expect — Apple, Airbnb, Liquid Death, Redbull, Supreme, Figma, etc.
What do they all have in common? In their early days, they earned attention by breaking convention.
Not just with a beautiful look & feel; but with a story; one anchored in a differentiated POV that gave their audience a new sense of meaning.
Apple
Convention: Buy our computers because they’re better designed.
Disruption: Using Apple says you “think different.”
Airbnb
Convention: Stay at an Airbnb because it’s cheaper than a hotel.
Disruption: Experiencing the world through Airbnb makes you more interesting.
Liquid Death
Convention: Drinking water is not only boring, it’s lame.
Disruption: Drinking Liquid Death says you’re counterculture, maybe even “cool.”
Just like an unforgettable restaurant experience is about more than just the food, an attention-worthy brand requires more than just good design.
When crafting your brand's identity, you have a unique opportunity to create a replicable system to capture people’s attention over time.
This extends beyond the logo & design system. It covers how to message customers, make effective product decisions, & prioritize the right things to get you noticed.
The recipe is equal parts story (a differentiated, culturally relevant brand promise) + design (delivered in an unexpected way that meets people where they are).
Differentiated brand promise
An attention-worthy brand starts with an ownable brand position that makes it clear why you’re uniquely valuable, usually born from the emotional need states you solve for.
Powered by a culturally relevant why
In order to consistently earn attention over time, your brand promise needs to be anchored in a culturally relevant “why” — to give people a reason to care and talk about you.
Delivered in an unexpected way
While good design is not enough on its own, neither is just the story. That’s why it's critical to deliver your message in an unexpected way to earn (never steal) someone’s attention.
That meets people where they are
Be unexpected, but never different for different sake. We want to surprise without feeling random.
Meeting people where they are requires a unique understanding of what makes people tick, so you can take a foreign concept and make it feel magically familiar. This is especially important when introducing a new innovation to the world that asks people to change their behavior.
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Technology companies in general are known for celebrating tradeoffs. It makes sense—there’s only so much time and budget, so you have to double down on certain initiatives while deprioritizing others.
Recipes don’t work that way.
If you make a cake and leave out the butter & sugar, it’s not going to deliver on Alison Roman’s promise. Our attention-worthy formula is no different.
If you have a differentiated, culturally relevant promise that fails to break convention creatively, it’s going to be hard to earn someone’s attention. The same applies if you double-down on unexpected creative without a differentiated brand promise; it won’t be enough to sustain the kind of attention you’re craving.
Earning and sustaining a customer’s attention is an all-in proposition. Save the tradeoffs for the product manager.
So what does all of this mean?
Advancements in AI and increased production capabilities are hastening evolution in a "hold on for dear life” kind of way, and the companies who consistently capture people’s attention over time will win.
If you have a brand that people identify with, and a story that gives them meaning, you're going to thrive in this next wave of innovation.
But if your value proposition centers around technical features, or worse, cheaper prices, you’re going to crash & burn faster than Sam Bankman-Fried.
So as you think about building a brand designed to thrive in this new normal, you might need to reframe your criteria for what “effective” looks like.
Good design is table stakes.
Modern-day companies trying to break through need more than just a glow up; they need a strategy worthy of earning them culturally relevant attention to break through the zeitgeist.
Figuring out what makes you memorable is the highest-leverage activity a company of any size can do. It’s what catapults brands in commoditized spaces to category leaders.
It positions your product, design, & engineering teams to thrive.
So when evaluating agency partners ask yourself: “Can they give you an attention-worthy vision?”
One that’s equal parts story & design, specially crafted to consistently earn you attention over time.
If you’re a founder or operator craving attention, shoot me a message. Let’s figure out what makes you memorable so your brand can shine.