The document discusses 5 things needed to create a new product category and what makes them difficult. It outlines focusing on people not just product, evangelizing the category vision, being authentic at scale, and having a long term view rather than short term goals. Each step is described as challenging because it requires ignoring analysts, relying on customer feedback over metrics, being vulnerable, and prioritizing long term planning over short term gains.

1. 5 Things You Need to Do to Create a
Category (and What Makes Them
Super Hard)
NICK MEHTA
CEO
Gainsight
@nrmehta
ANTHONY KENNADA
CMO
Gainsight
@akennada

2. 5 Things You Need to Do to Create a Category (and
What Makes Them Super Hard)
Nick Mehta
CEO
Gainsight
@nrmehta
Anthony Kennada
CMO
Gainsight
@akennada

3. © Copyright 2018, Gainsight, Inc., All rights reserved
December 2012
January 2013

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Me!
Mom

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12. Category Creation
• No/few competitors
• Not much noise
• No pre-existing notions
• No customers

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NEED TO
CREATE CATEGORY
AND
REAP BENEFITS

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“Companies that were instrumental in creating their categories accounted for
53% of incremental revenue growth and 74% of incremental market
capitalization growth.”

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Requirement:
Have started
PeopleSoft
previously.

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20. 5 Things You Need to Do to Create a
Category (and What Makes Them
Super Hard)

21. #1: Ignore Analysts (Initially)

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Customer
Support
CRM Account
Mgmt.

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25. "You need to find a demographic
and a customer that no other
software company is paying
attention to in a modern way, and
help them realize their ultimate
ambition. Your software comes way
down the road -- your job is to
make them be heroes.
Make them feel like they are
transforming their business in the
role that they have, internalizing
that there is a company out there
that cares about me, cares about
my role.”

26. At the end of the day, the customer defines the category.

28. Hard, because no one will tell you
it’s the right idea.

29. Category Name Suggestions
• Customer analytics
• Customer machine learning
• Customer business intelligence
• Customer insights
• Customer artificial intelligence
• Customer autonomous scooters

30. #2: Focus on People, Not Just
Product

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“We should host an
event…”

34. Funny Pulse photo from 2013

35. 2013 300
2014 927
2015 2039
2016 3200
2017 4026
2018 5000+

37. A Lifestyle Brand for Customer Success
Industry
Conferences Content & Digital
Community GroupsEducation & Careers

40. Community Learnings
1. So many lessons from open source
2. Huge value to branding separate from company
3. “Momentum” is important
4. All about connecting people
5. This is your product too!

41. Hard, because CFOs or investors
may not get it.

42. “Not all things worth counting are countable and
not all things that count are worth counting.”
Albert Einstein

43. #3: Evangelize

46. © Copyright 2018, Gainsight, Inc., All rights reserved
50,000+ copies sold
Translated into Japanese and Portuguese
“… more than 2 years after publication. It’s unusual for a
book to sell so consistently at this point in its life—most
books have flamed out by this point.”
- John Wiley & Sons

47. Content Learnings
1. Authentically get into daily mindset of community
2. Don’t just focus on content related to your product
3. Go for reach (LinkedIn posts, blogs) over capture (gated)
4. Podcasts work really well
5. Book is huge amount of effort but home run to reach broad
audience

48. Hard, because you need ‘voices of
the customer’ in your company.

49. #4: Be Authentic at Scale

50. Our Purpose
Our Values
To be living proof that you can win in business while being human first.
Golden Rule
Childlike Joy
Shoshin
(Beginner’s Mind)
Success for All Childlike Joy Shoshin Stay Thirsty

51. “Authenticity is the most effective form of
leadership. In business, time is currency, and the
ability to create trusted relationships at scale is a
superpower.”
Keith Krach

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58. Brand Learnings
1. Blurred lines between company, culture, community
2. Conferences create great opportunity to break walls
3. Needs to be authentic to company
4. Have no shame!

59. Hard, because you need to get
comfortable being vulnerable.

61. #5: Be Long Term Greedy

62. 1. Market is getting sizeable
2. Market is growing rapidly
3. International opportunity is huge
CSM Profession is Exploding [LinkedIn]
3883
7522
16203
32479
2015 2016 2017 2018

63. Tech Go-to-Market: Make
Customer Success a
Cornerstone of Your Customer
Experience Strategy
Customer Success
Management is the Key to
Outstanding B2B
Customer Experiences
Introducing Customer
Success 2.0: The New
Growth Engine
How Smart, Connected
Products Are Transforming
Companies
Customer Success: Creating a
Virtual Cycle of Adoption,
Loyalty and Revenue

64. Hard, because short-term planning
is… well, hard.

67. THANK YOU