Don't Invent Your Own Product Category

Almost every successful product is a better version of something that already existed. Google was a better search engine, Chrome was a better web browser, the iPhone was a better smartphone. Inventing a new product category does happen, but it’s rare, and it’s a much harder path.

Two kinds of category

The word “category” can be used in at least two ways:

• A market category is the problem you solve for a buyer. Expense management, team communication, customer support, network security.

• A product category is the kind of thing you built, the thing a user would call it. A desktop web browser, a CLI coding agent, a password manager.

This post is about product categories rather than market categories, because the product category is the one users put your product in.