As one brand leaves its curiosity gap open for a particular consumer, another comparable brand is able to swoop in and fill the gap quickly thus acquiring the customer away from their competition. Over long periods this dissonance and operational thrash fracture both the customers’ contract and affinity with the brand.

Look at Google. Its heartbeat is erratic, unpredictable. It works for them—mostly, sometimes—but it could work so much better. Google arguably only has one big external heartbeat each year at Google I/O—and most teams don’t bother aligning with it. They typically launch whatever they want whenever they want throughout the year, sometimes with real

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