How Eight Sleep Co-Founder Alex Zatarain Built a Company That Pioneered the ‘Sleep Fitness’ Category

• Category. What category of products does the customer put you in?


• Who. Who is the target audience within the category? There are always multiple personas within a single category, so this breaks it down further.


• Problems. What problems does your target audience have related to the category?


• Motivations. What are the motivations behind those problems?

Understanding your customer—their demographics and psychographics, their wants and needs and pain points—is the foundation of your company. Your product, team, culture, sales, marketing, support, pricing—everything is shaped by that understanding.

Often a category emerges when an enabling technology, a shift in customer preferences and a supporting ecosystem manage to come together at once. If your product cannot be well positioned in any existing category, this might be a good option for you.