The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything

MAYA dictates that the ideal design sits between solutions that are completely novel and entirely familiar. Be too novel and customers will tune you out. Be too familiar and customers will look right past you. Or, in Loewy’s words, “The adult public’s taste is not necessarily ready to accept the logical solutions to their requirements if the soluti... See more

When the first voice-activated speakers were released—products like Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Apple HomePod—I asked a friend what he liked about the product he had purchased. He said it was just easier to say “Play some country music” than to pull out his phone, open the music app, and pick a playlist. Of course, just a few years earlier, havin

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“I love it” at very first glance of a new brand means it’s too familiar (and explains why cohorts of new DTC brands all look the same). The better sign is when, at first glance, you’re a little uncomfortable - need to brew on it - and then gradually like it more and more…

What happens when something remarkable becomes abundant? When our favorite restaurant or coffee house becomes a chain, or a new social product becomes ubiquitous, we tend to crave something new...something more scarce. Why? It’s a natural desire to immerse ourselves in stories that move us and express identity through uniqueness. When something see... See more

I’m thinking about how malleable the world is, and how easy it is to forget that. The world has, many times throughout history, reconfigured itself around strong visions.

Our desires, motivations and behaviors are constantly being shaped by incentives and systems we aren’t even aware of. So much genius and money has gone into a metaphor that assume... See more