The Category Viability Audit
by Barbra Gago • Founder & CEO (Pando), former CMO (Miro) at Pando
Expert in B2B SaaS hyper-growth, formerly VP Marketing at Greenhouse and Head of Marketing at CultureAmp. Led Miro's global rebrand and category creation.
🎙️ Episode Context
Barbra Gago joins Lenny to discuss the mechanics of category creation, the strategic process of rebranding a hyper-growth company, and the philosophy of building 'opinionated software' that enforces best practices to solve systemic business problems.
Problem It Solves
Prevents startups from wasting resources on category creation when no market demand exists, or failing to differentiate in a crowded market.
Framework Overview
A systematic check to determine whether to create a new category or compete in an existing one by analyzing market conditions, customer psychology, and budget realities.
✔️ Verification Checklist
When to Use
When launching a new product or pivoting positioning and deciding between 'disruption' (new category) or 'betterment' (existing category).
Common Mistakes
Trying to create a category without existing competition (competition validates the category) or ignoring how customers actually search for solutions.
Real World Example
Greenhouse trying to create 'Recruiting Optimization' but ultimately accepting the 'ATS' category because that's where the budget was; Miro creating 'Visual Collaboration' because 'Online Whiteboard' was too small.
When you're building a category... you want to have a lot of traction in terms of thought leadership... but also educate buyers that there is a category they can now budget for.
— Barbra Gago