Healthy Competition: Product Marketing | Competitive Intelligence | Strategy · Andy McCotter-Bicknell

Christopher Lochhead: the Godfather of Category Design

·49 min·4 clips

Andy starts with a detailed introduction and frames Christopher Lockhead as a co-author behind category design and category creation ideas. He quickly points the episode at the gap between competitive intelligence and category creation. Lockhead does not dodge that tension. He says the shift happened the way it often does for entrepreneurs, through starting his first business and seeing how category design changes the game. The episode stays practical. Andy keeps summarizing what he heard, then asks for the next layer, so the exchange feels like two practitioners trying to get to the useful part. Lockhead talks through the value of his books and the Category Pirates writing band behind them. He treats them as working frameworks for founders, marketers, and operators. The AI section widens the frame. Lockhead says the field is still very early and that there will be literally over a hundred thousand categories within AI, not one winner and done. He names OpenAI and Microsoft as early leaders, while also stressing that the market is still forming. When Andy brings up Howard Lerman's Rome and its idea of an all-in-one cloud HQ for distributed teams, Lockhead uses that as a clean example of a subcategory being named in real time. The episode has a conversational rhythm that fits the show. There is also a Healthy Competition community promo in the middle. It interrupts the flow a bit, but it is part of the show's practical, practitioner-first texture. Lockhead is strongest when he moves from principle to implication. He keeps circling back to the idea that category design is not just branding. It is a way to decide where to spend energy, how to frame the market, and what kind of competition actually matters. By the end, the core argument is clear. The episode is about replacing the instinct to fight over scraps with the habit of naming the territory.

As heard by us

A practical case for drawing the map before the fight.

Healthy Competition makes a clear case for category design over fighting in a crowded lane, and Andy keeps pushing for advice that feels usable outside the room.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a sharper way to think about competing, press play on this one.

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