Category: Autopsy
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Alex Smith × April Dunford — one hour on positioning, taken apart line by line
An hour of two people who agree with each other, congratulating each other for disagreeing with people who aren’t in the room. What follows is what actually happened, not what they think happened. 1. The setup — what the conversation is announced as Alex Smith opens with a frame. He is the “no bullshit strategy”…
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The Report That Surveyed the Wiring
An autopsy of JKR x Kantar’s “Be Distinctive Everywhere: The Experience Edition” (2026) There’s a report going around. JKR and Kantar launched it at Cannes in June 2026, the same week Sharp and Ritson finally shared a stage. The headline is everywhere on LinkedIn: only 28% of brand equity is built by paid media. 71%…
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Six Doors, One Room
I watched the brand growth debate over the past week. Six people walked up to the same empty room and stopped. The one who got closest got there thirty years ago. For a whole week, I read the same argument made by different people, and the same thing kept bothering me each time. Not the…
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The Prancing Horse
The Positioning Delusion — On the Difference Between One Position and Two Disciplines The question making the rounds this week is whether the Ferrari Luce is really a Ferrari. It is the wrong question, and the speed with which everyone reached for it is the symptom worth studying. The popular answer, the one earning the…
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What the Subway Took From Joshua Bell
On positioning, costly signals, and why the cheapest part of the craft is the part the market believes least. I keep coming back to the Joshua Bell story, and the longer I sit with it, the more I think it teaches the opposite of what it gets used to teach. You’ve probably heard it. On…
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The Figma Trap: Why Canva’s IPO Language Is Costing Billions Before They Even File
Two hours ago, a venture capitalist posted about Canva on LinkedIn. She previously ran a $100M early-stage fund. Spent seven years as a senior analyst at a $400M long/short equity fund, modelling public companies. Did late-stage, pre-IPO investing. She knows how to value software businesses. Her first instinct was to value Canva using Figma’s 10x…
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Context isn’t the preface. It’s the work.
Most bad decisions don’t come from a lack of intelligence. They come from skipping context. You’ve seen it. Someone asks a question that sounds clear: “Should we do product-led growth?”“Should we hire an enterprise seller?”“Can you help sharpen our marketing story?” Within minutes, smart people start handing out solutions. That’s the moment you should get…
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Zoom’s S-1: The Gap Between What You Prove and What You Claim
How Positioning Language Shapes Market Valuation — And What Zoom Left on the Table An S-1 isn’t just a legal document. It’s a positioning claim to capital markets. It’s where you tell investors what mental territory you own, and they decide what that ownership is worth. Your product tells one story. Your metrics tell another.…
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Wake Up, Neo
The Tax You Didn’t Know You Were Paying Every Canadian bank, from the giants to the slickest fintech, has built its business on a single bet: you won’t leave. Not because you love them. Not because they’re giving you a great deal. But because leaving is annoying. Think about what switching banks actually involves. You’d…
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The iPod Didn’t Succeed Because of “1000 Songs in Your Pocket” (Autopsy)
Most people believe the iPod won because of brilliant marketing, that iconic “1000 songs in your pocket” tagline. But here’s the problem: competitors had similar marketing. And better features. Double the storage. Lower prices. Longer battery life. Replaceable batteries. FM radio. Voice recording. They all failed. Creative offered 60GB for $400 versus iPod’s 30GB for…
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What Brad Jacobs Is Actually Teaching (And Why You’re Missing It)
Before We Begin: Four Questions WHY does this matter to you? You’ve listened to successful founders describe their practices. You’ve made notes. You meditate now, or you tried for a week. You read the psychology books they mention. You ask better questions in meetings. But something’s off. You’re doing what they say they do, but…
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When 95% Self-Awareness Meets 53% Stock Decline: The Chip Wilson Identity Crisis (Autopsy)
The Delusion Everyone Shares Tasha Eurich’s research team discovered something unsettling: 95% of people believe they’re self-aware. Only 10-15% actually are. This isn’t about people being stupid. It’s about the gap between what we think we know about ourselves and what’s actually true. Most of us walk around convinced we understand who we are, what…