A brand's memory is long. A single bad experience can echo for years, especially in the age of social media. Every touchpoint matters.

Great brands create their own language. Think of Google's 'doodles' or the 'Mc' prefix. This proprietary language builds a unique brand world.

Is your brand a mirror or an aspirational window? Does it reflect who your customers are now, or who they want to become? Both can be powerful.

Your brand's 'sacred cows' are the things you would never, ever do, even if it meant more profit. These define your character.

The 'About Us' section is the most underrated page on your website. It's your chance to tell your origin story and connect on a human level. Don't waste it.

What do you want your customers to become? Great brands don't just sell products; they sell an identity. Nike sells the identity of an athlete.

A brand built on a community is defensible. Competitors can copy your features, but they can't copy the relationships and trust you've built.

Your category is the frame for your brand. Are you a 'luxury' good or a 'budget' good? An 'enterprise' tool or a 'creative' tool? This frame sets expectations.

Before you write a line of code, can you sell your solution with a slide deck? If you can't convince someone to pay for the idea, the product won't fare any better.

The goal of a persona is empathy. It's a tool to remind your team that you're building for a real person with real struggles and goals.

Your churn rate is telling you a story about a gap between your brand promise and your product experience. Listen to that story.

Don't fall in love with your solution. Fall in love with your customer's problem. The solution will change, but the problem will remain.

A customer journey map is a story of your customer's experience. Does it have a happy ending? Are there plot holes? Where is the dramatic tension?

Talk to 5 customers every week. No exceptions. This is the single most important habit for a founder to maintain. It's the pulse of your business.

Your onboarding shouldn't be a tour of your features. It should be a tutorial on how to achieve the customer's first desired outcome.

The best products are built with a strong opinion. They are not a collection of features requested by a committee. They have a clear point of view on how to solve a problem.

Stop making assumptions about your customers. The most dangerous phrase in a startup is 'Of course our users will...' You don't know until you've watched them.

The first marketing hire you should make isn't a growth hacker. It's a customer researcher. You can't grow what you don't understand.

Surprise and delight is not a marketing tactic; it's a psychological principle. An unexpected gift or gesture creates a powerful emotional bond with your brand.

A brand that co-creates with its customers (like LEGO Ideas) builds an incredibly loyal and engaged community. It taps into our deep psychological need to contribute and belong.