Laddering: Unlocking the Potential of Consumer Behavior

Chapter 3

Laddering Defined

A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.

—Steve Jobs

LIKE MANY PEOPLE, one of my passions is cooking. I love to spend a Sunday afternoon tackling a complex recipe, and my favorites are those you find in magazines such as Cook’s Illustrated. This is because I know that the writers and editors at Cook’s Illustrated have spent countless hours trying every conceivable combination of a recipe to come up with one that works just right. The standard, “proven” techniques that other recipes or cooks advocate are often disproved in the Cook’s Illustrated kitchen. This publication and the people who work for it often take a counterintuitive approach to common thinking. Some of my best, and simplest, recipes come from understanding how they have approached the science of cooking differently—the fact that they have taken a broader stroke and determined how to approach individual components of the entire meal, instead of focusing only on the end goal.

The same is true in regard to the concept of laddering. This approach advocates that we take a different approach than the ones we’ve followed before to truly succeed in the space of marketing and product development.

Before I begin my discussion about laddering’s application ...