Translating positioning into a memorable identity (Human + AI)

"It’s a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us."
— Steve Jobs

• Duration: 3-hour workshop + 5 hours design iteration & validation
• Participants: Founders, designer (if available), marketing lead
• Deliverable: Brand guide, visual identity foundations, AI-ready brand assets

Why brand matters more than you think

Most founders misunderstand brand, but they do so in different ways.

The Technical Founder Trap: Dismissing brand as "fluff" or "something we'll do later when we raise money." They assume the best code wins and that brand is just a distraction from shipping features.

The Non-Technical Founder Trap: Confusing brand with decoration. They obsess over logos, color palettes, and fonts, assuming that a pretty website equals a strong brand. They treat brand as a coat of paint applied at the end.

Both are wrong.

Brand is trust at scale. It is the cumulative reputation that forms in a customer's mind based on every interaction, from your API documentation to your support emails. It is the only moat that cannot be forked on GitHub.

Strong brands:

• Reduce CAC: Trust lowers the friction of trying something new.
• Command Pricing Power: People pay a premium for reduced risk.
• Survive Mistakes: A strong brand buys you forgiveness when you ship a bug.
• Attract Talent: The best engineers want to work for companies that stand for something.

In 2026, your brand also needs to work for AI. Your team will use LLMs to write emails, docs, and code. Without a codified brand voice, those tools will sound generic. This sprint builds the foundation for both humans and machines.

The Google Brand Sprint Framework

This sprint is adapted from Google Ventures' 3-hour Brand Sprint, which compressed traditional multi-week branding processes into a single intensive workshop. Companies like Slack, Medium, and Blue Bottle Coffee used variations of this approach.

The framework covers five core exercises:

1. The 20-Year Roadmap - Where are we going?
2. What, How, Why - What do we do, how do we do it, why does it matter?
3. Top 3 Values - What do we stand for?
4. Personality Sliders - How do we want to be perceived?
5. Competitive Landscape - How do we visually differentiate?

We'll add a sixth component unique to 2026: AI Brand Assets.