Table of Contents
Lean Analytics co-author Alistair Croll reveals 11 proven tactics for getting attention and turning it into profitable demand when traditional marketing fails startups.
Product managers obsess over features while ignoring the only thing that matters: do you have an unfair advantage that captures attention and converts it into sustainable growth?
Key Takeaways
- Successful startups use systems in ways their creators never intended, creating "zero-day marketing exploits" rather than following conventional growth strategies.
- Subversiveness requires three elements: system awareness to understand the status quo, novelty to find unprecedented approaches, and disagreeability to challenge established norms.
- The "Recon Canvas" framework helps scan opportunities across product, medium, and market dimensions since product-market fit alone is insufficient for modern startups.
- Eleven proven tactics emerge repeatedly across successful companies: misappropriation, bug-to-feature, buyer upgrade, access, bait-and-switch, combination, arbitrage, aggregation, reframing, regulation, and sliding the window.
- Distribution and go-to-market strategy matter more than product features for startup success, yet most founders focus exclusively on building rather than reaching customers.
- Being "just evil enough" means using systems differently than intended without actually harming people, lying, breaking laws, or assuming consent without permission.
- Traditional growth hacks are product-agnostic tricks, while zero-day exploits require deep industry understanding and genuine innovation in value chain dynamics.
- Netflix misappropriated the postal service as a high-bandwidth network, while Bumble used university walls as unregulated advertising platforms to signal rebellious positioning.
- Modern technology changes what's scarce versus abundant, requiring startups to rethink traditional processes that prioritize easily-changed elements over difficult ones.
Timeline Overview
- 00:00–02:00 — Alistair's Background: Introduction to Lean Analytics co-author, product manager, entrepreneur, and founder of Year One Labs incubator
- 02:00–06:17 — Just Evil Enough Book Origin: Why product managers miss go-to-market strategy and the importance of unfair advantages for capturing attention
- 06:17–07:43 — Subversive Examples: Netflix misappropriating postal service, Bumble's university poster campaigns, and using systems in unintended ways
- 07:43–10:36 — Beyond Traditional Growth: Why zero-day marketing exploits matter more than conventional SEO or paid growth strategies
- 10:36–14:24 — Title Origin Story: How "just evil enough" emerged from startup advice about challenging status quo without crossing ethical lines
- 14:24–19:16 — System Awareness Framework: Stanford $5 challenge example showing importance of recognizing available resources beyond obvious constraints
- 19:16–22:37 — Novelty and Innovation: Jim Shark birthday campaigns, Coinbase Super Bowl QR code, and zagging when everyone else zigs
- 22:37–25:49 — Disagreeable Thinking: Navy research on rule-followers versus game-changers, normalizing subversive business strategies
- 25:49–32:43 — Recon Canvas Method: Framework for scanning product, medium, and market opportunities beyond traditional product-market fit thinking
- 32:43–57:01 — Eleven Subversive Tactics: Detailed examples of misappropriation, bug-to-feature, buyer upgrade, access, bait-and-switch, combination, arbitrage, aggregation, reframing, regulation, sliding window
- 57:01–01:05:01 — Implementation Strategies: How to operationalize subversive thinking through disagreeable mindset, absurdity embrace, and systematic vulnerability scanning
- 01:05:01–01:08:19 — Ethical Boundaries: Clear guidelines for avoiding actual evil while practicing strategic subversion within legal and moral limits
- 01:08:19–End — Lightning Round and Memories: Book recommendations, product discoveries, life mottos, and Montreal startup accelerator experiences
Why Product Managers Are Missing the Point
Product managers spend their days obsessing over the next feature, the perfect onboarding flow, and incremental improvements to user experience. Meanwhile, they ignore the fundamental question that determines startup success or failure: do you have an unfair advantage that captures attention and converts it into profitable demand?
This myopic focus on product development while ignoring distribution strategy dooms countless startups. The reality is that building a great product means nothing if nobody knows it exists. Yet most founders treat go-to-market strategy as an afterthought, assuming that quality products naturally find their audiences.
Alistair Croll has observed this pattern across hundreds of startups through his work on Lean Analytics and as founder of Year One Labs. The companies that succeed don't just build better products—they find ways to subvert existing systems and create unprecedented advantages in reaching customers.
The key insight is that by definition, your startup represents a disagreement with the status quo. The status quo was created by those in power, so they naturally resist when you don't play by their established rules. This means playing nice and following conventional wisdom often leads to failure.
The Netflix Postal Service Strategy
Netflix provides the perfect example of system misappropriation—using an existing system in ways its creators never intended. While everyone focused on streaming capabilities, Netflix recognized that broadband penetration was too limited for video delivery at scale.
Instead of waiting for technology to catch up, Netflix transformed the US Postal Service into an on-demand, high-bandwidth (but high-latency) content delivery network. By putting DVDs in envelopes, they gave all of North America access to vast video libraries with two-day delivery and website-based ordering.
Blockbuster had streaming first, but they missed this crucial insight. The question wasn't "can I stream video?" but "can I get every household in America to receive video content in two days using existing infrastructure?" Netflix answered that question by seeing the postal service as a data network rather than just mail delivery.
This misappropriation strategy created a massive competitive advantage. While competitors focused on technical streaming solutions, Netflix built a logistics and recommendation system that dominated the market for years. When streaming technology finally matured, Netflix already owned customer relationships and content distribution expertise.
The Three Elements of Subversiveness
Successful subversion requires three key components that can be learned and developed systematically:
System Awareness involves understanding the environment you're operating within and recognizing all available resources. The Stanford $5 challenge perfectly illustrates this concept. Students received five dollars and five days to plan, two hours to execute, and three minutes to present their results.
Most students thought like traditional entrepreneurs—buying lottery tickets or lemonade stand supplies. Smarter students recognized additional resources: they could sell their place in restaurant lines during peak hours or offer bike tire inflation services around campus.
The winning team demonstrated true system awareness by recognizing they had four valuable assets: five dollars, five days, two hours, and three minutes. They sold their three-minute presentation slot to a company wanting to recruit Stanford graduates, earning over $650 by monetizing the resource everyone else ignored.
Novelty means finding approaches that others haven't tried or don't expect. This could involve timing (being first to market), methodology (using different channels), or positioning (appealing to overlooked segments). The key is zagging when everyone else zigs.
Disagreeability represents the willingness to challenge conventional wisdom and established norms. This doesn't mean being contrarian for its own sake, but rather questioning whether you're playing the right game instead of just playing the current game correctly.
The Recon Canvas: Beyond Product-Market Fit
Traditional thinking focuses on product-market fit, but Alistair argues this framework is outdated. Marketing textbooks were written when media was one-way, one-to-many paid broadcast. Today's reality involves any-to-any communication where building an audience first, then figuring out what to sell them, represents a perfectly valid strategy.
The Recon Canvas provides a more comprehensive framework with three dimensions:
Product encompasses both features and messages—what you're building and how you describe its value proposition.
Medium includes platforms you operate on plus the norms and mechanics of those platforms. Understanding medium dynamics often determines success more than product quality.
Market involves the attention you capture and the actions you create among target customers.
Two companies with identical products sold to the same market often see vastly different outcomes based on their medium strategy. This is why the framework emphasizes product-medium-market fit rather than just product-market fit.
Eleven Proven Subversive Tactics
After analyzing hundreds of case studies, eleven tactical patterns emerge repeatedly across successful companies:
Misappropriation involves using existing systems for unintended purposes. Netflix and the postal service exemplifies this, as does Whitney Hess putting Bumble posters on university walls that appeared to be official university communications.
Bug-to-Feature transforms weaknesses into competitive advantages. Salesforce's limited functionality became a selling point against complex enterprise software that took years to implement. Their "No Software" logo emphasized simplicity over feature completeness.
Buyer Upgrade means selling to different people rather than changing your product. Hitachi's personal massager found new markets through Vibex partnerships, while bridge inspection drones succeeded by targeting insurance companies instead of city councils.
Access leverages connections and resources others don't have. Jessica Scorpio brought a Tesla Roadster to CES to demonstrate GetAround's platform, while Whitney Hess used sorority connections to seed Tinder adoption before targeting fraternities.
Bait-and-Switch offers one thing then delivers something even better. Tupperware promoted dinner parties but really recruited multi-level marketing participants. Engage surveyed "best workplaces" to generate leads for HR software sales.
Combination bundles partial solutions into complete offerings. Kraft combined powdered cheese with macaroni boxes to create ready-made dinners. Mattress companies added old mattress removal to transform "buying" into "replacement" services.
Arbitrage exploits information advantages. Early social platforms revealed user growth through API endpoints. Farmville gained advantages by knowing about Facebook timeline posting before other developers.
Aggregation collects dispersed data to create new value. Busbud aggregated global bus schedules to become the default search destination, then leveraged traffic to negotiate affiliate relationships with transportation companies.
Reframing changes how customers think about value dimensions. Tesla reframed electric cars from sustainability and range to performance and acceleration, appealing to different customer segments than the Prius.
Regulation involves changing rules or finding loopholes. Germany's opt-in organ donation achieves 12% participation while Austria's opt-out system reaches 99.6%. Regulatory strategy can deliver impossible growth improvements.
Sliding the Window shifts what's considered acceptable. Body Form became the first company to use red liquid in feminine hygiene advertising, giving women permission to discuss previously taboo topics openly.
From Growth Hacks to Zero-Day Exploits
Traditional growth hacks are product-agnostic tricks that work across different businesses—exit-intent popups, referral programs, or invite-only launches. These tactics spread quickly and lose effectiveness as they become common knowledge.
Zero-day marketing exploits require deeper thinking about your specific industry, customers, and value chain. Like security exploits that take advantage of previously unknown vulnerabilities, these marketing approaches find novel ways to create advantages within existing systems.
The difference lies in specificity and sustainability. A growth hack might generate a temporary traffic spike, but a zero-day exploit can fundamentally change how your industry operates. IKEA didn't just hack furniture marketing—they transformed the entire furniture value chain by flat-packing products and delegating assembly to customers.
Successful zero-day exploits often become industry standards. What started as subversive thinking becomes conventional wisdom as competitors copy successful approaches. This creates ongoing pressure to find new exploits rather than rely on techniques that everyone knows.
The Disagreeability Advantage
Navy research reveals crucial insights about disagreeable thinking. Researchers gave sailors a dashboard with four quadrants requiring different tasks—fuel monitoring, math problems, word games, and tone recognition. Midway through testing, they changed the scoring so one quadrant represented 75% of available points.
Some sailors adapted their behavior to focus on the high-value quadrant and performed exceptionally well. Others continued following original instructions conscientiously, despite changed circumstances. The military traditionally recruits conscientious rule-followers, but the research showed that disagreeable people who question the game itself often outperform those who simply play by established rules.
This distinction between playing the game correctly versus questioning whether you're playing the right game represents the core of subversive thinking. Most business education focuses on optimization within existing frameworks rather than challenging the frameworks themselves.
Yet startup success often requires exactly this kind of disagreeable thinking. When Julia du Martins defended her castle by throwing bread at besieging armies (convincing them the fortress had abundant food), she demonstrated the strategic value of refusing conventional military wisdom.
Ethical Boundaries: Don't Actually Be Evil
The "just evil enough" philosophy requires clear ethical boundaries to avoid actual harm. The book dedicates an entire chapter to distinguishing between clever subversion and genuinely harmful behavior.
Unacceptable tactics include assuming consent, acting without permission, lying to customers, using dark patterns, breaking laws, or deliberately ruining your reputation. These approaches might generate short-term gains but create long-term problems that destroy businesses.
The Chrysler PT Cruiser exemplifies the wrong kind of subversion. Chrysler designed this vehicle to technically qualify as a truck under federal fuel efficiency standards, allowing them to continue selling gas-guzzling vehicles by gaming the system. While legal, this approach prioritized regulatory loopholes over customer value.
Better examples involve creating genuine value while using unconventional methods. Bumble's university poster campaign gave students a rebellious brand they could identify with. Netflix's postal service strategy delivered real convenience to customers. These approaches subvert expectations while improving customer experiences.
The key principle is ensuring that your subversive tactics create value for customers rather than extracting value through deception or manipulation.
Implementation: Building Your Subversive Mindset
Developing subversive thinking requires systematic practice rather than hoping for lightning-strike inspiration. Start by spending time understanding the system you're operating within—the platforms, regulations, customer behaviors, and industry norms that define your environment.
Next, scan for novel approaches using the Recon Canvas framework. Look at each intersection of product, medium, and market to identify unconventional opportunities. What would happen if you changed who buys your product, how you deliver it, or where customers discover it?
Practice disagreeability by questioning assumptions that everyone accepts as natural laws. Why do customers buy from competitors? What would have to be true for your industry to work completely differently? How might you solve customer problems using resources everyone else ignores?
Study successful subversive examples across different industries. Netflix, IKEA, Tesla, and Liquid Death all demonstrate different tactical approaches to the same strategic principle: find ways to create unfair advantages by using systems in unintended ways.
Finally, develop tolerance for approaches that feel uncomfortable or unconventional. If your go-to-market strategy feels safe and obvious, you're probably following conventional wisdom that won't create sustainable competitive advantages.
Technology Changes Everything
Modern technology fundamentally alters what's scarce versus abundant, requiring startups to rethink traditional product development processes. When building physical products, you'd specify everything upfront because changing the design becomes expensive once manufacturing begins.
Software development inherited this approach—write specifications, then code, then test, then deploy. But AI and modern development tools may make prototyping easier than documentation. It might now make more sense to build ten prototypes, test them with users, then document the winner rather than specifying requirements first.
This principle applies beyond software. In digital government, the risky part isn't building applications—it's getting legislation passed. So smart teams should prototype solutions first, prove they work, then invest in policy documentation needed for regulatory approval.
Organizations that fail to recognize these shifting dynamics continue using processes optimized for old constraints. Meanwhile, startups that understand new realities can move faster by focusing effort on genuinely scarce resources rather than activities that used to be difficult but are now abundant.
Common Questions
Q: How do I know if my marketing strategy is subversive enough?
A: If 50% of people don't disapprove or feel uncomfortable with your approach, you're probably playing it too safe.
Q: What's the difference between growth hacks and zero-day exploits?
A: Growth hacks work across any product; zero-day exploits require deep understanding of your specific industry and value chain.
Q: How can I practice subversive thinking without crossing ethical lines?
A: Focus on creating genuine customer value through unconventional methods rather than extracting value through manipulation.
Q: Should I abandon traditional marketing in favor of subversive tactics?
A: Use subversive thinking to find unfair advantages, but still execute proven tactics like SEO and paid advertising for sustainable growth.
Q: How do I implement these ideas with my team?
A: Start with system awareness exercises, practice disagreeability through assumption challenging, and scan for opportunities using the Recon Canvas framework.
Conclusion
The most successful startups understand that distribution matters more than product perfection. While competitors focus on incremental feature improvements, winners find ways to subvert existing systems and create unprecedented advantages in reaching customers. This doesn't require being evil—just being creative enough to use the world's infrastructure in ways its creators never imagined.
The key is developing systematic approaches to subversive thinking rather than hoping for accidental inspiration. By combining system awareness, novelty-seeking, and strategic disagreeability, any startup can find their own zero-day marketing exploit that captures attention and converts it into sustainable competitive advantage.
Practical Implications
- Audit existing systems in your industry to identify opportunities for misappropriation or novel usage that creates customer value
- Practice the $5 Stanford challenge exercise with your team to develop system awareness and resource recognition skills
- Use the Recon Canvas to systematically scan product, medium, and market dimensions for unconventional opportunities
- Question fundamental assumptions about your industry by asking what would have to be true for everything to work differently
- Study successful subversive examples across industries to identify tactical patterns applicable to your specific situation
- Develop tolerance for approaches that feel uncomfortable but create genuine customer value through unconventional methods
- Focus on finding unfair advantages in distribution and attention capture rather than just building better product features
- Establish clear ethical boundaries to ensure subversive tactics create rather than extract value from customer relationships
- Recognize how modern technology changes what's scarce versus abundant in your industry and adjust processes accordingly
