Case study / 001↗
HubSpot
How does an AI capability become a reason to buy, adopt, and stay?
A product marketing analysis covering Customer → ICP → Competition → Positioning → Messaging → GTM → Launch → Pricing → Adoption → Metrics → AI → MOAT.
A living research system / 001
Marketing
intelligence
with a memory.
A trusted room for the real work: products, markets, customers, competitors, positioning, messaging, content, GTM, AI workflows, and the strategic lessons that connect them.
Updated in public · built for marketers and product teams
The
connected
view
connected
view
Product
Market
Customer
Content
GTM
Competitor
The useful signal is usually hiding between two familiar things.
01 / The system
Not a library.
A point of view.
The Vault is a public working system for making sense of a noisy market. It turns scattered research into a connected body of evidence you can return to, challenge, compare, and use.
01↗
Real products
What is being built, shipped, positioned, changed, and adopted.
02↗
Markets & customers
The pressure, language, behaviour, needs, and workarounds beneath the category.
03↗
Competitors & positioning
The claims everyone makes — and what those claims reveal about how companies compete.
04↗
Messaging & content
How companies turn product value into language people can understand, remember, and act on.
05↗
GTM & growth
The decisions behind launches, channels, sales enablement, adoption, and expansion.
06↗
AI & workflows
Where AI can accelerate research, analysis, creation, experimentation, and learning.
“
Useful research should change what you notice next.
Working principle / field note 000Case studies / The Vault
Real companies.
Different questions.
The Vault studies real products and companies through a consistent marketing lens. Each case asks a different question — and connects the answer to the wider system.
Open case study ↗
Case study / 002↗
Zoho
How does an integrated product ecosystem compete in a crowded SaaS market?
Exploring product breadth, customer segments, positioning, competitive strategy, pricing, ecosystem value, and differentiation.
Case study / 003↗
Notion
How does a flexible product become part of the way people work?
Exploring product experience, customer behaviour, positioning, community, content, growth loops, and product-led adoption.
Case study / 004↗
Salesforce
How does a category leader continue to create differentiation?
Exploring enterprise positioning, ecosystem strategy, product expansion, messaging, GTM, and competitive advantage.
Case study / 005↗
Canva
How can simplicity become a competitive advantage?
Exploring accessibility, product-led growth, customer expansion, positioning, content, and ecosystem.
Case study / 006↗
Netflix
How do product, content, and customer behaviour reinforce one another?
Exploring customer psychology, recommendation systems, content strategy, retention, positioning, and competitive advantage.
Case study / 007↗
OpenAI
How does a new technology category teach the market what it is worth?
Exploring product education, positioning, adoption, messaging, ecosystem development, and the changing role of AI in marketing.
02 / Field notes
A few signals
worth keeping.
Short, opinionated dispatches from the larger system. One idea at a time. Follow the thread when the question deserves more.
03 / The method
Research is
a loop, not
a deliverable.
Observe the market. Find the evidence. Name the tension. Connect it to the work. Form a question. Test the thinking. Share what you learn. Then come back with better eyes.
keep
looking
ObserveConnectTestSharelooking
04 / How it stays useful
The rules
of the room.
A living system needs constraints. These keep the work rigorous without making it precious.
Cross-vault intelligence
What happens when
the case studies
start talking?
One company can teach you something. Several companies can reveal a pattern. The Vault connects research across them to identify recurring patterns in:
HubSpot vs Zoho: Different approaches to SaaS positioning.
Notion vs Canva: How simplicity and flexibility become product advantages.
Salesforce vs HubSpot: Two different approaches to building a platform.
Canva vs Adobe: What happens when accessibility challenges professional depth?
MOAT / Durable advantage
What remains
when everyone can
copy the feature?
Every case study eventually asks the same question: where does the advantage actually come from?
The real advantage is learning faster.
Explore MOAT research ↗A public body of work
Come for
the signal.
Stay for the connections. The Vault is being built in public for people who want a more considered way to understand what is happening around products, markets, customers, and the decisions connecting them.
Read the latest notes ↗