Market Engineering Resources
Category + Cause: How Movements Create Market Leaders
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND Through research for my latest book, “Market Engineering – Because Markets Don’t Build Themselves” (due out in
Why Culture is Every Company’s Hidden Performance Engine And How Performance Intelligence Makes it Real
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND When it comes to hiring, onboarding, board relations, and even customer and partner success, culture is universally
AI, Culture, and Leadership: Protocols for the Traction Gap and Market Engineering Era
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND AI as a Category and Culture Event, Not Just a Tool In the age of generative AI
The Rise of the AI-Native Startup: Why Non-US Innovators No Longer Need Silicon Valley
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND Bret Waters, a lifelong denizen of Silicon Valley, entrepreneur, investor, and respected academic and friend of mine,
Digital Transformation, AI, and the Criticality of Process over Technology: A Comparative Analysis
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND In 2025, marketing leaders are facing a new reality: artificial intelligence has transformed demand creation. Automated campaigns,
Why Market Engineering Is the Catalyst for Brands in the Age of AI-Driven Demand
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND In 2025, marketing leaders are facing a new reality: artificial intelligence has transformed demand creation. Automated campaigns,
The Business Book is Dead. Long Live the Business Book.
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND Business books have shaped leadership lessons, strategy debates, and company culture for decades. But the old model
“Beyond the Digital Twin: Why Expert Models Are the Mind, Not Just the Memory”
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND Every few months, the world falls in love with a newer, faster Large Language Model (LLM). Boardrooms
Market Engineering the Post-Remote Era: Why Your Operating Model Story Is Now as Critical as Your Product Pitch
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND In 2020, the “remote revolution” was the story every company wanted to tell. Zoom and Slack IPOs
The Crucial Distinction: Category Design vs. Market Engineering
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND At Traction Gap Partners, we are a Market Engineering Studio. We coach leaders to understand the difference
Market Engineering ≠ Marketing Engineering: Why Only the CEO Can Lead the Charge
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND I defined the term Market Engineering in my first book, “Traversing the Traction Gap”, and many companies
2025’s Five Boardroom Mandates—And Why a Systematic Approach Is Non-Negotiable
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND If you’re still trying to win by outspending, out-shouting, or out-hiring your way to market leadership, you’re
The Market Engineering Mindset: Why CEOs Must Learn to be “Market Engineers”
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND Just after joining C3 AI [NYSE:AI] as its Chief Marketing Officer in 2019, Tom Siebel – Founder
Agentic SEO Best Practices Guide
Co-developed by Traction Gap Partners and Innovation Algebra and AI, this guide offers emerging insights to align your strategies with generative AI and market innovation.
Category Design and Surviving as a Startup
On Pipeline Visionaries, host Ian Faison interviews Bruce Cleveland, best-selling author of Traversing the Traction Gapand CEO of Traction Gap Partners, on why most startups fail—and how market engineering can flip the script.
Bruce breaks down how to design or redefine a category, why thought leadership drives sales, and what it takes to become the dominant player in your space. If you’re aiming to lead your market, this episode is your blueprint.
Key insight: Category leaders capture ~76% of profits—and the road to that leadership starts with smart, strategic market engineering.
SEO’s Existential Crisis: How AI Is Rewriting the Web
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND Search is changing—not incrementally, but fundamentally. Over the past two years, search engines and AI platforms have
Not Every Software Startup Needs to Become a Platform—And That’s a Good Thing
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND There’s a persistent narrative in Silicon Valley that, to be “truly valuable,” a software startup must aspire
Why Your Startup Is Burning Cash — The Real Startup Killers
On MedTech’s #1 Podcast, host Omar M. Khateeb interviews Bruce Cleveland on the real reasons 85% of startups fail—and what to do about it. They dive into the Traction Gap Framework, market-product fit, and how to avoid the fatal mistake of hiring sales too early.
Bruce shares how market engineering can multiply a company’s valuation and recounts how he helped shape the Enterprise AI category and scale C3.ai to IPO.
If you’re a founder, executive, or investor, this episode is a must-listen masterclass in building real, durable traction.
PromptOps: Marketing’s New AI Discipline
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND If you’ve been following the trajectory of AI in marketing, you’ve heard the term “PromptOps” climbing board
Are You Ready for the Age of Agent-to-Agent Marketing? How CMOs Can Prepare for the Coming Shift in Buyer Behavior
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND AND THE BRUCE CLEVELAND EXPERT MODEL “Tomorrow’s visibility won’t be won by gaming algorithms, but by engineering
Scaling Early Stage Companies
On LeadGenesys’ Scaling B2B Demand Generation series, Jeff Kostermans sits down with Bruce Cleveland to discuss what it really takes to scale early-stage companies. Drawing from the Traction Gap Framework, Bruce shares how market engineering—category design, positioning, and go-to-market strategy—can make or break a company between MVP and scalable growth.
This episode is packed with tactical insights for founders, GTM leaders, and investors navigating the high-risk early phases of company building.
The Knowledge Worker is Dead
BY BRUCE CLEVELAND A friend of mine and former fierce competitor in the tech industry, Christopher Lochhead, is a founder
Building Companies from Ideation to Scale
On The Bliss Business Podcast, hosts Stephen Sakach, Michael Liwski, and Tullio Siragusa interview Bruce Cleveland on why most companies fail in the go-to-market phase—and how to avoid it. The conversation dives into the Traction Gap Framework, from MVP to Minimum Viable Company, and explores the crucial role of purpose, culture, and emotional intelligence in scaling a business.
Whether you’re a founder, product leader, or investor, this episode offers practical insights into how market engineering can help you build traction, momentum, and lasting value.
Market Engineering Process Guide
Learn the steps of the TGP Market Engineering Process — a must-read for understanding our strategic framework.