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We spend a lot of time talking about how to build what’s next. But strategic disruption doesn’t just come from new ideas. This week’s article explores how to approach disruption as a deliberate, engineered strategy, not an accidental outcome. We look at five patterns that drive disruption, and how to operationalize those inside your company or venture.

You’ll also find a case study on Nintendo’s Wii, a disruption play built on the back of limited hardware and a sharp rejection of gaming’s dominant logic.

Here’s what you’ll find:

Cover Image Credit: Roseville.CA.US

Most founders (or innovators, for that matter) don’t set out to disrupt an industry. They start with a problem worth solving. A job to be done. The moment of disruption shows up later, and only after solving that problem reveals a shift in the assumptions of how an industry works.

But why wait? Disruption opens new markets and creates massive growth potential. Which begs the question: can it be done deliberately?

Can you design a path to disruption instead of hoping to stumble into it?

Planning for disruption has nothing to do with mimicking startup culture or picking a fight with incumbents. It begins with mapping where entrenched systems are weakest, then filling in the gaps that others can’t or won’t address.

Disruption isn’t a side effect. It’s a design choice. If you want to open new markets and unlock runaway growth, you can’t just hope to stumble into it. You have to engineer your way there.

Strategic disruption allows you to identify gaps others don’t see and serve needs they won’t touch. It unlocks new markets by surfacing customers and use cases that incumbents ignore. Done right, it creates growth that isn’t dependent on stealing share or defending margin. It comes from offering something the existing system wasn’t built to support.

Disruption works not because it breaks things. It works because it makes room for something cheaper, easier to use, or more accessible. And if you can surface those opportunities early, you can design your way into them, on purpose.

The most effective disruptions begin with a clear line of inquiry: what parts of this system are treated as immutable? This step isn’t optional. It’s foundational. If you’re not challenging the industry’s defaults, you’re not setting yourself up to do anything meaningfully different.

Before you begin with customer interviews or product roadmaps, start by mapping the assumptions that shape how your industry works. Focus specifically on those that others view as inflexible — the invisible defaults that guide how legacy players view the market:

This is where new markets emerge. They come from people who’ve been excluded or underserved because they didn’t fit the old logic. Once you find those people, talk to them. Understand the jobs they’re trying to get done. Let them shape what you build, how you go to market, and how you communicate value.

These core assumptions are often the most fragile, and least questioned, part of the system. Interrogate them deeply from day one and continue to question them throughout your customer development process.

Disruptors don’t win because they have better technology. In fact, in most cases disruptors unlock new opportunities by releasing "worse" products built around lesser technology. Think: simpler, cheaper, and with limited features. In the world of strategic disruption, what matters is that your product is just good enough to serve a new customer base. One that others ignore.

Shitty products, aimed at overlooked problems and underserved customers, can become wedges into massive markets. The key isn't technical superiority, it's fit and accessibility. 

The technology matters, but only as a means to reshape the architecture of the value networks you're operating in. Rethink trust, cost, and control. Otherwise, if you're building with cutting-edge tools but relying on legacy assumptions (same pricing, same channels, same margins) you’re not disrupting. You’re just modernizing.

New value networks emerge when you shift power. That could mean flattening gatekeepers, changing how services are bundled, or letting users earn instead of pay. The question to consider isn’t "what can we build with this tech?" Instead, focus on "what economic logic can we rewrite by leveraging this new tech?"

Disruptors win because they build systems that behave differently. Systems that serve different people, create value in new ways, and challenge who benefits. Technology is simply a tool to help accomplish the creation of those new systems.

If you're going to strategically attack the foundational assumptions of a market, you're going to be exploring a world of uncertainty. And in the corporate world, uncertainty is usually viewed as a risk to be managed and mitigated. But in the world of disruption, you can't manage your way out of uncertainty and still challenge the underlying assumptions of an entire industry.

You'll have to learn to revel in the undefined. It’s the foundation on which disruptive ideas are built.

In a startup, exploring uncertainty is the default. In a corporate setting, it’s a rebellion. If you're running a venture inside a large company, your goal isn't to eliminate uncertainty. It's to learn how to overcome it faster than the processes built to prevent it.

Traditional governance kills progress, and standard KPIs reward the wrong outcomes. Success in a world of the unknown requires a shift not just in metrics, but in mindset. If you want to overcome uncertainty with intention, you need to design systems that anticipate it and are built to navigate it.

That means giving teams the tools, timelines, and trust to run fast experiments. It means building feedback loops into every layer of decision-making. And it means creating environments where iteration isn't just allowed, it's expected.

Disruption comes from structuring your organization to learn faster than anyone else. That’s how you move through ambiguity with speed and direction. That’s how you build deliberate disruption.

Disruption isn't just something you build toward. It's something you build around.

To make it stick, you need more than a few renegade teams running experiments. You need to normalize the act of questioning. Not once, but continuously. That means designing your culture, systems, and rhythms around the expectation that today’s assumptions won’t hold tomorrow.

You’re not trying to burn it all down. You’re trying to build a culture that values resilience over rigidity. Your teams need confidence that calling out outdated logic won't slow their careers or trigger defensive reactions. It should be seen as maintenance. Operational hygiene.

Designing for obsolescence means treating inquiry as infrastructure. It means rewarding teams for evolving their thinking, not just their metrics. And it means creating space to admit that what worked last quarter might need to be scrapped next.

That’s how you turn disruption from a project into a capability. That’s how you build a company that questions first before the market forces it to.

Whether you're inside a Fortune 500 or building something from scratch, you can pursue disruption deliberately. But how you do it will depend on where you start.

If you're a startup founder, your advantage isn’t just speed, it’s clarity. You don’t have to ask permission to challenge the way things have always been done. You don’t have to defend your thinking to protect legacy lines of business. That gives you the freedom to ask better questions.

You're not just trying to solve a job to be done. You’re trying to provide a solution for an audience that’s been ignored or underserved precisely because others haven't thought to challenge the ingrained assumptions about the market. You have the benefit of building from scratch without being beholden to structures and value networks that were built around those assumption.

If you're working inside a big company, your advantage isn’t speed, it’s scale. You have the reach, resources, and credibility to drive real systemic change...if you use it intentionally. You can challenge assumptions because you already have a seat at the table where industry norms are reinforced.

But scale comes with gravity. You’ll have to guide your team and stakeholders through the thinking behind your approach. You’ll need to show your work. Map the assumptions. Frame the opportunity. And carve out protected space to explore it without falling back into the patterns you’re trying to change.

Wherever you're starting, the instincts are the same: question what's taken for granted, test what matters most, and move through uncertainty faster than the market.

When Nintendo launched the Wii in 2006, it didn’t just ship a new console. It rewrote the logic of an entire industry. At a time when Sony and Microsoft were locked in a race to push better graphics, more power, and higher performance, Nintendo walked away from the arms race entirely.

They bet on movement. On simplicity. On fun.

That wasn’t a fluke. It was a deliberate act of disruption. Nintendo questioned the very assumptions that defined gaming at the time:

They chose different customers, different hardware, and a different definition of value.

The Wii was underpowered by industry standards. But that was the point. It was easier to use, cheaper to produce, and radically inclusive. Nintendo didn’t win by outperforming Sony and Microsoft. It won by targeting people those companies didn’t even see: families, seniors, and first-time players.

And the results were undeniable. The Wii sold over 100 million units, outselling both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In just one generation, Nintendo went from being perceived as the quaint third player in the console race to owning the top spot globally. By the end of 2007, the Wii was outselling both competitors in every major market. And over 60% of its players were new to gaming entirely. Nintendo didn’t just compete better. It expanded the category.

Disruption wasn’t a side effect. It was the result of challenging assumptions others treated as law and delivering something the dominant logic couldn’t even imagine.

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