The Originals Checklist: 10 Must-Haves for Building a Brand With Originality
Originality is often described as creativity, or as boldness. In reality, it is neither. It is a design choice: about how problems are framed, how systems are built, and how behaviour is shaped over time.
It does not come from ideas alone. It comes from how original thinkers create systems and spaces that let better behaviour take root and endure. That is what separates the ventures that reshape their categories from the ones that quietly blend into them. Here are the ten must-haves we come back to again and again.
One: Reframe the real problem
Originals do not start with solutions. They start by questioning whether the problem has been correctly defined in the first place.
Two: Design for behaviour, not performance
Originals prioritise participation, habit, and experience over outcomes or optimisation, both within and outside the organisation.
Three: Remove the friction
Originals focus on the small, everyday barriers that quietly stop people from taking part.
Four: Put people at the centre of the system
Originals design for everyone affected, not just the end user, but the wider ecosystem too.
Five: Make learning safe and visible
Originals drive progress through play, experimentation, and feedback, not through fear.
Six: Build systems, not products
Originals build value from how things connect and reinforce each other, not from isolated features.
Seven: Align incentives with long-term value
Originals ensure that behaviour which benefits the system is rewarded, not undermined.
Eight: Create value that grows
Originals shape and navigate over the long term, rather than chasing short-term wins.
Nine: Build capability that’s hard to copy
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Originals build an advantage that lives in the system, culture, and relationships, not in the surface idea.
Ten: Be deliberately original
Originals deliberately choose where to be different, and where not to be.
Why this matters
In a world shaped by imitation and optimisation, originality is one of the few ways to create real space, not by being louder or faster, but by being more considered about what shapes behaviour.
This checklist is not about chasing difference for its own sake. It is about building ventures that last because they are designed for how people really live, learn, and move. That, ultimately, is what originality is for. It is not category-specific. It is transferable thinking. So be bold, be brave, and be original.
This article is drawn from episode six of the Blackline Originals podcast. Find all episodes, the high five of original thinking, and the Originals diagnostic at blacklinecreative.co.uk/originals.
