Made to Stick Framework
A framework for crafting ideas and messages that are understood, remembered, and drive lasting action. Based on decades of research into why some ideas survive and others die.
Core Principle
The Curse of Knowledge is the single greatest barrier to effective communication. Once we know something, we can't imagine not knowing it—which makes us bad at explaining our ideas to others. Sticky ideas aren't born, they're made: the SUCCESs framework provides six principles that make any idea more memorable and impactful.
Scoring
Goal: 10/10. Score any messaging (copy, presentations, campaigns, onboarding) by running the Quick Diagnostic: rate each of the six traits 1-10, then map the 6-60 total to a band (50-60 = 9-10, extremely sticky; 35-49 = 7-8, strong; 20-34 = 4-6, forgettable; below 20 = ≤3, won't stick). Always state the current score, which traits scored lowest, and the specific fix from the diagnostic's Fix column.
The SUCCESs Framework
Simple · Unexpected · Concrete · Credible · Emotional · Stories
Not a checklist—a toolkit. Not every sticky idea uses all six, but the stickiest ideas tend to use most of them—don't force all six onto a message that only needs two.
1. Simple
Core concept: Find the core of the idea and share it compactly. Simple ≠ dumbed down—it means ruthless prioritization: "if you say three things, you say nothing."
The Commander's Intent: if everything else goes wrong, what ONE thing must we accomplish? For messaging: if people remember ONE thing about your product, what should it be? The inverted pyramid: lead with the most important thing; readers who stop anywhere still got the core.
Techniques for simplicity:
| Technique | How It Works | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Core message | Strip to the essential | Southwest: "THE low-fare airline" |
| Analogy | Explain new via known | "It's like Uber for dog walking" |
| Generative | Core idea that generates behavior | "Names, names, names" (local newspaper motto) |
Application to product messaging:
| Before (Complex) | After (Simple) |
|---|---|
| "AI-powered, cloud-native customer engagement platform with omnichannel capabilities" | "Talk to all your customers in one place" |
| "We leverage machine learning algorithms to optimize conversion funnels" | "We find why visitors don't buy and fix it" |
| "Enterprise-grade project management with Gantt charts, resource allocation..." | "The simplest way to manage projects" |
The test: Can you explain it to a smart 12-year-old? Warning: don't simplify into emptiness—"we make the world better" is simple but meaningless.
See references/simple.md when you can't reduce a message to one core idea—it has the Commander's Intent exercise, the inverted-pyramid pattern, and five "find the core" drills.
2. Unexpected
Core concept: Get attention by breaking patterns (surprise); hold attention by creating curiosity gaps (interest). The surprise must connect to the core message—identify the counterintuitive implication and communicate that.
Example surprises:
| Category | Expected | Unexpected (Sticky) |
|---|---|---|
| Product launch | "Introducing our new feature" | "We removed your favorite feature. Here's why." |
| Statistics | "Obesity is growing" | "A bag of movie popcorn has more fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, Big Mac and fries, and steak dinner — combined" |
| Value prop | "Save money on insurance" | "15 minutes could save you 15%" (specific, unexpected) |
Creating curiosity gaps — open a gap in knowledge, create the desire to fill it:
| Technique | How It Works | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Question | Ask what they don't know | "What's the #1 reason startups fail?" |
| Prediction | Ask them to predict | "How many X do you think...?" |
| Mystery | Present a puzzle, delay the resolution | "Nordstrom once refunded a set of tires. They don't sell tires." |
| Challenge | Violate assumptions | "Everything you know about X is wrong" |
Anti-pattern: Gimmicky surprise without substance.
See references/unexpected.md when a message reads as predictable—it has techniques for finding the counterintuitive angle and engineering curiosity gaps.
3. Concrete
Core concept: Use sensory language and specific details instead of abstract concepts. Abstraction kills memorability; the more concrete and specific the idea, the stickier it becomes.
Abstract vs. Concrete:
| Abstract | Concrete |
|---|---|
| "Improve customer experience" | "Customers get their order in 30 minutes, still hot" |
| "Increase engagement" | "Users open the app 8 times a day" |
| "Optimize efficiency" | "Reduce report generation from 4 hours to 10 minutes" |
| "World-class support" | "Call us and a human answers in under 60 seconds" |
| "Scalable solution" | "Handle 10,000 users on day one without code changes" |
The Velcro theory of memory: concrete ideas have more "hooks"—"bicycle" is easier to remember than "vehicle" because you can picture it.
Techniques for concreteness:
| Technique | How It Works | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Specific numbers | Replace "a lot" with exact figures | "2,347 customers" not "thousands" |
| Sensory language | Engage senses | "Crispy, not crunchy" |
| Concrete example | Replace category with instance | "Like John, a 35-year-old teacher in Denver" |
| Before/after | Tangible transformation | "Before: 4 hours. After: 10 minutes." |
Application: features → outcomes; percentages → real numbers ("saves 40%" → "saves 16 hours/month"); categories → specific examples ("restaurants" → "pizza shops in Brooklyn"); demos > feature lists.
See references/concrete.md when a message stays abstract—it has sensory-language drills and the abstract-to-concrete conversion process.
4. Credible
Core concept: Help people believe your idea using external credibility (authorities, credentials) and internal credibility (vivid details, human-scale statistics, testable claims)—internal is more powerful.
External credibility:
| Source | How It Works | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Authorities | Expert endorsement | "Recommended by Harvard Business Review" |
| Anti-authorities | Real people with experience | "Here's what a customer with the same problem found" |
| Credentials | Verifiable achievements | "10 years experience, SOC 2 certified" |
Internal credibility:
| Technique | How It Works | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Vivid details | Specificity implies truth | "On Tuesday at 3pm, in the conference room on the 4th floor..." |
| Human-scale statistics | Relate numbers to experience | Not "10TB of data" but "every book ever written, 100 times" |
| The Sinatra Test | One example so good it proves everything | "If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere" |
| Testable credential | Let them verify | "Try it free for 14 days" |
The Sinatra Test: one reference so impressive it handles all objections—"We secured the White House" (security), "We handle Super Bowl traffic" (scalability), "Used by Apple, Google, and Microsoft" (quality).
Making statistics stick: put them in a context people understand—not "37 grams of saturated fat" but "more saturated fat than a Big Mac, fries, and milkshake combined."
See references/credible.md when a claim sounds unbelievable—it has authority types, the Sinatra Test, and methods for making statistics human-scale.
5. Emotional
Core concept: Make people feel something—people act on emotion, not analysis. Statistics numb; stories about individuals inspire action. Mother Teresa principle: "If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will."
Emotional appeals:
| Approach | How It Works | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Individual focus | One person's story > statistics | "Meet Sarah, who..." > "10,000 people affected" |
| Self-interest | "What's in it for me?" | WIIFM: features → personal benefits |
| Identity | "What would someone like me do?" | "Texans don't litter" (Don't Mess with Texas) |
| Maslow's hierarchy | Appeal to the right level | Security, belonging, esteem, self-actualization |
The identity approach: people decide based on identity, not calculation—frame your product as consistent with who they want to be:
| Identity Frame | Product | Message |
|---|---|---|
| "I'm an innovative leader" | SaaS tool | "For teams that move fast" |
| "I care about my health" | Food product | "Made with ingredients you can pronounce" |
| "I'm a serious professional" | B2B service | "The tool Fortune 500 CTOs rely on" |
Avoid the "semantic stretch": don't over-abstract the emotion—"Support the troops" beats "Support our national defense infrastructure."
See references/emotional.md when a message is all logic and no feeling—it has the individual-focus, identity, and self-interest appeal frameworks.
6. Stories
Core concept: Stories are flight simulators for the brain: they simulate experience, inspire action, stay memorable through narrative structure, and bypass resistance (people don't argue with stories).
Three story plots that work:
| Plot | Structure | When to Use | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Challenge | Protagonist overcomes obstacle | Inspire courage, perseverance | "We started in a garage..." |
| Connection | People bridging a gap | Inspire tolerance, teamwork | "A customer helped another customer..." |
| Creativity | Novel solution to problem | Inspire innovation, thinking | "We tried X, Y, Z... then discovered..." |
Story structure for product messaging: character (relatable customer) → problem (emotional) → journey (what they tried, concrete) → solution (how your product helped, specific) → outcome (measurable + emotional).
Example:
"Sarah ran a 10-person design agency. Her team spent 4 hours every Friday compiling client reports from 5 different tools. She'd tried hiring an intern, building spreadsheets, even a custom tool. Nothing worked. Then she found [Product]. Now reports generate in 10 minutes. Last Friday, her team left at 3pm for the first time in years."
Spotting stories in the wild: support tickets (problems + resolutions), sales calls (objections + breakthroughs), user interviews (before/after moments), internal Slack (team wins).
See references/stories.md when you need to build a narrative—it has the three story plots, the product-story structure, and methods for collecting real stories.
The Curse of Knowledge
How it manifests: jargon your audience doesn't know; skipping context that seems "obvious"; assuming your audience sees what you see; over-abstracting because you know the specifics.
Solutions: test messaging with outsiders (not your team); use concrete language, not abstractions; tell stories, not bullet points; ask "would my mom understand this?"
See references/curse-of-knowledge.md when your own message reads clearly but lands flat on others—it has diagnosis and remedies for shared-context blind spots.
Applying SUCCESs to Product
Landing Pages
- Simple: one clear value proposition above the fold
- Unexpected: counterintuitive claim or statistic
- Concrete: specific outcome ("save 4 hours/week" not "save time")
- Credible: customer logos, specific testimonials
- Emotional + Stories: customer pain point and transformation narrative
Product Demos
- Simple: show ONE core workflow, not every feature
- Unexpected: start with the "aha moment", not a tour
- Concrete: use real data, not "Lorem ipsum"
- Credible: show how [specific company] uses it
- Emotional + Stories: "Let me show you what happens when [customer] has this problem..."
Onboarding
- Simple: one action per screen
- Unexpected: delight with a quick win early
- Concrete: show real results, not abstract promises
- Credible: "Join 5,000 teams already using..."
- Emotional + Stories: celebrate first success; "here's how [user] got started..."
See references/applications.md when applying SUCCESs to a specific format—it has element-by-element tables, fill-in templates, and before/after examples for landing pages, demos, onboarding, presentations, email campaigns, internal comms, and documentation. See references/case-studies.md for full worked teardowns (JFK's moonshot, the Subway diet, Don't Mess with Texas) when you want to see all six traits operating together in a famous message.
Common Mistakes
| Mistake | Why It Fails | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Burying the lead | Core message lost in details | Commander's Intent: what's the ONE thing? |
| Too abstract | Nothing to remember | Replace every abstraction with a concrete example |
| Feature listing | No emotional connection | Tell customer stories, show transformations |
| Jargon | Curse of Knowledge | Test with outsiders |
| Statistics without context | Numbers don't stick | Make stats human-scale and relatable |
Quick Diagnostic
The single scoring instrument. Score each trait 1-10, fix the lowest, then re-score:
| Trait | Question | If weak | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | Can I state the core in one sentence? | Too complex | Find the Commander's Intent |
| Unexpected | Would this surprise someone? | Predictable = forgettable | Find the counterintuitive angle |
| Concrete | Can I picture it happening? | Too abstract | Add specific, sensory details |
| Credible | Why should someone believe this? | No credibility | Add proof, examples, Sinatra Test |
| Emotional | Does it make me feel something? | Purely logical | Focus on one person, not statistics |
| Stories | Is there a story? | List of facts | Wrap in character + problem + resolution |
Sum the six scores and band per Scoring above.
Further Reading
For the complete framework and research:
- "Made to Stick" by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
- "Switch" by Chip Heath & Dan Heath (companion: how to make change stick)
About the Authors
Chip Heath is a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Dan Heath is a senior fellow at Duke University's CASE center. Together they have written four New York Times bestsellers; Made to Stick spent over two years on the list, and its SUCCESs framework is used by educators, marketers, nonprofits, and product teams worldwide.