Stop Marketing After the Fact—Design Remarkableness into What You Create

Every year, a tech club launches an app—same functions, slightly new logo, a different email blast. This year, a new team member suggests a radical interface twist: an interactive dashboard that personalizes to each student’s daily schedule. They hesitate, fearing it’s ‘too different.’ But she sketches it anyway, and the next club meeting is spent clicking through her fast prototype, not just reading slides. When word spreads, students start asking when the demo will launch, even before it’s finished.

The last few years’ projects never generated this eager chatter. As the weeks pass, feedback pours in. Some hate the design; most can’t wait to try it. The advisors, at first doubtful, admit this is the first time they’ve seen real buzz. The change? This year’s team built the remarkable right into the product—not the pitch, not the handout, but the thing itself. In line with behavioral economics research, people ignore information that feels forced or comes after the fact; true novelty embedded in the experience triggers social curiosity and word-of-mouth.

Look at what you’re working on now and ask yourself, does anything about it make people want to share or show it off? If it’s all dressed up after the fact—just new packaging or a shiny ad—pause and challenge yourself to invent something inside the project that truly surprises or delights. Take the extra time to build in a unique feature, test it on a small group, and listen to whether it sparks authentic reactions without any prompt. That’s when you know you’re onto something truly shareable. Try making this your focus for your next school, work, or personal project.