Made To StickCAUTION

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---
name: made-to-stick
description: 'Craft messages that are understood, remembered, and drive action using the SUCCESs checklist (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories). Use when the user mentions "make it memorable", "no one remembers our pitch", "tagline", "value proposition", "why the message isnt landing", "curse of knowledge", or "concrete language". Also trigger when writing a pitch deck, simplifying a complex product explanation, or making a presentation more compelling. Covers the six SUCCESs traits and the curse of knowledge. For narrative brand frameworks, see storybrand-messaging. For viral sharing, see contagious.'
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: wondelai
  version: "1.4.0"
---

# 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](#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

**S**imple · **U**nexpected · **C**oncrete · **C**redible · **E**motional · **S**tories

**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](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](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 

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