Mike Litman
The Taste Brief
A TALK BY MIKE LITMAN

The Taste Brief

Becoming the person who scores brands on taste.
And why that becomes everything.

Content strategy Personal brand Monetisation March 2026
The inspiration

Three people turned LinkedIn
into a name-making machine

Joe Burns
Strategy carousels
Witty, visual essays on advertising. #4 Rising in Business on Substack. Turned PDF slide decks into a recognisable format.
Quality Meats, NYC Carousels
Jolyon Varley
Culture x brands
#1 Culture Marketing Voice on LinkedIn. 38k followers. Posts daily. Owns "brands x subculture" completely. Runs OK COOL.
OK COOL, London Text + video
Nick Tran
Brand building curator
92k followers. Ex-TikTok CMO. Curates great marketing by others. Forward-looking, declarative style. Now runs Diageo JV.
First Round Collective Text + visuals
What they share

The playbook that works

Rule What it means Why it works
Own one lane Never drift into generic advice People know what they're getting
Consistent format Recognisable before you read a word Builds brand equity with every post
Opinion-forward Thesis first, evidence second People share strong opinions, not summaries
Specific examples Name the brand, name the campaign Concrete beats abstract every time
High cadence Weekly minimum, ideally 2-3x Consistency compounds reach
Multi-channel LinkedIn + Substack + private groups Meets people where they are
The gap

They're all
commentators

Joe writes witty strategy essays. Jolyon breaks down culture plays. Nick curates great campaigns. All brilliant. All respected.

But none of them build products. None of them have a scoring methodology. None of them have staked a claim on taste as strategy.

Nobody is scoring taste. The lane is wide open.
My unfair advantage

A strategist who ships

20+
Live products built with AI
1
Scoring methodology (The Relevance Index)
0
Lines of code written by hand

15+ years in brand strategy (MediaMonks, Contagious, R/GA). Published author. BIMA 100 Tech Pioneer. Built an entire ecosystem around taste: The Relevance Index, Taste OS, Modern Retro, Taste Machines, Cultural Capital Labs.

Builder Strategist Methodology 15yr agency experience Published author
The thesis

Taste is the last
unfair advantage

When AI commoditises execution, the only thing left is judgement. What you choose to make matters more than how you make it. Taste becomes the strategy.

What you choose to make is the only thing that matters.
TB
The format

The Taste Brief

A weekly scored analysis of a brand, product, or cultural moment through the lens of taste. Visual. Opinionated. Specific. Beautiful.

What exists
Generic "brand breakdown" posts
Vague "culture" commentary
Case studies without methodology
Abstract frameworks nobody uses
The Taste Brief
Scored analysis with a repeatable framework
Specific brands, specific moves, specific verdicts
Built by someone who actually ships products
Editorial design that embodies the taste it measures
The methodology

Five dimensions of taste

Point of View
/20
Cultural Fluency
/20
Design Craft
/20
Coherence
/20
Surprise Factor
/20

Each brand gets scored out of 100. Not a vibe check. A structured assessment with specific criteria. Leveraging the same methodology behind The Relevance Index.

Opinionated Repeatable Debatable Shareable
What it looks like

A Taste Brief in action

Example: Stripe Press
Taste Score: 91/100
A payments company running a publishing house. The audacity, the coherence, and the signal it sends about who they are. Stripe Press doesn't sell books. It sells the idea that Stripe is the kind of company that publishes books.
POV: 19/20 Coherence: 18/20 Surprise: 18/20
Example: A generic D2C brand
Taste Score: 34/100
Pastel palette, sans-serif logo, "we're on a mission" homepage. Identical to 200 other brands. The product might be good. But the taste decisions say: we looked at what worked for someone else and copied it.
POV: 4/20 Coherence: 12/20 Surprise: 2/20

Each brief: 10-15 slide carousel on LinkedIn + full write-up on Substack. Consistent visual language. The design itself demonstrates taste.

The design itself demonstrates the taste it measures.
The system

Content cadence

Frequency Format Channel Purpose
Weekly The Taste Brief (hero carousel) LinkedIn + Substack Authority building
2-3x / week Short observations LinkedIn Stay visible, react to moments
Monthly Relevance Index update Substack + portfolio Rankings that get shared
Quarterly Deep-dive essay Blog + Substack SEO + long-term credibility

Claude Code produces the research, scoring, writing, and visual production. What used to take a team now takes a Tuesday evening.

Distribution

Be everywhere the right people are

LinkedIn
Primary stage
Weekly carousel + 2-3 short posts. Where the hiring managers and brand leaders live.
Substack
The archive
Full write-ups, subscriber list, longer essays. The body of work that compounds.
WhatsApp / Slack
Private reach
Industry groups where the real conversations happen. Where Joe Burns' carousels spread.
Portfolio
SEO engine
Long-form on mikelitman.me. Catches people Googling "brand taste analysis" in 6 months.
The flywheel

Content becomes career

✎
Publish
Weekly Taste Brief on LinkedIn + Substack
👥
Brand leaders and hiring managers see it
Audience
🎤
Speaking
Conferences book "The Taste Guy"
💰
Consulting
Brands pay for their own Taste Brief
🎯
The Role
Head of Culture at a brand that gets it
Monetisation

How this becomes a living

Phase 1 : Months 1-3
Build the archive
12 Taste Briefs. Consistent cadence. Grow LinkedIn following. Launch Substack. The body of work that makes everything else possible.
Phase 2 : Months 3-6
Speaking circuit
"Taste is the Last Unfair Advantage" as a 30-minute keynote. Target: brand conferences, agency events, D&AD, Cannes fringe. Paid from the start.
Phase 3 : Months 6-12
Consulting & advisory
Brands commission their own Taste Brief. Retained "taste advisory" for brand teams making design and culture decisions. Premium Substack tier with industry reports.
Phase 4 : The endgame
The role or the business
Either: Head of Culture at a brand like Nike, Spotify, or Anthropic. Or: The Taste Brief becomes a standalone advisory business. Both are wins.
The keynote

Taste is the Last
Unfair Advantage

Why the best brands win on judgement, not data. Featuring scored examples, a methodology built from 15 years in brand strategy, and proof from 20+ products built by a non-coder with AI.

30 minutes D&AD Cannes Brand conferences Agency events
When everyone can make, what you choose to make is the only thing that matters.
Positioning

Why nobody else can do this

Creator Their lane What they lack
Joe Burns Strategy commentary as entertainment No methodology, no products, no scoring
Jolyon Varley Brands x subculture breakdowns No scoring framework, tied to his agency
Nick Tran Curating great marketing by others Curator not creator, no taste framework
Ana Andjelic Sociology of brands and luxury Academic tone, doesn't build products
Mike Litman Taste as scored strategy, backed by 20+ products Builder + strategist + methodology = unique
Why this wins

Six reasons this is the one

01
Infrastructure exists
The Relevance Index, Taste OS, the scoring methodology. This isn't starting from zero.
02
Nobody else is doing it
"Taste" as a scored, repeatable, branded content format. First mover in an open lane.
03
Inherently repeatable
Always a new brand to score, a rebrand to react to, a cultural moment to assess. The material never runs out.
04
Scores create debate
People argue about scores. That means comments, shares, engagement. Engagement gold.
05
Directly monetisable
Brands want to know their score. That's a consulting product from day one.
06
IS the job application
Publishing a weekly Taste Brief is literally doing the role of Head of Culture, in public. The right employer sees it and calls.
The build

What gets built this week

Production system
Claude Code skill
A "/taste-brief" skill that produces a complete brief from a single prompt. Research, scoring, writing, visual output. Every Tuesday evening.
Visual template
Carousel design
10-15 slide PDF format for LinkedIn. Editorial, clean, recognisable. The design itself demonstrates taste.
Substack
Newsletter launch
"The Taste Brief" on Substack. Full write-ups, subscriber capture, the archive that compounds over time.
First brief
Ship the proof
The first Taste Brief goes live this week. A brand with strong opinions to score. The format is proven on the first try.
The identity

The Taste Guy

Joe Burns is "the carousel strategist." Jolyon Varley is "the culture marketing guy." Nick Tran is "the brand curator."

Mike Litman is "the person who scores brands on taste, and builds the products to prove it."

Scores brands on taste. Builds the products to prove it.
Strategist Builder Scorer The Taste Brief The Relevance Index
Let's go

Which brand
gets scored first?

mikelitman.me
hello@mikelitman.me

The Taste Brief. Weekly. Scored. Opinionated.
Starting now.

More from Mike

⚡
Strategy Deck
42 slides
🚀
The Full Deck
74 slides
📈
The Pattern Strategy
35 slides
Get notified when I publish new decks →
Press → or Space to begin Swipe or tap → to begin
← Home