Roses are red
Violets are blue
Business loves triangles
And pinwheels, too
From Drucker’s “cost-quality-time” triangle to Shaan Puri’s “Triangle of Talent,” marketers love a good three-point diagram.
Even HBO’s Silicon Valley couldn’t resist, parodying us with its Conjoined Triangles of Success.
And yet… we still hang those posters on the wall.
So let’s lean in.
Today, I’m sharing the most useful triangle in marketing—and how AI turns it from a static model into a spinny little flywheel that drives real growth.
The Modern Measurement Triangle
Three tools. Three purposes. One framework:
Incrementality Tests → Prove your spend drives lift
Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) → Spot high-level channel impact
Attribution → Assign credit and steer in real time
Each one has legacy baggage.
Each one gets an AI glow-up.
Pinwheel Mental Model
Picture this:
Three colorful blades: Incrementality, MMM, Attribution.
Now add a gust of AI wind—and boom —the whole thing spins into motion.
Incrementality
What it does: Proves if your ad spend actually moves the needle
Old pain: Manual holdouts. Slow. Costly.
AI fix: Auto-selects high-lift groups and builds controls in minutes
TL;DR: This is your “truth serum” for what’s working vs. what’s wasting money.
MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling)
What it does: Zooms out to see which channels impact the big picture performance
Old pain: Quarterly reports. Stale data. Static models.
AI fix: Weekly refreshes. Real-time inputs. Regression on autopilot.
TL;DR: Your CFO’s favorite tool just got a Red Bull.
Attribution
What it does: Gives credit where credit is due—even without cookies
Old pain: Signal loss. Click bias. Incomplete paths.
AI fix: Rebuilds customer journeys. Corrects bias. Fills in blanks.
TL;DR: Still useful post-cookie, thanks to AI’s data stitching magic.
From Triangle to Flywheel
Here’s how to go from poster on the wall to engine of insights:
Start with Incrementality → Ground-truth your data
Feed into MMM → Retrain models every week
Use Attribution → Fill in the gaps for micro-decisions
Repeat → Each insight triggers the next test
It’s not just a cycle—it’s a pinwheel.
With every spin, the system gets smarter.
The Takeaway
If Shaan’s talent triangle balances Builders, Sellers, and Culture-Keepers,
This one balances Testing, Modeling, and Attribution.
But here’s the kicker:
A triangle just sits there.
AI is the wind that makes it spin.
So aim your leaf blower.
Let the pinwheel whirl.
And watch insights light up the boardroom faster than you can say “growth hack.”