Thinking Like A Killer
by Michael Essek · Updated: July 28, 2026This thought is inspired by that old detective / crime trope:
“To catch a killer, you have to think like a killer”
From Sherlock Holmes to Silence Of The Lambs – the basic idea is that the detective has to put himself ‘in the mind‘ of the killer – and in doing so, finds it much easier to solve the crime.
Because if you think like the killer thinks, you can predict what the killer does next.
So could this same principle work when it comes to creating designs for T-Shirts – in particular for Print on Demand platforms like Amazon, Etsy or Redbubble?
I think so.
We may not be trying to catch killers – but we are trying to catch buyers.
And I think one of the best ways of doing that in to think like a buyer.
So how does a buyer think?
Well, let’s look at what buyers DO:
- they search for a certain type of product they’re interested in (eg. ‘funny axolotl t-shirts’)
- they scroll through a LOT of options
- they pick the one they like, and buy it
Buyers don’t decide ahead of time the exact concept or design they want to buy (at least not in many cases).
Instead, they’re looking for that product/design that ‘jumps out‘ in a sea of also-rans.
They’re looking for a concept or design that meets or exceeds their fuzzy expectations.
If they’re surprised or delighted by something – if they see something they haven’t seen before that catches them off guard – they’re much more likely to buy that thing.
They don’t carefully score each product against various criteria before moving on to the next – they’re speed scrolling through hundreds of options, looking for the ‘stand out’ one (something that stops them in their tracks / makes them spit out their coffee).
So if this is how buyers behave – why is it that most designers work in completely the opposite direction?
When coming up with new ideas, most designers are not ‘looking through a lot of options for stand out ideas’.
Instead they’re limited to a small pool of ideas – of specific idea ‘types’ – or even worse – to ideas that already exist (and are done to death).
This makes it incredibly difficult to spot new, stand-out concepts.
Because you’re fishing in a tiny pool (your own brain) – or in a slightly bigger pool packed full of stinky old fish (existing designs in competitive niches, and/or ChatGPT-inspired generic slop).
The surprises and shocks and ‘has anyone done that before?’ ideas are NOT going to be found by you trying to ‘think harder’ – or by looking at what already exists.
You can only find the killer concepts by ‘stumbling across’ them.
I hope you found this helpful.
If you’d like to read more thoughts like this – then you’ll be pleased to know this is a sample chapter from my book ‘Better Ideas, Better Results’ – Thoughts & Advice On Fixing Everything – By Fixing Your Ideas:
