Build product positioning by mapping competitive alternatives, unique attributes, and best-fit customers to the right market category. Use when the user mentions "positioning", "competitive alternatives", "how to position", "market category", or "why customers don''t get it". Covers positioning canvas and team workshops. For customer jobs analysis, see jobs-to-be-done. For go-to-market, see crossing-the-chasm. Trigger with 'obviously', 'awesome'.
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Build product positioning by mapping competitive alternatives, unique attributes, and best-fit customers to the right market category. Use when the user mentions "positioning", "competitive alternatives", "how to position", "market category", or "why customers don''t get it". Covers positioning canvas and team workshops. For customer jobs analysis, see jobs-to-be-done. For go-to-market, see crossing-the-chasm. Trigger with 'obviously', 'awesome'.
allowed-tools
Read, Glob, Grep
license
MIT
author
Wondelai <hello@wondelai.com>
version
1.0.1
compatible-with
claude-code, codex, openclaw
tags
["business","obviously-awesome"]
Product Positioning Framework
This skill implements the product positioning methodology from April Dunford's "Obviously Awesome." It provides a structured, repeatable process for defining how your product is the best in the world at delivering something a well-defined set of customers cares a lot about.
Core Principle
Positioning is not messaging. Positioning is context.
Positioning defines the context within which customers evaluate your product. It determines what category customers place you in, what alternatives they compare you against, which features they pay attention to, and how they judge your value. Get positioning right, and everything downstream — messaging, sales pitches, marketing campaigns, pricing — becomes dramatically easier. Get it wrong, and no amount of clever copywriting or advertising spend will save you. Customers who don't understand what you are will never understand why you matter.
The foundation of great positioning is understanding that customers always evaluate products relative to alternatives. There is no such thing as absolute product perception. A product that seems expensive in one context seems cheap in another. A feature that seems innovative against one set of competitors seems table-stakes against another. Your job is to deliberately choose the context that makes your unique strengths obvious.
Scoring
Goal: 10/10 — Rate the positioning quality of any product on a 0-10 scale based on the following criteria:
Score
Description
0-2
No clear positioning. Customers can't explain what the product is or who it's for.
3-4
Vague positioning. Category is unclear, differentiation is weak, target customer is "everyone."
5-6
Partial positioning. Some components are clear but others are missing or inconsistent. Team members describe the product differently.
7-8
Strong positioning. All five components are defined. Team is aligned. Customers generally understand the value.
9-10
Exceptional positioning. Every component reinforces the others. Customers immediately understand the product, why it's different, and why they should care. The positioning creates an "aha" moment.
The 10 Positioning Components
Component
Description
Example
Competitive Alternatives
What customers would use if your product didn't exist
Spreadsheets, manual processes, hiring a consultant, doing nothing
Unique Attributes
Features or capabilities only your product has
Real-time collaboration on financial models
Value Themes
Benefits customers get from your unique attributes
Save 10 hours/week on financial reporting
Best-Fit Customers
Characteristics of people who care most about your value
Mid-market CFOs managing 3+ business units
Market Category
The market you describe yourself as part of
Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software
Relevant Trends
Market dynamics that make your positioning resonate now
Remote finance teams need real-time collaboration
Positioning Statement
Internal summary of positioning for team alignment
"For mid-market CFOs, we are the FP&A platform built for real-time collaboration across distributed teams"
Sales Narrative
How positioning translates into a compelling sales story
Problem → old way → new way → your solution → proof
Messaging
External-facing language derived from positioning
"Financial planning that keeps up with your business"
Content Strategy
How positioning guides what content to create
Thought leadership on collaborative finance, case studies from multi-unit companies
The 5-Step Positioning Process
Step 1: Identify Your Competitive Alternatives
Core concept: Start by understanding what your best customers would do if your product vanished tomorrow. These are your true competitive alternatives — not just direct competitors, but any way customers solve the problem today, including manual processes, spreadsheets, hiring someone, or simply doing nothing.
Why it works: Customers always evaluate products relative to alternatives. If you don't understand the real alternatives, you can't understand what "differentiated" means in your customer's mind. Your positioning is only as strong as the alternatives you're positioning against.
Key insights:
Ask existing happy customers, not prospects — they've already chosen you and can tell you what they switched from
The most common competitive alternative is often not another product — it's a spreadsheet, a manual process, or the status quo
"Do nothing" is your biggest competitor in many markets
Different customer segments may have different competitive alternatives
Group similar alternatives together (e.g., "general-purpose spreadsheets" rather than listing Excel, Google Sheets, and Numbers separately)
Focus on what your best-fit customers considered, not all customers
Product applications:
Context
Application
Example
New product launch
Interview early adopters about what they used before
"Before us, 70% used spreadsheets, 20% used a generic PM tool, 10% hired contractors"
Repositioning
Survey churned and retained customers about alternatives
Discover that retained customers compared you to consultants, not software
Competitive analysis
Map alternatives by customer segment
Enterprise buyers compare to Salesforce; SMBs compare to spreadsheets
Copy patterns:
"Unlike [competitive alternative], [product] does [unique thing]"
"Stop using [painful alternative] for [job]"
"You've outgrown [alternative]. Here's what comes next."
Ethical boundary: Never misrepresent competitive alternatives. Base them on actual customer research, not assumptions or wishful thinking.
Core concept: List every attribute — feature, capability, company characteristic, or approach — that you have and your competitive alternatives don't. These must be both unique AND true. Not "better" versions of common features, but genuinely different capabilities.
Why it works: Unique attributes are the raw material of differentiation. If an attribute isn't unique, it can't differentiate you. If it isn't true, you'll lose trust. The goal is an honest inventory of what makes you objectively different.
Key insights:
Features are the most obvious attributes, but don't stop there — consider architecture, business model, team expertise, approach, integrations, community
"Better" is not unique — "10% faster" is not a unique attribute; "uses a fundamentally different algorithm that enables real-time processing" might be
Attributes must survive the "only we" test: "Only we [attribute]"
Don't confuse attributes with benefits — attributes are facts about your product; benefits are what customers get from those facts
Cluster related attributes into groups (these will become value themes in the next step)
It's okay to have attributes that matter to some segments but not others
Product applications:
Context
Application
Example
Feature launch
Assess if new feature creates a unique attribute
"We're the only project management tool with built-in time-zone-aware scheduling"
Competitive response
Verify your attributes are still unique after competitor updates
Quarterly attribute audit against top 5 alternatives
Acquisition
Identify which attributes of the acquired product are truly unique
"Their NLP engine processes medical terminology — no other EMR does this"
Copy patterns:
"The only [category] that [unique attribute]"
"Built from the ground up to [unique capability]"
"No other [category] can [unique thing] because [reason]"
Ethical boundary: Never claim attributes that aren't genuinely unique. If a competitor also has the capability, it's table stakes, not a differentiator.
Core concept: For each unique attribute, apply the "So what?" test repeatedly until you reach a value that customers actually care about. Then group related values into value themes — the two or three key reasons customers choose you.
Why it works: Customers don't buy features. They buy outcomes. A unique attribute is meaningless unless you can articulate why it matters in terms the customer cares about. Value themes give your positioning narrative structure and make it memorable.
Key insights:
Use the "So what?" chain: Feature → "So what?" → Advantage → "So what?" → Value
Example: "Real-time collaboration" → "So what?" → "Finance teams can work simultaneously" → "So what?" → "Close the books 3 days faster each quarter"
Value must be expressed in terms the customer uses, not your internal jargon
Most products have 2-4 value themes — more than that and your positioning is unfocused
Each value theme should be backed by proof points (case studies, data, testimonials)
Value themes often cluster around: saving time, saving money, reducing risk, enabling growth, or improving quality
Core concept: Identify the characteristics that make someone care the most about the value only you deliver. This is not your total addressable market — it's the tightest possible definition of who your product is perfect for right now.
Why it works: Trying to position for everyone means positioning for no one. Best-fit customers are the ones who buy fastest, churn least, refer most, and expand most. When you nail positioning for them, it naturally expands outward. They're also the customers whose testimonials and case studies are most compelling.
Key insights:
Best-fit characteristics must be identifiable before you talk to the customer (job title, company size, industry, tech stack — not psychographics)
Start with your happiest, most successful existing customers and work backward to find common characteristics
The ideal best-fit definition lets your sales and marketing teams identify and target these customers proactively
"Everyone" is never a valid target — even horizontal products have best-fit segments
Best-fit customers are not necessarily the biggest market — they're the most reachable, convincible, and retainable
Consider negative criteria too: what characteristics indicate someone is NOT a fit
Product applications:
Context
Application
Example
Go-to-market strategy
Focus launch on best-fit segment
"Launch to Series B-D SaaS companies with 50-500 employees and a dedicated RevOps person"
Sales qualification
Build scoring model from best-fit criteria
Lead score: +20 for RevOps title, +15 for SaaS industry, +10 for 50-500 employees
Product roadmap
Prioritize features best-fit customers request
"Our best-fit customers consistently ask for Salesforce integration — build it next"
Copy patterns:
"Built for [specific customer type] who [specific situation]"
"If you're a [role] at a [company type], you know [pain point]"
"Purpose-built for [segment], not a generic tool adapted for everyone"
Ethical boundary: Defining best-fit customers is about focus, not exclusion. Be honest about who your product serves best without denigrating other segments.
Core concept: Select the market frame of reference that makes your unique value most obvious. You have three strategic options: compete head-to-head in an existing category, create a subcategory of an existing category, or create an entirely new category.
Why it works: The market category you choose triggers a set of assumptions in the customer's mind about what your product does, who it competes with, and how it should be priced. Choosing the right category leverages these assumptions in your favor. Choosing the wrong one fights them.
Key insights:
Head-to-head (existing category): Best when your product can credibly claim to be the best in an established category. Customers already understand the category — you just need to prove you're the best option. Risk: you inherit all the category's assumptions and competitors.
Subcategory: Best when you have unique attributes that redefine how a portion of the existing category should be evaluated. You get the category's built-in awareness while shifting evaluation criteria. Example: "CRM for real estate" vs. just "CRM."
New category: Best when your product is genuinely different from anything that exists. Highest potential upside but requires significant investment in education. You pay an "education tax" — customers need to learn what the category is before they can evaluate you. Only viable if you have the resources and time to define the category.
Changing your market category changes everything: competitors, evaluation criteria, pricing expectations, and buyer expectations
Test your category choice by checking if prospects "get it" in the first 30 seconds of a conversation
You can change categories over time as you grow
Product applications:
Context
Application
Example
Startup positioning
Choose initial market category
Start as "AI writing assistant" (existing) rather than "content intelligence platform" (new category)
Market expansion
Shift category as product matures
Move from "email marketing tool" (existing) to "customer engagement platform" (broader category)
Competitive response
Reframe category when competitors flood yours
Shift from "project management" to "product development workflow" to escape commodity comparisons
Copy patterns:
Existing: "The best [category] for [best-fit customers]"
Subcategory: "[Modifier] [category] — [category] reimagined for [specific need]"
New category: "Introducing [new category]: [one-sentence definition]"
Ethical boundary: Don't create a new category purely to avoid competition. Only create a new category when your product genuinely can't be understood within existing frameworks.
Trends act as tailwinds for your positioning. When a relevant market trend aligns with your unique value, referencing it makes your positioning feel timely and inevitable rather than arbitrary.
How to use trends effectively:
Trends must be real and widely acknowledged — don't fabricate or exaggerate trends
The trend must connect directly to your unique value, not just your category
Trends are supporting evidence, not the core of your positioning
Common powerful trends: remote/distributed work, AI/automation, data privacy regulations, sustainability, creator economy, vertical SaaS, product-led growth
Example: If your unique attribute is real-time collaboration across time zones, the remote work trend makes your value feel urgent and timely. "As finance teams go remote, real-time collaboration isn't a nice-to-have — it's essential."
Warning signs of trend abuse:
Your positioning only makes sense in light of the trend
The trend doesn't connect to any unique attribute
The trend is aspirational rather than actually happening
You're the only one who thinks the trend is real
The Positioning Canvas
Use this template to capture your positioning decisions in one place. Every member of the team should be able to fill this out consistently.
Component
Your Answer
Competitive Alternatives
What would customers use if we didn't exist?
Unique Attributes
What do we have that alternatives don't?
Value Themes
What value do those attributes enable for customers?
Best-Fit Customers
Who cares the most about that value?
Market Category
What market frame makes our value obvious?
Relevant Trends
What market dynamics create urgency?
Positioning Statement
One sentence: For [target], we are the [category] that [key value]
April Dunford is a positioning consultant and author who has worked with over 200 companies on their product positioning, including Google, IBM, Postman, and Epic Games. With 25 years of experience as a VP of Marketing at a series of successful startups, she developed a repeatable methodology for product positioning that has become the industry standard. Her book "Obviously Awesome" (2019) codified this methodology and became the go-to resource for startups and growth-stage companies seeking to define or redefine their market position. Her follow-up, "Sales Pitch" (2023), extends the methodology into sales conversations. She is widely regarded as the world's foremost expert on product positioning.
Overview
Define product positioning by mapping competitive alternatives, unique attributes, and best-fit customers to the right market category.
Prerequisites
Access to the marketing environment or API
Required CLI tools installed and authenticated
Familiarity with marketing concepts and terminology
Instructions
Assess the current state of the marketing configuration
Identify the specific requirements and constraints
Apply the recommended patterns from this skill
Validate the changes against expected behavior
Document the configuration for team reference
Output
Configuration files or code changes applied to the project
