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:

The 10 Positioning Components