obviously-awesome

---
name: obviously-awesome
description: Use when defining product positioning, choosing a market category, or diagnosing why prospects don't grasp the value. Applies April Dunford's five-step positioning process and the Positioning Canvas.
category: Business Knowledge
version: 1.0.0
tools: []
---

# Product Positioning Framework

April Dunford's *Obviously Awesome* methodology: 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 -- it defines the category customers place you in, the alternatives they compare you against, and how they judge your value. Customers always evaluate relative to alternatives; a product that seems expensive in one context seems cheap in another. Choose the context that makes your unique strengths obvious: get it right and messaging, sales, and pricing become dramatically easier; get it wrong and no clever copywriting saves you.

## Scoring

**Goal: 10/10.**
- **0-2:** no clear positioning; customers can't explain what the product is or who it's for.
- **3-4:** vague -- category unclear, differentiation weak, target customer is "everyone."
- **5-6:** partial -- some components clear, others missing; team members describe the product differently.
- **7-8:** strong -- all five components defined, team aligned, customers generally understand the value.
- **9-10:** exceptional -- every component reinforces the others; customers immediately get what it is, why it's different, and why they should care.

## The Positioning Canvas

Ten outputs, captured in one place. Steps 1-5 build the top five; the rest derive from them. Every team member should arrive at the same answers -- divergence signals misalignment: Competitive Alternatives, Unique Attributes, Value Themes, Best-Fit Customers, Market Category, Relevant Trends, Positioning Statement ("For [target], we are the [category] that [key value]"), Key Proof Points, Sales Narrative, Messaging.

## The 5-Step Positioning Process

### Step 1: Identify Competitive Alternatives
Understand what your best customers would do if your product vanished -- not just direct competitors, but manual processes, spreadsheets, hiring someone, or doing nothing (often the biggest competitor). Interview 15-20 existing *happy* customers, not prospects, since they can tell you what they actually switched from. Group similar alternatives; different segments may have different alternatives. Ethical boundary: base alternatives on actual customer research, never assumptions.

### Step 2: Identify Unique Attributes
List every attribute -- feature, capability, company characteristic, approach -- that you have and competitive alternatives don't. Must be both unique AND true. "Better" or "10% faster" doesn't qualify; a fundamentally different mechanism might. Every attribute must survive the "only we" test: "Only we [attribute]." Cluster related attributes into groups -- they become value themes. Ethical boundary: never claim attributes that aren't genuinely unique.

### Step 3: Map Attributes to Customer Value
For each unique attribute, apply the "So what?" test repeatedly until you reach a value customers actually care about, then group into 2-4 value themes (more means unfocused positioning). Chain: Feature -> Advantage -> Value ("real-time collaboration" -> "finance teams work simultaneously" -> "close the books 3 days faster each quarter"). Express value in the customer's language, not internal jargon; back every theme with proof points. Themes usually cluster around saving time, saving money, reducing risk, enabling growth, or improving quality.

### Step 4: Define Best-Fit Target Customers
Identify who cares most about the value only you deliver -- the tightest definition of who your product is perfect for right now, not your total addressable market. Characteristics must be identifiable before you talk to them: job title, company size, industry, tech stack -- not psychographics. Work backward from your happiest, most successful existing customers. Best-fit is not necessarily the biggest market -- it's the most reachable, convincible, and retainable. Define negative criteria too. Ethical boundary: best-fit is about focus, not exclusion -- never denigrate other segments.

### Step 5: Choose Your Market Category
Select the frame of reference that makes your unique value most obvious. Three strategic options: **head-to-head** (claim "best" in an established category -- you inherit its assumptions and competitors); **subcategory** (redefine how a slice of an existing category is evaluated, e.g. "CRM for real estate" -- built-in awareness with shifted criteria); **new category** (only when genuinely unlike anything existing -- you pay an "education tax" teaching customers the category before they evaluate you). Test: do prospects "get it" in the first 30 seconds of a conversation? Ethical boundary: don't create a new category purely to avoid competition.

## Market Reference Points

Trends act as tailwinds -- a real, widely acknowledged trend connecting directly to your unique value makes positioning feel timely rather than arbitrary. Use trends as supporting evidence, never the core of your positioning ("As finance teams go remote, real-time collaboration isn't a nice-to-have -- it's essential"). Warning signs of trend abuse: positioning only makes sense in light of the trend, the trend connects to no unique attribute, or the trend is purely aspirational.

## Product Applications by Step

| Step | Context | Example |
|------|---------|---------|
| Competitive Alternatives | Repositioning | Retained customers compared you to consultants, not software |
| Unique Attributes | Feature launch | "The only PM tool with built-in time-zone-aware scheduling" |
| Value Themes | Sales enablement | Each theme becomes a talk track with its own proof points |
| Best-Fit Customers | Go-to-market | "Series B-D SaaS, 50-500 employees, dedicated RevOps person" |
| Market Category | Startup positioning | "AI writing assistant" (existing) over "content intelligence platform" (new) |

## Common Mistakes

| Mistake | Why It Fails | Fix |
|---------|-------------|-----|
| Listing competitors instead of alternatives | Misses "spreadsheets" or "do nothing," the real comparison point | Interview happy customers on what they actually switched from |
| Claiming attributes competitors also have | Differentiation collapses under the "only we" test | Audit attributes quarterly against the top alternatives |
| Stopping at the feature, not the value | Customers don't see why the attribute matters to them | Run the "So what?" chain to a value theme in their language |
| Targeting "everyone" as best-fit | Message resonates with no one specifically | Define best-fit by identifiable traits, not aspiration |
| Inheriting a category without deciding | Wrong assumptions about price, competitors, and evaluation criteria | Deliberately choose head-to-head, subcategory, or new category |
| Leading with a trend instead of a unique attribute | Positioning feels arbitrary once the trend fades | Use trends as supporting evidence only |

## Copy Patterns Reference

Competitive alternatives: "Unlike [alternative], [product] does [unique thing]." | Unique attributes: "The only [category] that [unique attribute]." | Value themes: "[Value outcome] with [product], powered by [unique attribute]." | Best-fit customers: "Built for [specific customer type] who [specific situation]." | Market category (existing): "The best [category] for [best-fit customers]." | Market category (new): "Introducing [new category]: [one-sentence definition]."

## Quick Diagnostic

Can your team describe the competitive alternatives the same way? Does every unique attribute pass the "only we" test? Have you chained each attribute through Feature -> Advantage -> Value? Is your best-fit customer defined by identifiable, not psychographic, traits? Do prospects "get it" within 30 seconds? Is the market category deliberately chosen, not inherited by default?