Positioning Canvas

Apply April Dunford's positioning framework from Obviously Awesome. Positioning is upstream of copy, pricing, and GTM -- get it wrong and everything downstream is rework.

When to use

New product launch, pivot, or rebrand
Sales calls keep ending with "I'm not sure who this is for"
Conversion is fine but discovery is hard ("how would you find us?")
Competitor expanded into your space and your differentiation feels muddy
Multi-audience products (e.g., internal-tool-turned-SaaS) -- usually need separate positioning per audience

When NOT to use

You don't have a real product yet and are doing pure hypothesis work -- use a target-customer hypothesis doc instead
The goal is tactical copywriting (landing page headlines, ad copy) -- positioning must be locked first; then hand to copy
You already have differentiated, validated positioning that's converting well -- run this again only on trigger (new competitor, rebrand, new market)

Use this instead

icp-definer -- if you haven't yet defined who the best-fit buyers are, do that first; positioning step 4 (customers who care most) requires an ICP
gtm-motion-picker -- if the question is how to reach the market, not how to describe the product
pricing-teardown -- positioning change typically requires a pricing re-check; run after this

The 5-step Dunford framework

Run these in order. Skipping a step or doing them in parallel produces incoherent positioning.

1. Competitive alternatives -- What would customers use if your product didn't exist? Includes spreadsheets, manual processes, the in-house build, doing nothing -- not just direct competitors. Force at least 3 alternatives, ideally including one non-software one.

2. Unique attributes -- What does your product have that the alternatives don't? Capabilities, not benefits. Be specific and falsifiable: "real-time" or "supports SAML" beats "fast" or "secure". List 5-10. If you can't find any, you don't have a position -- you have a feature.

3. Value (so what?) -- For each unique attribute, ask "so what does that let the customer do?" twice. Stop when you hit a business outcome (revenue, cost, risk, time). Cluster the values into 2-4 themes. The themes are your value pillars.

4. Customers who care most -- Which segment cares disproportionately about those value themes? Define them by characteristics that predict caring, not demographics. "Companies running outbound campaigns at >50/week with no SDR team" beats "SMB SaaS founders". The narrower the better -- you can broaden later.

5. Market category -- In the customer's mind, what frame of reference makes the value obvious? Pick a category where (a) the customer is already shopping, (b) your unique attributes are differentiators not table stakes, and (c) the budget exists. You can pick an existing category, sub-category an existing one, or rarely create a new one (expensive -- only with category-creation budget).

Output format

Always produce this 1-page artifact. If it's longer than a page, you haven't finished thinking.

POSITIONING: [Product name]
Date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
Audience version: [if multi-audience: "for X buyers" / "for Y buyers"]

1. CATEGORY
   We are a [category] for [who].

2. ICP
   Best fit: [specific characteristics, not demographics]
   Disqualifiers: [who this is NOT for -- important]

3. VALUE PILLARS (2-4)
   - [Pillar]: [outcome it delivers]
   - [Pillar]: [outcome it delivers]

4. UNIQUE ATTRIBUTES (proof)
   - [Attribute] -> enables [pillar]
   - [Attribute] -> enables [pillar]

5. COMPETITIVE ALTERNATIVES
   - vs [alt]: we win on [pillar], they win on [thing]
   - vs [alt]: we win on [pillar], they win on [thing]

6. ONE-LINER
   [Single sentence that lands category + ICP + #1 value]

Quality checks before finalizing

Substitution test: replace your product name with a competitor's. Does the positioning still read true? If yes, it's not differentiated -- go back to step 2.
"So what" test: read each value pillar aloud and say "so what?" If you can answer it from inside the pillar, you stopped too early -- push to a business outcome.
Sales call test: could a salesperson use this on a 30-second elevator opener? If they need a paragraph, the category is wrong.
Disqualifier test: did you name customers this is not for? Positioning without disqualifiers is wishful thinking.

Common failure modes

"Better/faster/cheaper" positioning -- these are claims, not categories. You need a category first.
Feature soup -- 12 features as the "position". Features support a position, they aren't one.
Trying to be everything -- broad ICPs make positioning soft. Narrow first; a strong wedge in one segment beats weak resonance everywhere.
Skipping competitive alternatives -- leads to positioning in a vacuum. The customer's frame of reference is their alternative, not your roadmap.
One position for multi-audience products -- if the product serves two distinct buyer types (e.g., internal users + external SaaS buyers), produce two artifacts. Don't average them.

Research sources

When the user hasn't supplied research, gather it before running the framework:

Product's own landing page, pricing page, and changelog
3+ competitor landing pages (official sources only -- no aggregator sites)
G2 / Capterra / Reddit reviews -- read 1-star and 5-star, not 3-star
The user's own win/loss notes if available

If research is thin, name it in the artifact ("based on landing-page review only -- interview data would sharpen step 4") rather than papering over the gap.

Deliverable

Write the positioning artifact directly into the conversation as markdown. If the user asks for a doc/deck, hand off to document-skills:doc-coauthoring or deck-builder -- but the positioning itself must be locked first.

positioning-canvas