Positioning canvas

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.