On this episode, I am joined for a third (and probably final!) time by April Dunford, renowned positioning expert and author of Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch. We explore what's changed in her updated edition of Obviously Awesome, what she's learned through delivering hundreds of positioning workshops and how she's honed her approach to reposition positioning to make it clearer for the next generation of product people.
Episode highlights
- Positioning is how you win - Positioning is the answer to "why pick us now?", grounding your product in real value for a clearly defined customer segment.
- Positioning vs strategy - Strategy defines where you're going, while positioning reflects where you are today and must evolve as your product and market change.
- AI isn't a position - Simply adding AI is no longer meaningful; if everyone has it, the focus shifts to what tangible value you deliver right now.
- From unique to distinct - Capabilities don't need to be truly unique, just meaningfully different in the context of your real competitors.
- Trends matter less than clarity - The industry's baseline understanding of positioning has improved, making abstract ideas like "trends" less useful than clear market definitions.
- Readiness before action - Teams need to decide what they're positioning, whether they have real customers, and how product structure (single vs multi-product) affects the work.
- Positioning as hypothesis - Without customers, positioning is a best guess that must be tested and refined rather than treated as fact.
- Sell to the champion - Positioning should resonate with the internal champion, while objections from other stakeholders are handled separately.
- Test through sales, not copy - The real validation of positioning happens in sales conversations, not by endlessly tweaking website copy.
- AI is a tool, not a shortcut - AI can support positioning work, but it can't replace the thinking, collaboration and deep company context required to define real differentiation.
... and much more.
Buy the new version of Obviously Awesome
Look for the yellow "updated" sticker!
Contact April
