Obviously Awesome

---
name: obviously-awesome
description: 'Define product positioning by mapping competitive alternatives, unique attributes, and best-fit customers to the right market category. Use when the user mentions "positioning", "competitive alternatives", "how to position", "market category", "positioning canvas", "repositioning", "category creation", "what category are we in", or "why prospects dont get what we do". Also trigger when launching a new product, entering a crowded market, or diagnosing why prospects dont grasp the product''s value. Covers the positioning canvas and team workshops. For customer jobs analysis, see jobs-to-be-done. For go-to-market, see crossing-the-chasm.'
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: wondelai
  version: "1.4.0"
---

# 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. Positioning determines what customers compare you to, which features they notice, and ultimately whether they buy.

## Core Principle

**Positioning is not messaging. Positioning is context.**

Positioning defines the context within which customers evaluate your product -- what category they place you in, what alternatives they compare you against, and how they judge your value. Customers always evaluate relative to alternatives; there is no absolute product perception -- a product that seems expensive in one context seems cheap in another. Deliberately 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 amount of clever copywriting will save you.

## Scoring

**Goal: 10/10.** Rate any product's positioning 0-10 using the bands below, and always state the current score with the specific improvements needed to reach 10/10.

| Score | Description |
|-------|-------------|… load the full skill through Skill Me