Obviously AwesomeCAUTION

Wondel.ai Agent Skills — Business, Marketing, UX & Coding Frameworks from Bestselling Books. 50 skills + 12 guided journeys for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor & other agentskills.io agents.

The instruction file, verbatim from the audited commit — this is the text the model reads, and the surface the audit's instruction layer examines. Quoted here so you can judge it without cloning anything.

---
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: "1.4.1"
---

# 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 |
|-------|-------------|
| 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

The 10 outputs of positioning, captured in one place. Steps 1-5 build the top five; the rest are derived from them. Every team member should fill this out and arrive at the same answers -- divergence signals misalignment.

| Component | Fill-in Question | Example Answer |
|-----------|------------------|----------------|
| Competitive Alternatives | What would customers use if we didn't exist? | Spreadsheets, consultants, doing nothing |
| Unique Attributes | What do we have that alternatives don't? | Real-time collaboration on financial models |
| Value Themes | What value do those attributes enable? | Save 10 hours/week on financial reporting |
| Best-Fit Customers | Who cares most about that value? | Mid-market CFOs managing 3+ business units |
| Market Category | What market frame makes our value obvious? | FP&A software |
| Relevant Trends | What market dynamics create urgency now? | Remote finance teams need real-time collaboration |
| Positioning Statement | For [target], we are the [category] that [key value] | "For mid-market CFOs, the FP&A platform built for real-time collaboration" |
| Key Proof Points | What evidence shows our claims are true? | Case studies, usage data, third-party benchmarks |
| Sales Narrative | How do we tell this story in a sales conversation? | Problem -> old way -> new way -> our solution -> proof |
| Messaging | What external headline derives from positioning? | "Financial planning that keeps up with your business" |

See [references/positioning-canvas.md](references/positioning-canvas.md) when filling out the canvas for a real product -- it has the blank template plus three fully worked examples (B2B SaaS, consumer app, professional services).

## The 5-Step Positioning Process

### Step 1: Identify Your Competitive Alternatives

**Core concept:** Understand what your best customers would do if your product vanished tomorrow -- not just direct competitors, but any way they solve the problem today: manual processes, spreadsheets, hiring someone, or doing nothing.

**Why it works:** Customers always evaluate products relative to alternatives, so "differentiated" only has meaning against the real alternatives in your customer's mind.

**Key insights:**
- Interview 15-20 existing happy customers, not prospects -- they can tell you what they actually switched from
- The most common alternative is often not a product -- it's a spreadsheet, a manual process, or the status quo
- "Do nothing" is your biggest competitor in many markets
- Group similar alternatives ("general-purpose spreadsheets" rather than Excel, Sheets, Numbers)
- Different customer segments may have different alternatives

**Product applications:**

| Context | Application | Example |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| New product launch | Interview early adopters on what they used before | "70% used spreadsheets, 20% a generic PM tool, 10% hired contractors" |
| Repositioning | Survey churned and retained customers | Retained customers compared you to consultants, not software |
| Competitive analysis | Map alternatives by segment | Enterprise compares to Salesforce; SMBs to spreadsheets |

**Copy patterns:**
- "Unlike [competitive alternative], [product] does [unique thing]"
- "Stop using [painful alternative] for [job]"
- "You've outgrown [alternative]. Here's what comes next."

**Ethical boundary:** Base alternatives on actual customer research, never assumptions or wishful thinking.

See [

CAUTIONgrade B · trust 89/100 Install with care. The audit found things worth knowing before you trust its output.

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.agents/skills/37signals-way

.agents/skills/architecture-optimization

.agents/skills/blue-ocean-strategy

.agents/skills/clean-architecture

.agents/skills/clean-code

Gates applied: no_behavioural_pass.