# Product positioning Human Guide

## What This Is For
Position a product using April Dunford's Obviously Awesome framework. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for brand and messaging: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Product positioning agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for product positioning.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Product positioning guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Indirect solutions (spreadsheets, hiring someone, different tools)
- "Real-time collaboration on specs" (verifiable)
- NOT "best-in-class experience" (unverifiable)
- Attribute: "Real-time cursors and inline comments on any document"
- Value: "Get feedback from your team in minutes instead of waiting for a meeting"
- "Remote teams of 5-15 who collaborate daily but drown in Slack threads and lost Google Docs"
- NOT "product managers" (too broad)
- **Existing category:** "We're a [known category] that [key differentiator]." Works when the category is well-understood and your differentiator is strong.
- **Subcategory:** "We're [modifier] + [existing category]." Works when you serve a specific segment better. E.g., "async-first collaboration tool."
- **New category:** Create a new name. Only works if you have the budget and patience to educate the market. Almost always the wrong choice for startups.
- CRITICAL: NEVER position in a vacuum. Always start from competitive alternatives.
- NEVER lead with the market category. It's the output of positioning, not the input.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: The Five Steps (In Order), Competitive Alternatives, Unique Attributes, Value, Best-Fit Customers, Market Category, Guidelines.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- These steps are sequential. Do NOT skip ahead or rearrange.
- Be honest. If "do nothing" is the primary alternative, that tells you a lot about urgency.
- What do you have that the alternatives don't? List concrete, verifiable capabilities — not marketing spin.
- CRITICAL: NEVER position in a vacuum. Always start from competitive alternatives.
- NEVER lead with the market category. It's the output of positioning, not the input.
- NEVER confuse features with value. Features are what you built. Value is what the customer gets.
- NEVER use superlatives you can't prove ("best," "most powerful," "leading"). Use specifics.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Product positioning human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the assimovt/productskills skill entry for `product-positioning`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

Position products by starting from what customers would do without you — not from your features or aspirations. April Dunford's Obviously Awesome framework works because it's grounded in reality: what alternatives exist, what you do differently, and who cares most about that difference.

## The Five Steps (In Order)

These steps are sequential. Do NOT skip ahead or rearrange.

### 1. Competitive Alternatives
What would your best customers do if you didn't exist? List real alternatives:
- Direct competitors
- Indirect solutions (spreadsheets, hiring someone, different tools)
- Do nothing

Be honest. If "do nothing" is the primary alternative, that tells you a lot about urgency.

### 2. Unique Attributes
What do you have that the alternatives don't? List concrete, verifiable capabilities — not marketing spin.

- "Real-time collaboration on specs" (verifiable)
- NOT "best-in-class experience" (unverifiable)

### 3. Value
What do those unique attributes ENABLE for the customer? Translate features into outcomes.

- Attribute: "Real-time cursors and inline comments on any document"
- Value: "Get feedback from your team in minutes instead of waiting for a meeting"

### 4. Best-Fit Customers
Who cares MOST about the value you deliver? Define them tightly:

- "Remote teams of 5-15 who collaborate daily but drown in Slack threads and lost Google Docs"
- NOT "product managers" (too broad)

Best-fit customers have: the problem acutely, tried alternatives, have budget/authority, and get the most value from your unique attributes.

### 5. Market Category
What market do you position in so that your value is obvious? This is the LAST decision, not the first.

Options:
- **Existing category:** "We're a [known category] that [key differentiator]." Works when the category is well-understood and your differentiator is strong.
- **Subcategory:** "We're [modifier] + [existing category]." Works when you serve a specific segment better. E.g., "async-first collaboration tool."
- **New category:** Create a new name. Only works if you have the budget and patience to educate the market. Almost always the wrong choice for startups.

## Guidelines

- CRITICAL: NEVER position in a vacuum. Always start from competitive alternatives.
- NEVER lead with the market category. It's the output of positioning, not the input.
- ALWAYS position for your best-fit customers, not for everyone. Trying to appeal to everyone means resonating with no one.
- NEVER confuse features with value. Features are what you built. Value is what the customer gets.
- ALWAYS pressure-test by asking: "If I told my best-fit customer this positioning in one sentence, would they immediately get why they should care?"
- NEVER use superlatives you can't prove ("best," "most powerful," "leading"). Use specifics.

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*Built on Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. Skills from [productskills](https://github.com/assimovt/productskills).*