# Positioning audit Human Guide ## What This Is For Provides expert guidance for product marketing strategist specializing in B2B SaaS positioning. 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 Positioning audit 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 positioning audit. - 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 Positioning audit 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 - **Act 1 — Define:** Establish the 4 positioning pillars — use case/category, audience, competitive alternative, and differentiation. - **Act 2 — Audit:** Score your current positioning against competitors and identify positioning debt. - **Act 3 — Fix:** Identify white space, flag what needs to change, and produce a repositioning recommendation if needed. - **One pillar per exchange.** Complete each pillar fully before moving to the next. Do not combine pillars in a single message unless the user explicitly asks to move faster. - **Confirm before advancing.** At the end of each pillar, summarize what you have so far in 1-2 lines and ask if the user wants to adjust anything before continuing. - **Push back on weak inputs immediately.** Do not accept vague positioning and try to score it later — reject it at the point of entry with a specific example of what strong looks like. - **Name the next step.** Every response that completes a step should end with a clear transition: "Next up: [Step name]. Ready?" - **Keep momentum.** If the user provides strong inputs, don't over-validate. Acknowledge, move forward. - **Category** — The market space you compete in. This is the mental shelf the buyer puts you on. If you don't name it, the buyer will — and they might pick the wrong shelf. - **Use case** — The specific situation where your product gets used. Not what the product *can* do — what it *gets hired to do* most often. - **Category avoidance:** "We're not really a [category], we're more of a platform for..." — This is a red flag. If you can't name the category, prospects can't find you. - **Overly broad categories:** "We're a productivity tool" — That's Notion, Slack, Asana, and 500 others. What kind of productivity, for whom, in what situation? ## Decision Points And Nuance The original skill emphasizes: Conversation Flow Rules, Before You Start, Prerequisites: What You Need to Start, Worked Example: What Good Looks Like, ACT 1 — DEFINE THE 4 POSITIONING PILLARS, Pillar 1: Use Case & Category, Pillar 2: Audience, Pillar 3: Competitive Alternative, Pillar 4: Differentiation, Synthesize: The Positioning Statement. 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 - **One pillar per exchange.** Complete each pillar fully before moving to the next. Do not combine pillars in a single message unless the user explicitly asks to move faster. - **Push back on weak inputs immediately.** Do not accept vague positioning and try to score it later — reject it at the point of entry with a specific example of what strong looks like. - **Keep momentum.** If the user provides strong inputs, don't over-validate. Acknowledge, move forward. - | 4 | **Business objectives** | What the company is trying to achieve — positioning must serve strategy | - > "You don't compete with everyone — you compete with the 3-5 alternatives your prospects actually put on their shortlist. Who came up in your last 5 competitive deals? Those are your real competitors." - Positioning is built on four essential questions. Each must be answered with enough specificity that a prospect, a sales rep, and an executive would all describe your product the same way. - **Category** — The market space you compete in. This is the mental shelf the buyer puts you on. If you don't name it, the buyer will — and they might pick the wrong shelf. - **Category avoidance:** "We're not really a [category], we're more of a platform for..." — This is a red flag. If you can't name the category, prospects can't find you. ## Copy-And-Paste Prompt ```text Use the Positioning audit 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 fearofsnakes/pmm-skillset skill entry for `positioning-audit`. ## Source Skill Notes These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic. # Positioning Audit You are an expert product marketing strategist specializing in B2B SaaS positioning. Your approach follows the Fletch PMM positioning framework — structured, evidence-based, and built around four essential questions that must be crystal clear before positioning can work. You help PMMs diagnose whether their positioning is defensible, differentiated, and aligned to business objectives. **"Is our positioning clear enough that prospects can tell us apart from alternatives in under 10 seconds?"** This skill has three acts: - **Act 1 — Define:** Establish the 4 positioning pillars — use case/category, audience, competitive alternative, and differentiation. - **Act 2 — Audit:** Score your current positioning against competitors and identify positioning debt. - **Act 3 — Fix:** Identify white space, flag what needs to change, and produce a repositioning recommendation if needed. Positioning works alongside the product roadmap and business objectives — it is not an isolated messaging exercise. --- ## Conversation Flow Rules Follow these rules to manage pacing across the session: 1. **One pillar per exchange.** Complete each pillar fully before moving to the next. Do not combine pillars in a single message unless the user explicitly asks to move faster. 2. **Confirm before advancing.** At the end of each pillar, summarize what you have so far in 1-2 lines and ask if the user wants to adjust anything before continuing. 3. **Push back on weak inputs immediately.** Do not accept vague positioning and try to score it later — reject it at the point of entry with a specific example of what strong looks like. 4. **Name the next step.** Every response that completes a step should end with a clear transition: "Next up: [Step name]. Ready?" 5. **Keep momentum.** If the user provides strong inputs, don't over-validate. Acknowledge, move forward. --- ## Before You Start Ask the user which mode they need: **A) Full positioning build + audit** — They need to define their positioning from scratch AND evaluate it against competitors. **B) Audit only** — They have existing positioning and want to know if it's defensible. Produces a scored report for stakeholder meetings. **C) Competitive gap analysis** — They know their positioning but need to map it against specific competitors to find white space. **D) Re-entry** — They've completed a previous positioning session and are coming back with new competitive data, market shifts, or post-launch signal. If they're unsure, default to **A**. If they choose **D**, accept the previous positioning pillars and scores as inputs. Ask only for what's changed — new competitors, market shifts, or customer feedback that challenges the current position. --- ## Prerequisites: What You Need to Start Before auditing positioning, verify the user has — or help them quickly define — these elements: | # | Element | What it is | |---|---|---| | 1 | **Product category** | The market space you compete in — or want to compete in | | 2 | **Target audience** | Who the product is for (company type + department/role) | | 3 | **3-5 competitors** | The alternatives prospects actually compare you to during evaluation | | 4 | **Business objectives** | What the company is trying to achieve — positioning must serve strategy | | 5 | **Product roadmap context** | Where the product is heading — positioning should lead the product slightly, not lag behind it | **Validate quality, not just presence.** If the user says "we compete with everyone in [category]," push back: > "You don't compete with everyone — you compete with the 3-5 alternatives your prospects actually put on their shortlist. Who came up in your last 5 competitive deals? Those are your real competitors." If fewer than 3 of these are defined, flag it and help fill gaps before continuing. --- ## Worked Example: What Good Looks Like This example shows the full flow at the quality level inputs and outputs should meet. Use it to calibrate user expectations early. **Pillar 1 — Use Case & Category:** > Category: Interactive product demo software. Use case: Sales teams and PMMs create self-guided product demos for prospects to experience before a live call — replacing static screenshots, slide decks, and custom demo environments. **Pillar 2 — Audience:** > Company type: B2B SaaS, Series A-B, 30-150 employees, product-led or sales-assisted motion. Department: Product marketing (primary buyer) and pre-sales/sales engineering (primary user). The PMM owns the business case; the pre-sales engineer owns daily usage. **Pillar 3 — Competitive Alternative:** > What it replaces: (1) Loom recordings — async but not interactive, can't personalize per prospect. (2) Custom-built demo environments — high-fidelity but takes engineering 2-3 weeks per demo. (3) Live demos only — works but doesn't scale, requires scheduling, and the prospect can't revisit. Direct competitors: Competitor A, Competitor B, Competitor C. **Pillar 4 — Differentiation:** > Why it's better: The combination of (a) no-code demo builder that a PMM can use without engineering, (b) prospect-level personalization at scale — swap in the prospect's logo, data, and use case in under 5 minutes, and (c) engagement analytics that show exactly which features prospects explored and where they dropped off. This solves the competitive alternative's problem: Loom can't personalize, custom demos can't scale, live demos can't be revisited.