# Startup positioning Human Guide

## What This Is For
Market positioning strategy using the April Dunford framework, enriched with JTBD discovery, Moore positioning statement, and Neumeier's Onliness Test. 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 Startup 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 startup 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 Startup 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
- `00-intake/brief.md` — product description and context
- `01-discovery/competitor-landscape.md` — competitor profiles
- `01-discovery/target-audience.md` — customer personas, pain points
- `02-strategy/positioning.md` — initial positioning work
- `intake.md` — product and market context
- `competitors-report.md` — strategic competitive analysis
- `battle-cards/` — per-competitor profiles
- `pricing-landscape.md` — pricing analysis
- Extract the product description, known competitors, and customer pain points
- Use competitor profiles and battle cards to seed the competitive alternatives map
- Pull any existing positioning work as a starting hypothesis to test, not a conclusion to keep
- Use customer language and pain points to inform JTBD discovery

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: How It Works, Language, Phase 0: Resume Check, Phase 1: Intake, Check for Prior Work, What to Ask (if no prior data exists), Output, Phase 1.5: Research Depth Assessment, Process, Phase 2: Research.

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
- Don't over-interview. If the user gives a clear description upfront, move to research. The positioning process itself will surface what matters.
- **⏸ PAUSE — User Input Required.** Present the research-derived attributes to the user. Ask them to confirm, add, or remove before proceeding to Value Themes. The founder knows capabilities that research can't surface.
- If either test fails, revisit the 5+1 components. Don't ship weak positioning.
- **If only Warnings/Info:** Show one-line summary
- **Challenge "we're unique."** The Onliness Test must be genuinely convincing. If it reads like marketing fluff, iterate.
- | Feature-based positioning | Leading with features not outcomes | "Customers don't buy features. What outcome do they get?" |
- | Category-of-one | Inventing a category to avoid comparison | "New categories cost millions. Is there an existing frame?" |
- Isolate your unique attributes — what you have that alternatives don't

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Startup 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 ferdinandobons/startup-skill skill entry for `startup-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.

# Startup Positioning

Market positioning strategy that produces a complete positioning document, Moore + Neumeier positioning statements, competitive alternatives map, and market category analysis. Built on April Dunford's framework, enriched with JTBD discovery and stress-tested with Neumeier's Onliness Test.

## How It Works

```
INTAKE → RESEARCH (2 sequential waves) → POSITIONING SYNTHESIS
```

The process: understand the product and its customers, research competitive alternatives and market context, then build positioning through Dunford's 5+1 components. Typical runtime: 10-15 minutes in Claude Code (parallel agents), 20-30 minutes in Claude.ai (sequential).

### Language

Default output language is **English**. If the user writes in another language or explicitly requests one, use that language for all outputs instead.

---

## Phase 0: Resume Check

Before anything else, check if a `PROGRESS.md` created by this skill exists in the working directory or a project subdirectory (the skill name field says `startup-positioning`). If it does, read it and resume from the last incomplete phase. Tell the user: "I found progress from a previous session. You completed [phases]. Picking up from [next phase]."

If no progress file exists — or the one found belongs to a different skill — start from Phase 1.

---

## Phase 1: Intake

Short and focused — 1-2 rounds of questions. The goal is enough context to research alternatives and build positioning.

### Check for Prior Work

Before asking questions, check if prior sessions have been completed. Look for these files in the working directory or subdirectories:

**From startup-design:**
- `00-intake/brief.md` — product description and context
- `01-discovery/competitor-landscape.md` — competitor profiles
- `01-discovery/target-audience.md` — customer personas, pain points
- `02-strategy/positioning.md` — initial positioning work

**From startup-competitors:**
- `intake.md` — product and market context
- `competitors-report.md` — strategic competitive analysis
- `battle-cards/` — per-competitor profiles
- `pricing-landscape.md` — pricing analysis

If these files exist, read them and use the data as a head start:
- Extract the product description, known competitors, and customer pain points
- Use competitor profiles and battle cards to seed the competitive alternatives map
- Pull any existing positioning work as a starting hypothesis to test, not a conclusion to keep
- Use customer language and pain points to inform JTBD discovery

Tell the user: "I found data from a previous session. I'll use it as a starting point for positioning analysis."

Skip redundant intake questions. Go straight to research if prior data is sufficient.

### What to Ask (if no prior data exists)

**Round 1 — Core context:**
- What's your product? (one sentence is fine)
- What problem does it solve and for whom?
- What do your customers do today instead of using you? (alternatives, workarounds, doing nothing)
- Who are your best existing customers? (if any — describe them, not demographics)

**Round 2 — Sharpening (only if needed):**
- How is your product different from the alternatives you mentioned?
- Have you tried positioning before? What didn't work?
- Are there competitors you're often compared to?

Don't over-interview. If the user gives a clear description upfront, move to research. The positioning process itself will surface what matters.

### Output

Save to `{project-name}/intake.md` — a brief summary of the product, problem, alternatives, and customers. If built on prior session data, note the source files used. Project name: kebab-case (e.g., `ai-email-assistant`).

Create `{project-name}/PROGRESS.md` with: project name, skill name (`startup-positioning`), start date, language, research mode (Live / Knowledge-Based), and a phase checklist. Update it after each phase completes. If PROGRESS.md already exists from a previous session, resume from the last incomplete phase.

---

## Phase 1.5: Research Depth Assessment