What it is
The web is over-populated with ‘Positioning Experts’, my go-to resource for all things Positioning is April Dunford out of Toronto. Dunford defines positioning as, ‘"Positioning defines how your product is a leader at delivering something that a well-defined set of customers cares a lot about." For early stage, I’ve always thought about it as ‘Owning your wedge’.
Why it’s important
Interrogating Dunford’s definition, Positioning is crucial for the Revenue Leader because it determines who you’re selling to and how you’re doing it. My favorite attribute of strong positioning is its ability to North Star so much decision-making. An early-stage operation is inherently bandwidth limited, and having that strong Positioning is a super power for efficient execution.
How to do it
The traditional Positioning exercise resembles mad libs from my youth:
Our product is a (Market Category) that does (Unique Attributes), which enables (Value) for (Target Customers), unlike (Competitors).
The traditional works, but in a crowded market where we’re chasing our wedge, I much prefer the approach suggested by Dunford - start with the customers and prioritize the differentiation. Dunford’s model looks like:
