Jason OakleyA positioning framework doesn't have to be complicated. It's just a handful of choices. Making them is the hard part.
You're really looking to answer two questions:
- Where do you play?
- How do you win?
First question: "Where do you play?"
Many companies fail because they build products in crowded categories, where their target customer already has great options. Meanwhile, other companies thrive because they choose a category and customer that are totally underserved.
Take CRMs. Creating another CRM for SaaS companies would be VERY difficult. But what about mobile gaming companies? Chances are that customer has a hard time finding a CRM that meets their needs.
Or take something simple, like cereal. You could create another brand for children and compete for shelf space against giants. But if you target adults, who care about things like calories and protein, it's far easier to stand out. That's what Surreal did.
The three things you need to figure out when deciding where to play are:
- Product Category - what category of product are you? Don't overthink it. Put yourself in the shoes of a customer and ask “what would they call our product?”
- Target Customer - who is your ideal customer? Usually the primary user of your product. The more specific, the better. This is probably the most important decision you'll make.
- Job to Be Done - what are they buying this product for? It could be a problem they need to solve, or a task they need to complete.
Second question: “How do you win?”
Time to decide how you’re going to stand out and be different from every other alternative your target customer will consider.
If you were brave enough to get specific with 'where you play,' this part will be a LOT easier. Because building your product for a very specific customer and job should naturally make it different.
The two things you need to figure out when deciding how you win are:
- Differentiators - what features or capabilities make your product or company different? It's not always product features. It could be things like pricing model, product delivery, services, even brand.
- Unique Value - how does the customer benefit from the things that only you can do? The key here is to think about value that only you can deliver, or deliver better on, because of the things you do differently.
That's it in a nutshell.
My goal here was to strip away things that often bloat positioning frameworks and turn them into massive "docs."
So, I intentionally omitted some things like:
👉 Competitors - important, but not needed here. 👉 POV - influences your positioning, but not part of it. 👉 Problem/Pain - part of Job to Be Done. 👉 Persona / Company - Just combine these into one “target customer”
I want to start doing with all of the frameworks I use. Simplify everything down to the bare parts, so we can focus on getting the important details right.