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Cheat Sheet/positioning

/positioning

Run a structured positioning analysis using April Dunford’s “Obviously Awesome” framework, producing a differentiated story about who the product is for and what makes it the obvious choice.

When to use it

Run this after /research and /jtbd when you have a competitive landscape and a core job statement, and you’re ready to decide where the product should be positioned. The command walks you through Dunford’s sequence: competitive alternatives (what would customers do if you didn’t exist), unique attributes (what only you have), value themes (why those attributes matter), best-fit customer characteristics, and the market category you’re choosing to compete in.

If docs/MARKET-RESEARCH.md and docs/JOBS-TO-BE-DONE.md exist, the command pre-fills competitive alternatives from the research file and value themes from the JTBD underserved-need section. Without those upstream artifacts you’ll be answering the same questions by hand — workable but slower, and the answers won’t be backed by the evidence the research and JTBD phases would have surfaced. Output lands in docs/POSITIONING-ANALYSIS.md and feeds /bootstrap-product.

Don’t run this before you have a credible understanding of the competitive landscape — positioning a product against alternatives you’ve barely thought about produces a story that collapses the first time someone asks “but what about X?”. The Plan phase ordering is deliberate.

How it fits

Positioning is the convergence point in the Plan phase — it consumes both research and JTBD, and produces the differentiation story that the PRD then commits to.

What it does (quick)

  • Reads docs/MARKET-RESEARCH.md and docs/JOBS-TO-BE-DONE.md if present and pre-fills competitive alternatives + value themes
  • Walks the Dunford questionnaire: alternatives → unique attributes → value themes → best-fit customers → market category
  • Synthesizes findings into docs/POSITIONING-ANALYSIS.md with the positioning statement, category choice, and the attribute-to-value mapping
  • Surfaces where your unique attributes don’t ladder up to clear customer value — usually a sign you’re either competing in the wrong category or selling the wrong feature
  • /research — supplies competitive alternatives
  • /jtbd — supplies value themes from underserved needs
  • /bootstrap-product — the PRD’s positioning section reads this file directly

Canonical spec: .claude/commands/positioning.md

Last updated on
/jtbd/evaluate-feature