Notes on Obviously Awesome by April Dunford

Having finished and loved the book Sales Pitch, I knew I had to also read the prior book Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It by April Dunford. This one focused on the positioning that is used in designing the pitch, and I loved how she outlined a simple and concrete process to figure it out. I had only heard of positioning statements before, and I liked how her concepts are much deeper, richer, and more useful than a single statement. I liked the examples in this book too, especially the story about positioning cake pops as cake with a stick vs. a cake pop and the database vs. data warehouse story.

I think I still preferred Sales Pitch, but Obviously Awesome is so useful as well. My main notes and takeaways are below.

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​Intro
If people have a hard time buying or understanding what your product does or comparing it to the wrong things, it’s a positioning problem
Templates online or by emailing her
Positioning is defining how you are the best at something that a specific market cares about
Positioning is Context setting for products

Part 1 what is positioning
Positioning as context
World class musician playing on street corner will be ignored and not make much money
Trap 1: being stuck on initial idea of product; Products evolve and change and now may be very different
Trap 2: stuck on initial idea of market. Competition and regulation evolves and need to shift your own positioning
Common failure is not deliberately positioning your product
Best position for product is not the default
Each product can be positioned multiple ways
Database vs data warehouse
Positioning takes into account customer’s point of view, your differentiation, aspects that customers value most, best market context
Positioning statement is not the same as the process to arrive at it
Key is figuring out how to fill in the blanks
5+1 components 
Competitive alternatives (what customers would do if you didn’t exist)
Unique attributes (capabilities you have that competitors lack)
Value and proof (the benefit those capabilities provide customers)
Target market characteristics (characteristics of group of buyers that make them value a lot the unique attributes you deliver)
Market category (market you describe yourself being part of to help customers understand your value)
Relevant trends (trends your customers understand or are interested in that will make your product more relevant now)
Competitive alternatives 
Competitors
Hire an intern
Use a spreadsheet 
Suffer and do nothing
What customers would do if your product didn’t exist
Unique attributes 
Things you can do that alternatives can’t
Product features, delivery model, business model, expertise
Value and proof
Benefit you deliver because of unique attributes
Why someone might care about your solution 
External data and reviews 
Target market characteristics 
Customers who buy quickly, don’t ask for discounts, and tell others about your product 
Market category
Frame of reference for product
Convenient shorthand
Relevant trends
Why are they should pay attention right now
Help make the purchase a strategic priority 

Part 2 the 10 step positioning process
Step 1: Understand the customers who love your product
Only survey the ecstatic fans and ask why they love you
Look at which marketing campaigns do best
Make short list of best customers
Understood value quickly
Didn’t ask for discounts
Referred you to others
If you don’t have any yet, keep positioning loose and try in many markets until patterns emerge
Focus on product positioning not company positioning
Investor positioning totally different 
Focus on single product until get hundreds of millions in revenue
Step 2: form a positioning team
Multidisciplinary team
Positioning exercise
Step 3: align positioning vocabulary and let go of positioning baggage
Let go of history of how product was created and why
Step 4: list true competitive alternatives
Compare to problem they need to solve
What would our best customers do if we didn’t exist?
Rank list from most common to least and only for best fit customers 
Group or cluster alternatives like “do it manually” or “use x type of solution”
Want 2-5 total
Step 5: isolate your unique attributes or features
Focus on differences from alternatives 
Focus on attributes not value derived
List every unique feature
Focus on objective things easy to prove 
3rd party reviews and validation ok
Use feedback from customers when asking why they chose our offering 
Be broad and creative and include not just product features but process or business model things
Concentrate on consideration not retention attributes (focus on pre-sale)
Step 6: map attributes to value received
Value in customer terms as related to their problems
Cluster values into themes or value clusters/groups
Target 1-4 clusters
Step 7: determine who cares a lot
Segmentation 
Not always about demographics
Focus on best fit customers
Target as narrowly as you can to meet sales objectives (as long as there’s enough matching prospects in the market)
Positioning and best fit customers will evolve over time
Keep answering “who cares and why?”
Each segment should be big enough to meet sales objectives and have specific unmet needs our product can solve
Step 8: find market frame of reference that puts your strengths in the center and determine how to position in it
Ask what category of product typically have the type of features
Examine adjacent growing markets
Different strategies
Head to head to win
Good if already leader
Bad if new small business 
Big fish in small pond
Segment of market to focus on
Easier to dominate subsegment
Decide if too narrow based on size needed to meet business goals
Subsegment needs to be easily identifiable
Needs large unmet need
Need most be strong enough to not go with market leader
Need to educate market why solution from leader not good enough
New game and create new market
Only use this if existing market strategies and can’t work 
Usually spurred by some fundamental change in tech or regulation or external factor
Most difficult style of positioning
Requires lots of customer teaching
And teaching how to evaluate solutions and why you’re best 
Competitors will convince customers you’re just a feature 
Need to explain timing and why now
Good because you get to define purchase criteria to match your strengths and bounds of market around you
Existing market easier because prospects understand 
Crowded market means there is demand which is good but need to move quickly to become leader
Step 9: layer on the trend but be careful
Why now is relevant
Intersection of your strengths, market context, recent trends
Always better to be boring than baffling
Show link between trend and your product explicitly 
Step 10: capture positioning so it can be shared
Positioning canvas explaining all major parts of the positioning
Template online on her site

Part 3 putting positioning into play
First work on components of sales story to be used in intro call. Later turn this into script and slides. 
Define Problem
Define how customers solve the problem now and where it falls short
Define what perfect world would look like
Define product positioning and category (x is a y product for z people)
Explain each value theme and how solution enables that value 
Address common sales objections
Include list of reference customers
Next actions
Messaging
Write a messaging document based on positioning
Update website based on that
Product roadmap and pricing
Prioritize different features
Price expectations in each category
Tracking positioning over time as company evolves like every 6 months or when competitor enters market or changing customer attitudes 

Conclusion
Any product can be positioned in multiple markets
Great positioning doesn’t happen by default 
Understanding what your best customers see as your alternatives will give you your true differentiation 
Position self in market that makes your strengths obvious to those you want to sell to
Use trends to make product more interesting now but be cautious