Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It

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About This Book

Obviously Awesome by April Dunford argues that positioning—deliberately defining how you are the best at something a defined market cares a lot about—is the foundational, often-neglected input into all marketing, sales, and product strategy. When positioning fails, even a world-class product can flop; Dunford illustrates this with violinist Joshua Bell earning $32 in a subway station while selling out concert halls. The same product, framed in the wrong context, loses its perceived value.

Dunford warns of two traps: clinging to what you intended to build while the product became something else, and staying put while the market shifts around you. Both stem from accepting default positioning rather than choosing it on purpose.

The core framework is the Five (Plus One) Components of Effective Positioning:

Competitive alternatives — what customers would do if you didn't exist
Unique attributes — features the alternatives lack
Value (and proof) — the provable benefit those features enable
Target market characteristics — buyers who care most about that value
Market category — the frame of reference that makes your value obvious
(Bonus) Relevant trends — used cautiously to add present-day urgency

Crucially, you begin with your best-fit customers and what they see as alternatives, because their perception—not yours—defines "better." Value must be objective and provable; your own opinion doesn't count.

Dunford then offers a 10-step process and three positioning styles: Head to Head (beat an established leader), Big Fish, Small Pond (dominate a subsegment), and Create a New Game (build a new category, the hardest path). Positioning is a cross-functional business-strategy exercise, captured in a shared document and revisited periodically as markets evolve. The mantra: deliberate, try, fail, test, and try again.

Key Takeaways

1.Positioning is context-setting: customers use surrounding clues—category, pricing, features, competitors—to decide what your product is and whether it matters.
2.Start positioning by asking what your best-fit customers would use if your product didn't exist; their perceived alternatives reveal your true differentiators.
3.Value must be provable—data, third-party reviews, and customer quotes count as proof; your own opinion of your strengths does not.
4.A well-chosen market category triggers powerful assumptions about competitors, features, and pricing, making your unique value obvious to the right buyers.
5.Avoid the two traps: positioning by default while your product or your market quietly changed underneath you.
6.Choose a positioning style—Head to Head, Big Fish Small Pond, or Create a New Game—based on market maturity and how strong the existing leaders are.
7.Positioning is a cross-functional business-strategy exercise, not a marketing-only task, and should be documented, shared, and revisited periodically.

Top Highlights

Positioning is the act of deliberately defining how you are the best at something that a defined market cares a lot about. Want to do better account-based

Highlighted by 8 people

Great positioning takes into account all of the following: The customer’s point of view on the problem you solve and the alternative ways of solving that problem. The ways you are uniquely different from those alternatives and why that’s meaningful for customers. The characteristics of a potential customer that really values what you can uniquely deliver. The best market context for your product that makes your unique value obvious to those customers who are best suited to your product. Positioning

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Customers need to be able to easily understand what your product is, why it’s special and why it matters to them. When positioning is not working, it often looks like a marketing

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When customers encounter a product they have never seen before, they will look for contextual clues to help them figure out what it is, who it’s for and why they should care. Taken together, the messaging, pricing, features, branding, partners and customers create context and set the scene for the product.

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Trap 1: You are stuck on the idea of what you intended to build, and you don’t realize that your product has become something else.

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Your target market is the customers who buy quickly, rarely ask for discounts and tell their friends about your offerings.

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The competitive alternative is what your target customers would “use” or “do” if your product didn’t exist. Our customers often do not know nearly as much about the universe of potential solutions to a problem as we do. As product creators, we need to be experts in the different solutions that exist in a market, including the advantages and disadvantages of choosing them. Customers, however, have often never purchased a solution like yours before. They are approaching the solution to their problem with a clean slate and little knowledge of what “state of the art” in your domain looks like. You may worry a lot about an up-and-coming startup in your space, but your customers have likely never heard of them. In business software, the most common competitive alternative is a combination of general-purpose business software (spreadsheets, documents, presentations) and manual processes.

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Using a trend in positioning is optional (but often desirable). Position your product in a market category that puts your offering’s strengths in their best context, and then look for relevant trends in your industry that can help customers understand why they should consider this product right now.

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Market categories help customers use what they know to figure out what they don’t. A well-chosen market category will help make your unique value more obvious to your target customers.

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The first step in the positioning exercise is to make a short list of your best customers. They understood your product quickly and bought from you quickly. They became raving fans, referred you to other companies and acted as a reference for you. They represent the perfect type of customer you want to buy from you (at least in the short term).

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AI Review

4.4/ 5

Based on Glasp's analysis of highlights from 12 readers, this is a highly practical, consensus-praised playbook—readers overwhelmingly converged on its core framework and process steps.

Pros

+Clear, actionable Five (Plus One) Components framework that readers repeatedly highlighted
+Concrete 10-step process teams can run together rather than abstract theory
+Memorable illustrations like the Joshua Bell subway story and the cake-pop example
+Strong emphasis on provable, fact-based value over subjective claims
+Three distinct positioning styles matched to market maturity and competition
+Heavy reader engagement in notes shows people applied it to real products

Cons

−Examples skew toward B2B tech and SaaS, less directly useful for consumer brands
−Light on messaging execution—Dunford defers detailed copywriting to other books
−Assumes you can readily access and survey best-fit customers, which early-stage teams may lack

Glasp AI analysis based on highlights from 12 readers.

Who Should Read This

Ideal for startup founders, product marketers, product managers, and sales leaders at B2B and tech companies who struggle to explain what their product is or face price pressure and slow deals. Especially valuable for teams whose product has outgrown its original framing or whose market has shifted. Readers needing a concrete, repeatable process—rather than abstract theory—will benefit most. Some familiarity with go-to-market basics helps, but the book assumes no specialist knowledge and works as a hands-on workbook for cross-functional teams.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Obviously Awesome about?

It's about product positioning—deliberately defining how your product is the best at something a specific market cares about. Dunford shows that positioning is the foundation of all marketing and sales, and provides a framework and step-by-step process to get it right.

Who is this book for?

It's written for founders, product marketers, product managers, and sales leaders—especially at B2B and tech companies—who find prospects can't quickly understand what their product is or why it matters.

What are the key lessons?

Positioning is context-setting; you must start from what your best-fit customers see as competitive alternatives; value must be provable, not opinion; and you should choose a market category that makes your strengths obvious. Trends are optional and should be used cautiously.

What are the Five (Plus One) Components of positioning?

Competitive alternatives, unique attributes, value (and proof), target market characteristics, and market category—plus the optional bonus of relevant trends. Each component depends on the others, so they're worked through as a connected system.

What are the three positioning styles?

Head to Head (beat an established leader at their own game), Big Fish, Small Pond (dominate a subsegment with unmet needs), and Create a New Game (build an entirely new category). The right choice depends on market maturity and the competitive landscape.

Why does Dunford tell the Joshua Bell story?

To show that even a world-class product, poorly positioned, can fail. The same violinist who sells out concert halls earned only $32 playing in a subway station—the product didn't change, the context did.

Is it worth reading?

Yes—reader highlights show strong consensus that the framework and 10-step process are immediately usable. It's concise, practical, and especially valuable if you're repositioning an existing product.

How to Apply What You Read

1.List your best-fit customers—the ones who bought fast, rarely discount, and refer others—and use them as the reference point for every positioning decision.
2.Interview those customers about what they would use if your product didn't exist to uncover the real competitive alternatives in their minds.
3.Map features to benefits to provable value, discarding subjective claims like "easy to use" unless you can back them with facts or third-party validation.
4.Run the 10-step process as a cross-functional team, suspending your existing assumptions, and pick the positioning style that fits your market.
5.Capture the result in a shared positioning document (and a one-page canvas), then review it every six months or after major market shifts.

Discussion Questions

Q1.Think of a product you use daily—how much of its perceived value comes from positioning versus the product itself?
Q2.Which of the two traps (stuck on what you intended to build, or a market that shifted) is your organization more at risk of falling into?
Q3.If you surveyed only your most ecstatic customers, what pattern of characteristics would emerge—and how would it change your targeting?
Q4.For your product, what would customers genuinely do if your solution didn't exist, and how does that reframe your differentiators?
Q5.Which of your claimed strengths could you actually prove with data or third-party validation, and which are just opinion?
Q6.Which positioning style—Head to Head, Big Fish Small Pond, or Create a New Game—best fits your situation, and why?
Q7.Is there a trend you could credibly layer onto your positioning, or would it just make you "fashionable and bewildering"?