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How to nail your product positioning | April Dunford (Obviously Awesome)

April Dunford is the author of the must-read best-selling book Obviously Awesome, a definitive guide to product positioning. She spent 25 years leading marketing, product, and sales teams and now runs her own consulting firm, helping companies of all shapes and sizes nail their positioning. April has worked hands-on with over 200 companies on positioning, including Google, IBM, Postman, and Epic Games. In this episode, April delves into the intricacies of positioning, including its distinction from messaging and branding, and shares real-world examples of products with strong and weak positioning. Additionally, April shares her insights on when to bring in a professional and the key differences between segmentation and personas. Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable knowledge from a true industry leader. — Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/april-dunford-on-product-positioning-segmentation-and-optimizing-your-sales-process/#transcript Where to find April: • Website: https://aprildunford.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprildunford • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) April's guest post on Lenny's Newsletter (03:42) April's background (07:36) Interesting companies April has worked with (12:17) Defining positioning (15:31) Company misalignment vs. positioning issues (17:42) How to assess if your product’s positioning is weak or strong (19:50) Examples of companies with great product positioning (22:32) The essential five steps to figuring out your product’s positioning (29:25) Help Scout's positioning process (35:54) How important is having a differentiator? (40:12) The difference between positioning vs. messaging vs. branding (46:29) When to hire a professional (48:32) How long does product positioning take? (54:41) What’s the difference between segmentation and personas? (01:02:50) Where to find April References: • Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It: https://www.aprildunford.com/obviously-awesome • April’s guest post on Lenny's Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/positioning • Epic Games: https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/home • Bluelight Analytics: https://www.bluelightanalytics.com/ • Postman: https://www.postman.com/ • Startupfest: https://startupfestival.com/ • Help Scout: https://www.helpscout.com/ • Zendesk: https://www.zendesk.com/ Thank you to our sponsors: • Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/ • Flatfile: https://flatfile.com/Lenny • Productboard: https://Productboard.com/

April DunfordguestLenny RachitskyhostJon (from Amplitude)guestAshley (Head of Marketing at Flatfile)guest
Jan 21, 20231h 5mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

April Dunford explains how to truly nail B2B product positioning

  1. April Dunford, author of "Obviously Awesome," breaks down a practical, step-by-step methodology for B2B product positioning and explains why weak positioning, not product quality, is often the root cause of growth problems.
  2. She emphasizes that positioning must be built collaboratively across marketing, product, sales, and leadership, and validated with real buyers—not by generic tests like "will my grandma get it?"
  3. April walks through her five-part framework (competitive alternatives, differentiated capabilities, value, best-fit customers, and market category) and shows how it feeds directly into sales narratives and messaging.
  4. She also clarifies the difference between positioning, messaging, branding, segmentation, and personas, and explains how and when early-stage startups should treat positioning as a flexible thesis rather than something to over-tighten.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Start positioning by identifying real competitive alternatives, including the status quo.

You must first understand what you actually need to beat to win a deal—spreadsheets, existing workflows, or incumbent tools—not just obvious direct competitors. Many B2B companies lose 40% of deals to "no decision" because they fail to position effectively against doing nothing.

Build your value story from differentiated capabilities, not from internal opinions.

List what you can do that alternatives can’t, then translate those capabilities into concrete customer value (the "so what?"). This avoids generic value props any vendor could claim and surfaces 2–3 true value themes you can credibly own.

Define your best-fit customers based on who cares most about your differentiated value.

Not every company with the problem is ideal. Look for common characteristics (tools, size, business model, workflows) among customers who are easiest to win and see outsized value, and target that segment deliberately.

Positioning must be a cross-functional, aligned decision—it's a team sport.

Founders, product, marketing, sales, and customer success often hold slightly different mental models of what the product is and who it’s for. Strong positioning requires getting these groups in a room, aligning on the same story, and then everyone executing against it.

Judge positioning by how qualified prospects react, not by clever copy or outsider opinions.

The only real test: when a qualified buyer hears your story, do they quickly understand it, see why it matters, and want to buy? It doesn’t matter if random observers or "grandmas" understand your homepage if they’re not your buyers.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Positioning defines how your product is the best in the world at delivering some value that a well-defined set of companies care a lot about.

— April Dunford

If your product isn’t doing well, there’s a chance that it may not be the product that’s the problem. It may be your positioning.

— Lenny Rachitsky

The true test of whether the positioning’s working or not is: if I’m sitting across from a qualified prospect and I tell the story, does the prospect get excited and want to buy something?

— April Dunford

We lose about 40% of our deals to ‘no decision’, which actually means we lost to the spreadsheet, we lost to pen and paper, we lost to interns.

— April Dunford

Really great positioning feels obvious. You pitch to people and they’re like, ‘Well, of course that’s it. What else could it be?’

— April Dunford

Definition and importance of product positioning in B2BApril Dunford’s five-step positioning frameworkDiagnosing weak positioning vs. misalignment inside the companyTranslating positioning into sales narratives and messagingPositioning for early-stage startups vs. growth-stage companiesDifferentiation and competitive alternatives (including status quo)Segmentation vs. personas and the role of the champion buyer

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