startup_positioning v1.0.0

name: startup_positioning description: Market positioning for early products: run the five-component positioning workflow (competitive alternatives, unique attributes, value, best-fit customers, market category) to pick a category, map what customers would use instead, name what is genuinely unique, and turn it into messaging. Triggers when someone asks how to position a product, what category they are in, how they differ from competitors, or how to message an early product.

Startup Positioning

Purpose

Position an early product deliberately: define the context in which it is obviously the best choice for a specific set of customers, instead of hoping the copywriter figures it out. This is a strategy exercise, not a tagline exercise. Good output: a filled positioning canvas, a positioning statement, and a messaging kit that all trace back to evidence.

Workflow

Work the five components in order. The order is the method: each step is derived from the one before it. Skipping ahead produces positioning that looks complete but is disconnected from real buying decisions.

0. Gather evidence first

Before anything else, collect: what the product actually does (facts, not aspirations), 5 to 10 customers or users who love it and why, what those customers say they replaced, and the capabilities competitors genuinely cannot match. If you have no customer evidence yet, say so plainly and mark every downstream claim as a hypothesis to test. Do not fill gaps with invention.

1. List competitive alternatives

Write down what customers would do if this product did not exist. The real answer is usually not the rival vendor on the competitive slide. Include: do nothing, manual processes, spreadsheets, in-house builds, consultants, and named products. Rank them by how often customers actually mention them. An alternative that never shows up in customer conversations is not a real alternative.

2. Isolate unique attributes

Capabilities the product has that the alternatives lack. Test each candidate with three gates: (a) the alternatives genuinely cannot do this today, (b) it is provable in a demo or a metric, not a marketing claim, (c) it would survive a skeptical buyer poking at it. Table stakes (fast, easy to use, great support) are not unique attributes. Most products have two to four real ones; a list of twelve means you have not filtered yet.

3. Map attributes to value (and proof)

Translate each surviving attribute into the customer outcome it enables: attribute is what the product does, value is what the customer gets. One attribute can map to multiple value themes; cluster them. Every value theme needs proof attached: a customer result, a measured number, a named reference. A value claim without evidence gets cut or downgraded to an aspiration.

4. Find the customers who care a lot

Among all possible buyers, who cares most about those value themes? Segment by which attributes matter most to whom. Write the best-fit profile as concretely as possible: role, company type and size, trigger event, what they would use instead. Also write the anti-profile: who you will not sell to and why. If the product serves everyone, the positioning is not done.

5. Choose the market category, last

Pick the frame of reference that puts the unique strengths at the center and that best-fit customers already understand. Gate: if the default category makes the product look like a weak me-too, the category is wrong, change it before touching the product. Options: join an existing category where you win, reposition an existing category by splitting it, or name a new one. Naming a new category is the most expensive option: it needs a real trend behind it, proof you are the leader, and the budget to evangelize the name. Do it only when an existing category cannot frame the value.

6. Layer a trend only if it is honest

An optional sixth component: a market shift (regulation, technology, buyer behavior) that makes the positioning more urgent right now. If no real trend exists, skip it. Riding a fake trend reads as opportunistic and buyers see through it.

7. Capture it

Turn the canvas into three artifacts:

• The positioning statement, written last (Moore template: For [best-fit customer] who [need], [product] is a [category] that [key benefit]. Unlike [primary alternative], [product] [primary differentiation].) Every slot must trace to a completed component.
• Positioning rules: a short list of what all downstream messaging must say and must never say, so sales, site, and onboarding tell the same story.
• The messaging kit: homepage headline options, a 30-second pitch, the enemy framing (what you position against), and the proof points. Messaging is the output of positioning, never the substitute.

Output Contract

The deliverable is a filled positioning canvas (see assets/positioning-canvas.md or run bin/canvas.py on an answers file), plus:

1. Alternatives map: ranked list of what customers would actually use instead, with sources (who said so).
2. Attribute-value table: unique attributes mapped to value themes, each theme carrying its proof.
3. Best-fit profile and anti-profile.
4. Category claim with rationale: why this frame, why not the default, what changes if the trend fades.
5. Positioning statement with each slot traced to its component.
6. Positioning rules and messaging kit: headlines, 30-second pitch, enemy framing, proof points.
7. Open questions: every claim still lacking evidence, marked as hypothesis with a plan to test it.

Operating Rules

1. Work the components in order. Category and differentiation are conclusions, not starting points. Drafting the statement first is forbidden: it smuggles in an assumed category.
2. Start from competitive alternatives, not from the product. If the alternative list is wrong, everything downstream is wrong.
3. No claim without a supporting attribute, and no attribute without proof. Unverifiable claims get cut or framed as opinion.
4. Evidence outranks aspiration. Customer words outrank founder words. Measured results outrank customer words.
5. Positioning is decided cross-functionally, not in marketing alone. If sales would position it differently than the website, you have no positioning.
6. Revisit when the market moves: a real competitor launch, a category shift, or a new best-fit segment all invalidate the canvas. Review quarterly.
7. Four worked examples live in references/worked-examples.md. Read them before authoring a new canvas so the pattern is concrete, and cite the real-product evidence, not borrowed slogans.