Obviously Awesome

The problem it solves

Many products are good and still hard to sell, because buyers do not understand what they are looking at. They put it in the wrong category, compare it to the wrong things, and conclude that it is too expensive or not quite what they need. Obviously Awesome treats this as a positioning problem. If buyers cannot see at once why your product is the right choice for them, features and better marketing will not fix it.

What changes after you read it

You change the order in which you think. Instead of starting with your product and describing it, you start with the customer's situation and the alternatives they have. You then ask what you do that they cannot, who values that most and what category makes that obvious. The result is a short statement that everyone in the company can use, and that drives the website, the pitch and the sales deck.

Why it suits B2B and technical products

A complicated product has more things to say, and so more room to say the wrong things. The method helps a team agree on the few that matter. It is written with software companies in mind, where a product can be new, hard to categorise and sold to several types of buyer. A simple consumer product with a well-known category will need less of it, though the exercise still sharpens the offer.

Do it as a team

Positioning touches product, marketing, sales and customer success, and the book is clear that it should not be done by one person alone. People closest to customers hold facts that others lack. A short workshop with the right people, run in the book's order, is more useful than a long document written in isolation. The hard bit is agreeing, and the sequence makes that easier by keeping the debate on evidence.

How it connects to decisions and playbooks

Positioning is a set of decisions: who you target, which alternatives you compare against, which category you claim. Each can be written down with the evidence behind it, which makes it easy to revisit when sales results change. Once settled, it can be turned into repeatable assets, such as a pitch outline, a qualification checklist and a standard answer to "how are you different?".

Obviously Awesome argues that positioning, the context you give buyers so they understand your product, is the most useful and most neglected piece of go-to-market work. April Dunford presents a practical sequence for getting it right, built around a handful of components. The book is written for companies selling software and similar products, and its tone is that of a working guide: short chapters, plain language and a clear order of steps. The aim is a position that makes your product an obvious choice for the right customers.

What positioning is

Dunford defines positioning as how your product is uniquely good at something that a defined set of customers cares about a lot. She separates it from messaging, which is the words you use to express it, and from branding. Positioning comes first, and it works like the context for a story. Without it, buyers fill the gap with their own guess, which is often wrong. She argues that most weak marketing is a symptom of a weak position.

Competitive alternatives

The method starts with what customers would do if your product did not exist. That may be a direct competitor, a spreadsheet, an agency or doing nothing. This is your real competition, and it sets the baseline for the comparison. Dunford's advice is to begin there, since everything else you claim is relative to it. Many teams skip this step and list rivals that buyers never consider.

Unique attributes and value

Next you list what you have that the alternatives lack: features, capabilities, a way of working. Then you translate each into the value it gives customers, and gather proof. An attribute without a clear value is only a fact, and a value without an attribute is a claim. The book asks you to link the two and be honest about which ones are truly unique. This is where positioning becomes specific, and where many teams find they have less to say than they thought.

Start from customers who love it

Before listing anything, Dunford asks you to understand your existing customers, and particularly the ones who are happy. They tell you what your product is really good for, which may differ from your plan. This also keeps the work honest: the position has to fit the people who already buy, and not an imagined buyer.

Best-fit customers

Not every customer values your attributes. The book suggests looking at the customers who buy quickly, stay and recommend you, and asking what they have in common. Those are the ones who care most about your value, and they define who to target. Dunford is firm that positioning is not for everyone: you choose the buyers who see the point at once, and you accept that others will not.

Market category

The category is the frame of reference that tells buyers how to think about you, and it brings assumptions about price, features and competitors. Dunford describes three broad routes: compete head to head in an established category, narrow down to a niche within it, or build a new category. Each has costs. A known category is quick to understand but crowded. A new category lets you set the rules but needs a lot of education.

Why positioning goes wrong

The book spends time on common failures. Teams position around what they built instead of what customers value, or they claim the largest possible audience to avoid excluding anyone. Others borrow a category because it is popular, then spend years explaining why they do not fit it. In each case the team has avoided a choice. The method forces the choice by working through the components in order, with evidence from real customers at each stage.

Putting it to work

A position only helps if people see it. Dunford covers how it shows up in the sales conversation, where the order in which you explain things changes how buyers compare you. The pitch starts with the context, the category and the alternatives, then moves to your difference and the value. The same position should shape the website, the demo and the way sales qualifies a lead. Where a company is inconsistent here, buyers notice.

Trends and bringing it together

You can optionally add a relevant trend, a change in the market that makes your value more pressing. Used well, it gives buyers a reason to act now. Then you assemble the pieces into a position and test it with real customers and in sales conversations. The book also covers getting the team aligned and making the position visible in the pitch, the website and the sales process.

What to do with it

• List what your ten best customers would do if your product vanished tomorrow, and use that as your competitor list.
• Write down three attributes you have that those alternatives lack, and the value each gives.
• Pick the customers who buy fastest and stay longest, and write what they share.
• Choose a category on purpose, and check whether a buyer would understand it without help.
• Run the position past sales and support, and change anything that does not match what customers say.