April Dunford - Obviously Awesome 2.0 : What's New With Product Positioning? (with April Dunford, Author “Obviously Awesome“ and “Sales Pitch“)

On this episode, I am joined for a third (and probably final!) time by April Dunford, renowned positioning expert and author of Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch. We explore what's changed in her updated edition of Obviously Awesome, what she's learned through delivering hundreds of positioning workshops and how she's honed her approach to reposition positioning to make it clearer for the next generation of product people.

Episode highlights

Positioning is how you win - Positioning is the answer to "why pick us now?", grounding your product in real value for a clearly defined customer segment.
Positioning vs strategy - Strategy defines where you're going, while positioning reflects where you are today and must evolve as your product and market change.
AI isn't a position - Simply adding AI is no longer meaningful; if everyone has it, the focus shifts to what tangible value you deliver right now.
From unique to distinct - Capabilities don't need to be truly unique, just meaningfully different in the context of your real competitors.
Trends matter less than clarity - The industry's baseline understanding of positioning has improved, making abstract ideas like "trends" less useful than clear market definitions.
Readiness before action - Teams need to decide what they're positioning, whether they have real customers, and how product structure (single vs multi-product) affects the work.
Positioning as hypothesis - Without customers, positioning is a best guess that must be tested and refined rather than treated as fact.
Sell to the champion - Positioning should resonate with the internal champion, while objections from other stakeholders are handled separately.
Test through sales, not copy - The real validation of positioning happens in sales conversations, not by endlessly tweaking website copy.
AI is a tool, not a shortcut - AI can support positioning work, but it can't replace the thinking, collaboration and deep company context required to define real differentiation.

... and much more.

Buy the new version of Obviously Awesome

Look for the yellow "updated" sticker!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Obviously-Awesome-Product-Positioning-Customers-dp-1999023056/dp/1999023056/
April's website: https://www.aprildunford.com/books

Contact April

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/
Website: https://www.aprildunford.com

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(273)

Pavel Samsonov - AI Can Build the Solution... You Still Have to Design the Problem

On this episode, I speak to Pavel Samsonov, Principal UX Designer at Justworks and author of The Product Picnic newsletter. Pavel has spent his career working across UX, service design and product man...

25 Heinä 0s

Be Kaler Pilgrim - Where Does Product Go Wrong in PE-Backed Firms?

On this episode, I speak to Be Kaler Pilgrim, founder of Smithfield Search and original founder of Futureheads Recruitment. Be has spent more than three decades helping organisations build technology ...

2 Heinä 57min

Petra Wille - Strong Product Leadership in the Age of AI

On this episode, I speak to the returning Petra Wille, product leadership coach, author of Strong Product People, and founder of the Product at Heart conference. Petra has spent years helping product ...

19 Touko 1h 5min

The State of B2B Product Management (with me, Saeed Khan and guest host Janna Bastow)

On this episode, we try something a little different. ProdPad and Mind the Product co-founder Janna Bastow joins as guest host to interview me and Saeed Khan about our recently released research repor...

2 Huhti 1h 6min

CPO Stories: Nick Kenn - Winmau

On this episode, I speak with Nick Kenn, interim Chief Product Officer at Winmau, the world's leading darts brand. Nick's career spans companies such as Betfair and Redbubble, and he now operates in i...

26 Maalis 55min

Dan Olsen - Vibe Coding: The New Product Team Superpower? (with Dan Olsen, Product Management Trainer and Author “The Lean Product Playbook“)

In this episode, I speak with returning guest Dan Olsen, product management trainer, consultant, speaker, and author of The Lean Product Playbook. We go deep into the rise of "vibe coding" and what it...

5 Maalis 1h 8min

Hugo Alves - Let's Get Real About Synthetic Users (with Hugo Alves, Co-founder @ Synthetic Users)

On this episode, I speak to Hugo Alves, co-founder of Synthetic Users, about one of the most controversial topics in modern product development: using generative AI to simulate users for research and ...

21 Helmi 1h 4min