💡

InsightHunt

Hunt the Insights

A

April Dunford

Episode #22

Author & Positioning Consultant

aprildunford.com

📈Growth & Metrics🎯Product Strategy

📝Full Transcript

12,925 words
Lenny (00:00:04): 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. And there's no one I've learned more from about how to very practically and tactically think about your positioning than from April Dunford. Lenny (00:00:17): April is the best selling author of the book, Obviously Awesome, which many consider an industry bible on product positioning. She's also led teams at seven successful B2B startups, worked with over 200 companies, helping them nail their positioning, and has almost certainly done more positioning work than any human alive. Lenny (00:00:34): Also, April's guest post in my newsletter, A Quickstart Guide to Positioning is still one of the most popular posts of all time in my newsletter and one I share often with founders. I had a total blast speaking with April, and I hope you learn as much from this conversation as I did. Lenny (00:00:52): This episode is brought to you by Amplitude, the number one product analytics solution. Amplitude helps product teams, growth teams, marketing and data teams build winning products, faster and turn products into revenue. Lenny (00:01:05): Amplitude has everything you need, including an integrated CDP, self-service analytics and even an experimentation platform to help you better understand your users, drive conversions and increase engagement, growth, and revenue. Lenny (00:01:18): Amplitude is built for teams that want to learn as fast as they ship and ship as fast as they learn, ditch your vanity metrics, trust your data, work smarter and grow your business. With over 1,700 customers like Atlassian, Instacart and HBO, Amplitude is helping companies build better products. Try Amplitude for free. Visit amplitude.com to get started. Lenny (00:01:40): This episode is brought to you by Flatfile. Think of the last time you imported a spreadsheet. Did it work the first time? Chances are it did not. You probably got some weird erro...

📚Methodologies (3)

📈 Growth & Metrics

A storytelling framework that replaces feature-dumping with a narrative arc. It contextualizes the product by first establishing a market insight, then defining the failure of the status quo, before finally introducing the product as the only logical solution to a specific problem.

Core Principles

  • 1.Start with a Market Insight/Change (Context)
  • 2.Define the Status Quo/Alternative (The Villain)
  • 3.Highlight the Gap/Problem with the Status Quo
  • +2 more...

"If sales can't tell the story, they can't pitch it, if they can't pitch it, they're going to make shit up."

#dunford#pitch#narrative
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🎯 Product Strategy

A five-step 'extraction' process that filters a product's capabilities through the lens of competitive alternatives to derive the true differentiated value and best-fit market category.

Core Principles

  • 1.Positioning must be rooted in competitive alternatives (including spreadsheets/manual work).
  • 2.Capabilities only matter if they are distinct from the alternatives.
  • 3.Value is the 'So What?' translation of features.
  • +2 more...

"I suspect that I have done more positioning than anybody on the planet... this is the only way I know how to get positioning done."

#differentiated#value#extraction
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📈 Growth & Metrics

A method to overcome the 'No Decision' outcome (40% of losses) by equipping the internal Champion with a clear market taxonomy. This empowers the Champion to justify the specific choice to the economic buyer by categorizing competitors into buckets that are valid but 'not for us'.

Core Principles

  • 1.Customers are overwhelmed by options and fear making a bad choice.
  • 2.The vendor must provide a mental model of the market ('How the market shakes out').
  • 3.Explicitly categorize competitors as 'Good for X' (e.g., Enterprise) to disqualify them for your specific buyer.
  • +2 more...

"If you can't help the customer figure out how to justify this decision... you're not going to get the deal."

#indecision-killer#protocol#growth
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