Dunford's core claim, after working with over 300 technology companies, is that positioning is not a tagline, not branding, and not messaging. It is the definition of your go to market strategy, which means it is not marketing's private problem. The mistake she sees most is assuming your product can only sit in one market, when there are always several possible markets and some of them make your value obvious in a way others never will. The symptom that you have it wrong is specific: people cannot tell what you do, or they compare you to competitors who are not really your competitors. Her advice to marketers is to spend less time thinking about marketing and more time thinking about markets.
3 resources, 3 link-checked.
Her four recurring failure modes, including misreading your competitive alternatives and the go to market gaps that quietly undo good positioning. Drawn from 300 companies, so it is pattern, not anecdote.
On Business of Software by April Dunford Conference talk
Open businessofsoftware.org →Has the diagnostic that is genuinely useful: if people cannot tell what you do, or you get compared to the wrong competitors, your positioning is broken. Transcript included if you would rather read.
On Intercom by Geoffrey Keating with April Dunford Full episode with transcript
Open intercom.com →The method behind the talks, with a Positioning Canvas you can actually run a session against. Short enough to finish in a weekend, which matters if you are the founder doing this yourself.
From aprildunford.com by April Dunford Short book
Open aprildunford.com →How how great operators think reads from a different seat.
