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6 resources from aprildunford.com we point founders to, and the questions each answers.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

A free, author-written summary of the positioning framework for founders who want the core idea before buying the book, perfect for the 'how do I position against a giant?' question.

My Positioning Book 'Obviously Awesome' Launches Today

From aprildunford.com by April Dunford ~8 min read

  • Any product can be positioned in several markets, pick deliberately
  • Great positioning rarely happens by default
  • Understanding true alternatives reveals your differentiators
  • Position where your strengths are obvious to your best customers
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📋 Template
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Free templates including the Positioning Canvas and a messaging document you can fill in for your own product. They turn the ideas from the book into a worksheet you can complete in an afternoon before your next customer conversation. A practical companion when you need output, not just reading.

April Dunford Positioning Templates

From aprildunford.com by April Dunford Downloadable

  • Fill in the Positioning Canvas for your own product
  • Turn positioning into a testable sales pitch
  • A messaging template keeps your outreach consistent
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📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Intermediate

The best book on positioning against competitors by understanding the alternatives customers actually consider. Directly turns competitive research into a market advantage.

Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It

From aprildunford.com by April Dunford ~200 pages

  • Your real competition is often the status quo, not another product
  • Start positioning from the competitive alternatives your buyers consider
  • Differentiated value comes from your unique capabilities vs those alternatives
  • Choose the market frame that makes your strengths obvious
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Answers What is an ideal customer profile and how do I define mine? What's the difference between an ICP, a buyer persona, and a target market? How do I know if I'm targeting the wrong customer? Should I focus on one customer segment or serve everyone who'll pay? How do I build customer personas that are actually useful and not fiction? How do I research my competitors properly? What if my customers say they have no competitors, is that good or bad? How do I position against a bigger, better-funded competitor? How do I size the market and figure out if it's big enough? What does 'branding' actually mean for an early-stage startup? How do I position my startup so people instantly 'get' it? When is it worth investing real money in branding? How do I structure a message so customers care (story / framework)? How is founder-led sales different for Indian founders selling to global (US) buyers? Am I charging too little for my product? How do I validate an idea in a crowded market that already has big competitors? My market is huge on paper but almost nobody is actually paying for solutions today. Good sign or bad? How do I recruit and interview my competitor's customers without it getting weird or them shutting down? Should my ideal customer be the person who pays or the person who uses the product? How do I define an ideal customer for a product no one is searching for yet? What's the difference between defining a niche and just being too small to matter? How do I know if I've defined my ICP too narrowly and I'm leaving obvious customers out? How do I define my ideal customer when I'm a domain expert who thinks everyone in my industry needs this? How specific should my ideal customer be for a consumer app versus a B2B tool? How do I use the customers I already have to sharpen my ideal customer profile instead of guessing? My ideal customer can't afford my product. Did I define them wrong? How do I keep my whole team aligned on who our ideal customer is once we start hiring? How do I actually find my beachhead niche when my product is horizontal and could work for almost anyone? How do I write positioning and messaging that speaks to just my beachhead without sounding tiny to investors? Different customers seem to hire my product for completely different jobs. Do I pick one or serve them all? I'm a solo technical founder and hate selling. How do I get my first customers without becoming a salesperson? How do I get customers who don't already know me when I have no brand, no audience, and no case studies yet? I keep tweaking the landing page instead of launching. How do I tell polishing from procrastinating? My first launch went okay but the second felt embarrassing, like 'why are they back again already?' Is relaunch fatigue real? How do I write the actual launch post so it doesn't read like a press release nobody asked for? I relaunched a product that failed the first time. How do I frame it so it doesn't look like I'm just recycling a flop? What should my very first sales pitch actually say, and how long should it be? How do I price my product when I am selling it myself and have no comparable competitors? How do I sell to enterprises and large companies as a tiny unknown startup they have never heard of? When my product is technical and I am selling to non-technical buyers, how do I demo it without confusing them?
✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

April Dunford wrote the modern playbook on positioning, and this exercise is the fastest way to see how target customer definition and product positioning depend on each other. You walk through her own worked example of narrowing who cares most instead of who could possibly use this. It pairs directly with the short answer's demand for precision.

A Product Positioning Exercise

From aprildunford.com by April Dunford 10 min read

  • A broad target customer definition usually means the positioning underneath it is also vague.
  • List competitive alternatives first, then work backward to who actually prefers you over them.
  • Best fit customers are the ones who care a lot about your specific value, not everyone who benefits a little.
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✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Dunford (author of Obviously Awesome) breaks positioning into concrete steps, and the segmentation step is the one this question is about: find the best-fit customers, the ones who care a lot rather than a little about what you do. It gives you a repeatable exercise instead of a vague instinct to know your customer.

A Quickstart Guide to Positioning

From aprildunford.com by April Dunford ~10 min read

  • Different customer types care about your value to wildly different degrees, find the ones who care the most first.
  • A big fish, small pond strategy, winning a narrow subsegment outright, beats fighting for a sliver of a huge market.
  • Write down the specific attributes (role, company type, situation) that make a customer a best-fit, not just a possible-fit.
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✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Dunford makes the case that positioning and ICP are the same decision seen from two angles: who you are for determines what you compete against and what you emphasize. This essay is the fast, free entry point to her method before you commit to the book. Use it to get product, marketing, and sales talking the same positioning language.

An Introduction to Positioning

From aprildunford.com by April Dunford

  • Positioning starts by naming your best fit customers, not your product features.
  • Your frame of reference, what you are compared to, changes depending on who the customer is.
  • Get sales, marketing, and product in one room to agree on positioning, don't let it live in one person's head.
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