Write a position you can defend

Understand the decision

A positioning statement is a compact set of choices. Name the customer and situation, a useful reference frame, the outcome, the alternative, and the supported difference. Its purpose is to keep the product, message, and offer aligned.

A template can reveal missing decisions, but fluent wording is not evidence. If you cannot name the alternative, return to customer research. If the difference cannot be demonstrated, narrow the claim or improve the product. Keep uncertainty visible in the working document.

Put it to work

Draft: for this customer in this situation, our product helps achieve this useful change. Compared with this alternative, it provides this credible difference. Edit until someone outside the project can explain it back without asking for a feature tour.

Save the statement with the assumptions and evidence used to write it. Test comprehension with a suitable person and record what they misunderstood. A later revision should preserve the previous version so you can see what changed and why.

Common mistake

Publishing an aspirational positioning statement as though every part were already validated.

Put this to work

Complete the Position Your Product lab and save it to Strategy · Positioning.