Product Positioning & Messaging for B2B SaaS

Purpose

Help founders and operators make sharp positioning decisions, build structured messaging hierarchies, and produce core positioning artifacts — grounded in methodologies from Dunford, Ries & Trout, Raskin, Moesta, Laja, Pierri, Lochhead, and others. If brand/voice/audience/stage context is provided, honor it; otherwise state assumptions and proceed.

Output discipline

Deliver only what the user will actually use. Never leak internal scaffolding into the output:

• No reference citations the reader can't see ("§3.2", "per the knowledge base", "KB §1.4").
• No mode or process narration ("Mode: Generate", "I have everything I need", "following the skill's methodology").
• No skill-handoff chatter inside the deliverable.

Apply frameworks silently — name one only when it helps the reader, not to show your work. When context is missing, state your assumption in one line and proceed; don't interrogate.

When to use this skill

• Positioning a product from scratch or repositioning
• Auditing/critiquing existing positioning or messaging
• Building a positioning doc, messaging hierarchy, or JTBD summary
• Clarifying category choice vs. category creation decisions
• Defining competitive alternatives (including status quo / "do nothing")
• Structuring a strategic narrative (Raskin-style)
• Testing whether messaging has clarity, relevance, value, and differentiation

Workflow

Step 1: Diagnose the request

Determine which mode the user needs:

Step 2: Discovery interview (Build & Audit modes)

Infer from context; if genuinely missing, state your assumption and proceed. When discovery is warranted, ask in batches of 2-3 questions max, covering these areas in order:

Round 1 — Context & ICP

• What does the product do in one sentence?
• Who are your best-fit customers today? (Role, company size, industry, situation)
• What were they doing before they found you? (Status quo, tools, manual process)

Round 2 — Competitive alternatives & switch triggers

• What are the real alternatives buyers consider? (Include "do nothing")
• What event or pain triggers them to look for a solution?
• What are the forces at play? (Push of current situation, pull of new solution, anxiety about switching, habit of present)

Round 3 — Differentiation & value

• What can your product do that alternatives cannot? (Unique capabilities)
• What workflow changes when someone adopts your product?
• What measurable outcomes do your best customers report?
• Is there a worldview or belief that drives your approach differently from competitors?

Round 4 — Category & narrative

• What category do buyers put you in today?
• Is that the right category, or does it set wrong expectations?
• What's the big change in the world that makes your product necessary now?

Skip questions the user has already answered. Adapt depth to context.

Step 3: Apply frameworks

After discovery, apply the relevant frameworks from references/frameworks.md. Read that file before producing output.

For positioning decisions, follow Dunford's methodology:

1. Competitive alternatives → 2. Unique attributes → 3. Value themes → 4. Best-fit customers → 5. Category choice → 6. Positioning statement

For differentiation, evaluate across four lenses:

• Capability (what it uniquely does)
• Workflow (how work gets done differently)
• Outcome (what results customers achieve)
• Worldview (how the company's beliefs differ)

For category decisions, apply the decision rule:

• Default to category choice (pick a known category + subsegment) unless there is strong evidence of a genuinely new problem-solution pairing with capital and time for education.
• Only recommend category creation (Lochhead/Play Bigger) when the product introduces a fundamentally new way of working that existing categories cannot contain.

For strategic narratives, follow Raskin's 5-part structure:

1. Name the big change → 2. Winners and losers → 3. Promised land → 4. Obstacles → 5. Product as vehicle

For message validation, apply Laja's 4-point test:

1. Clarity — Do people immediately understand what it is?
2. Relevance — Can the right audience recognize it's for them?
3. Value — Is the value compelling enough to care?
4. Differentiation — Is it clear how this differs from alternatives?

Step 4: Produce artifacts

This skill produces three core artifacts:

Artifact 1: Positioning Document (1-3 pages)

Structure:

• ICP definition (role, company profile, situation/trigger)
• Competitive alternatives (including status quo)
• Unique attributes (capabilities that alternatives lack)
• Value themes (outcomes those attributes enable)
• Category (chosen category + rationale)
• Positioning statement (concise, follows from above)
• JTBD summary (job, forces of progress, desired outcome)

Artifact 2: Messaging Hierarchy

Structure:

• Strategic narrative (1-paragraph "change in the world" story)
• Core value propositions (3-5, each with: claim, capability, proof point)
• Persona-level messages (by role: economic buyer, champion, end user)
• Altitude guide (executive = outcomes & risk; user = workflow & relief)

Artifact 3: JTBD Summary

Structure:

• Job statement ("When [situation], help me [progress], so I can [outcome]")
• Forces diagram (push, pull, anxiety, habit)
• Timeline (first thought → passive looking → active looking → deciding → onboarding → ongoing use)
• Hiring criteria (functional, emotional, social)

Step 5: Handoff

When the user needs downstream execution from positioning:

Explicitly tell the user: "Positioning is set — for [specific task], I'll hand off to [skill name]."

Audit mode

When auditing existing positioning or messaging, evaluate against:

1. Dunford completeness — Are all 6 elements defined? (alternatives, attributes, value, customers, category, statement)
2. Laja's 4-point test — Clarity, relevance, value, differentiation
3. Pierri's homepage test — Can a stranger understand what it is, who it's for, and when they'd use it in <10 seconds?
4. Raskin narrative check — Does the story start from a change in the world, or does it start from the product?
5. JTBD alignment — Is messaging framed as customer progress, or as a feature list?

Produce a scored audit (1-5 per dimension) with specific, actionable fixes.

Key principles (always apply)

• Positioning is a strategic decision, not copywriting. If the user asks for "better messaging" but has a positioning problem (unclear ICP, no category commitment, no differentiation), say so.
• Always include "do nothing" and status quo as competitive alternatives.
• Category choice > category creation for most companies. Don't recommend category creation lightly.
• Messaging must be expressed in customer language about their progress, not internal jargon about features.
• Every value proposition needs a capability layer (what users can concretely do) between features and outcomes.
• Positioning should be cross-functional — flag when decisions require product, sales, or leadership input, not just marketing.