obviously-awesome

Follow the 5-step process: identify what customers would use if your product didn't exist, list attributes only you have, map those attributes to customer value with the "So what?" test, define your best-fit customers, and choose a market category that makes your value obvious.

Positioning is the strategic context: your category, alternatives, differentiation, and target customer. Messaging is the external language derived from positioning. Doing positioning work first makes messaging dramatically easier and more consistent.

Interview 15-20 happy customers about what they used before your product. Alternatives include direct competitors, adjacent tools, manual processes, outsourced help, and doing nothing. Cluster similar alternatives and rank them by mention frequency.

Only when your product genuinely doesn't fit existing categories and you have resources to pay the education tax: longer sales cycles, heavy content investment, and 2-5 years to market awareness. Otherwise, a subcategory of an existing market is usually safer.

The most common cause is a wrong or unclear market category, which creates false assumptions about your product. Test whether prospects understand your pitch within 30 seconds; if not, re-evaluate your category choice and positioning statement.

Narrow enough that you can build a target list from observable criteria like industry, company size, role, and tech stack. Best-fit customers buy fastest, churn least, and refer most; positioning for them expands outward naturally.