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

As someone who has spent years in tech marketing, I’ve never seen positioning explained this clearly. Most business books are 300 pages of fluff, but this one cuts straight to the chase. The concept of the "market category" was a huge lightbulb moment for me. We often think our product is unique, but customers are always going to compare us to something, whether it’s a spreadsheet or a legacy competitor. Truth is, if you don’t pick your category, your customers will pick it for you, and they’ll probably get it wrong. This is essential reading for every product manager out there.

Wow. This book completely changed how I look at our sales deck. We were falling into that classic trap of explaining our features for twenty minutes before the customer even understood what we were. April Dunford explains that positioning is basically "context setting" for your product. If you tell someone you’re a "database," they expect one thing; if you say you’re a "data warehouse," they expect another. It’s simple, but getting it right is incredibly hard. This book gives you the tools to stop flailing around and start being deliberate about your market.

The chapter on market categories alone is worth the price of the book. I love the example of the "dietary muffin" vs the "paleo snack." It perfectly illustrates how the same product can be viewed totally differently depending on the label you give it. April Dunford has a way of making complex strategic decisions feel manageable. It’s a straightforward guide that doesn't hide behind academic jargon. Some people complain that it’s too short, but I think that’s its greatest strength. You can read it in an afternoon and start applying the 10 steps the next morning.

Ever wonder why your current customers love you, but you can’t seem to close any new deals? That was exactly the problem I was facing before I found this book. It turns out our positioning was accidental. We were riding a "trend" without actually defining our core value. The 10-step process helped us narrow our focus to a specific subsegment where we could actually be #1. It’s a punchy, no-nonsense guide that belongs on the shelf of every founder. Personally, I wish I’d read this three years ago before we wasted so much money on vague marketing campaigns.

After hearing April on several podcasts, I knew I had to grab the book. It did not disappoint. The way she breaks down the "positioning statement" is far more practical than the old-school templates I learned in business school. Instead of hand-wavy definitions, you get a concrete recipe. You start with what the customer is using now, find your unique attributes, and map those to real value. It sounds simple, but this book shows you how easy it is to get it wrong. It’s become required reading for everyone on our marketing team.

In my experience, most business authors try to sound smart by making things complicated. This book does the opposite. It takes the "black box" of positioning and makes it accessible for everyone. It’s a short read, but every page is packed with insights about how to frame your product so that the value is obvious to the buyer. I particularly liked the advice on how to weave in current trends without letting them distract from your core offering. It’s a brilliant, tactical guide that focuses on the real work of avoiding market confusion. Highly recommended.

Finally got around to reading this after seeing it everywhere on LinkedIn. It’s a very quick read—maybe a bit too quick given the price—but the 10-step positioning framework is solid. Dunford does a great job explaining why your product shouldn't just exist in a vacuum. I especially liked the part about how customers use "signals" to put your product in a mental box. My only gripe is that it feels a bit light on specific case studies to show the process in action across different industries. Still, if you’re struggling to explain what you do to prospects, this is a necessary roadmap for any marketing team.

Picked this up because our startup was struggling with a high churn rate among new sign-ups. The book helped us realize we were targeting the wrong "best-fit" customers. Dunford’s approach to identifying competitive alternatives—especially the "do nothing" or "DIY" options—was eye-opening. We always thought our competitors were other software companies, but our real competitor was just Excel. The writing style is very conversational and easy to digest. I would have appreciated more examples of the "bad" way to do things to help avoid common pitfalls, but the positive framework is excellent regardless.

To be fair, the content is useful, but I found the physical book itself a bit frustrating. It’s advertised as 180 pages, but with the massive font, huge margins, and entire pages dedicated to single quotes, it’s closer to a long blog post than a deep dive. The 10-step process is a good starting point for beginners, but I felt like it lacked the nuance needed for complex B2B sales cycles. It makes identifying "value themes" sound like a twenty-minute exercise when it actually takes months of research. It’s a decent introduction, but expect to do a lot of heavy lifting on your own to make these steps work.

Not what I expected given the massive hype. Frankly, it felt like a very long advertisement for the author’s consulting services. Most of the advice feels like common sense packaged as a "secret" methodology. Yes, you need to know who your customers are and why they buy from you—that’s just Marketing 101. The book is very short and lacks any real depth or technical frameworks for those of us in highly niche scientific or engineering fields. If you’ve never read a marketing book before, you might find it helpful, but for experienced pros, it’s mostly fluff.