#48: Strategy for Future Product Positioning with April Dunford
May 24, 2024
auto_awesome
April Dunford, the biggest guru, discusses the importance of aligning current product positioning with future product vision. Positioning is about the present product, while strategy focuses on future value creation. Building products to solve specific business problems and navigating technology transitions are key. Developing a compelling product positioning strategy involves adapting based on customer feedback and testing.
Understanding customer psychology and competitive landscapes crucial for successful product positioning.
Deep dives
Product Vision and Strategy Alignment
In discussing the alignment between product vision and strategy, April Dunford emphasizes the importance of having a clear vision for the product, mapping out the steps needed to reach that vision. She highlights the challenge of balancing current product optimization with future product development. She stresses the need for a solid vision that guides decision-making and prevents getting sidetracked by competing ideas or short-term fixes.
Navigating Product Positioning and Market Competition
April Dunford sheds light on the complexities of product positioning and market competition. She explains the significance of understanding current competitive landscapes and customer trade-offs during the purchase decision process. By highlighting the customer's fear of risk and preference for familiar, low-risk options, she underscores the importance of aligning product features with consumer psychology to mitigate purchase anxiety and ensure sales success.
Collaborative Approach between Product and Sales Teams
A key insight shared by April Dunford revolves around the need for close collaboration between product and sales teams. She emphasizes that product teams should spend time with sales to deeply comprehend customer purchase decisions and factors influencing buy-in. Understanding customer concerns related to risk and uncertainty enables product teams to address these issues proactively and streamline the purchasing experience for customers, reducing stress and increasing sales effectiveness.
Emphasis on Present-Day Positioning and Future Roadmapping
April Dunford emphasizes the balance between focusing on present-day positioning to win current deals and future roadmapping to achieve long-term goals. She discusses the challenge of product teams being overly critical of current offerings while neglecting their competitive strengths. By encouraging clarity on current competitive positioning and addressing customer risk aversion in purchasing decisions, companies can better align their product development with market needs and drive sustained sales growth.
Your product vision is a position you aspire to have in the future: be the best solution for a problem a set of customers care about. That should drive your strategy. And I had the fortune of discussing positioning in detail with April, the biggest guru.
We started in a very controversial way: you should not base your strategy on your positioning! Wait, what?
Positioning is an exercise to formulate how your current product is the best for a specific customer need.
Strategy is not about your current product! It is about the value you want to create in the future.
Confusing those can get you in trouble.
But there is a catch. Product Strategy is about “how you will achieve your Product Vision.” However, if your vision potentially goes 3, 5, or 10 years into the future, your 6, 12, 18 months strategy is getting you closer to smaller milestones that still need to be differentiated and sellable!
These milestones have a “positioning thesis,” and your strategy needs to build a product that can deliver on the promise you aim to make.