The default fill for the value-proposition-statement slot on L2. Picked as default because it produces the inputs JTBD assumes, and because it sequences positioning before the sentence (the only sequence that doesn’t require guessing).

What this method does

Dunford treats positioning as a five-step process. The output is not a sentence. The output is a clear answer to four questions: who is this for, what category is it in, what does it do that the alternatives don’t, and what value does that produce. The value proposition sentence falls out of the work afterwards.

Steps

1. List the competitive alternatives

What would the buyer do today if your product disappeared tomorrow?

Brainstorm at least five alternatives the buyer realistically considers. Include all four kinds:

• Direct competitors. Other vendors solving the same problem with similar products.
• Indirect tools. General-purpose tools (spreadsheets, email, Notion) repurposed for the job.
• Internal alternatives. Build it themselves, hire a person, run a manual process.
• The status quo. Continue doing exactly what they do today.

For each, capture what it is, what it costs (money, time, effort), and what it does. Resist the urge to pre-filter.

2. Identify the unique attributes

What do you have that a credible competitor could not honestly claim?

For each alternative, list what your product does that it doesn’t. Then strike out anything that is table stakes for the category (SSO, basic reporting, integration with the obvious three). Keep what is genuinely distinctive.

Apply the uniqueness test to each remaining attribute: could a competitor sit across from a buyer and make this same claim with a straight face? If yes, it is not unique. Better execution does not count. Different execution does.

The output is a short list of attributes that are both true of you and not true of the alternatives. If the list is empty, positioning is impossible. Go back to L0 and rethink the problem.

3. Translate attributes into value

What changes in the buyer’s life because of each unique attribute?

For each remaining attribute, ask “so what?” three times. The third answer is usually the value.

Worked example for “we have real-time sync”:

• So what? Customers see the data immediately.
• So what? They make decisions without waiting for the nightly batch.
• So what? They close deals twice as fast because the data is fresh.

The third answer is the value. The first two are mechanism. Mechanism does not sell. Value does.

4. Identify the customers who care most

Which buyers feel that value most acutely?

For each value, ask who specifically gains the most from it. Cross-reference with the L1 audience definition. If the answer is “everyone,” the value is too generic. Sharpen it until the answer is a specific role or situation.

Positioning is for your best customers, not for every customer you might reach. A wider audience is a weaker statement.

5. Choose the market category

Which category does the buyer already understand, and which puts you against the right rivals?

The category frames how the buyer compares you. The wrong category puts you against the wrong competitors. Test each candidate against two questions.

The competitive set test. Ask: “If a buyer puts us in this category, which alternatives do they consider next?” If the alternatives that surface match the ones you listed in step 1, the category is right. If they don’t, the category needs to change.

The recognition test. Ask: “When I say we are a [category], does the buyer immediately understand roughly what we do and why it matters?” If the buyer needs a follow-up sentence to grasp it, the category is doing the wrong work. A category that requires explanation has lost its purpose, which is shorthand. Pick a category the buyer already understands.

Why creating a new category is usually a mistake

“We don’t fit any existing category, so we’re creating our own” is a tempting move. It is also the most expensive positioning decision you can make, and it usually backfires.

What goes wrong when you try to create a category:

• The buyer has no search terms for you. They search the category they already think they are in, and you do not appear in the results.
• The buyer has no comparison framework. With no alternatives in their head, they cannot evaluate you against anything. The default action is to do nothing.
• The buyer has no peer reference. Their network does not talk about your category, so they are alone in considering you. Loneliness kills enterprise deals.
• Analyst coverage does not exist. Procurement teams lean on Gartner and Forrester reports to justify spend. No category coverage means no easy yes.
• Sales cycles balloon. Every call starts with category education before any product conversation can happen. Budget cycles often end before the education does.
• The runway runs out. Educating a market is expensive. Most attempted category creators die before the category exists. The ones that survive get cited. The failures don’t, which makes the success rate look higher than it is.

Even when category creation appears to succeed, a better-funded entrant frequently takes the category once you have done the education work. The first mover does the unpaid teaching. The second mover sells into the literate market.

What to do instead

When your product does not seem to fit any existing category, the cause is almost always one of two things, and the fix follows:

• The positioning work is not done yet. Run through steps 1 to 4 again. Most products fit an existing category once the competitive set and unique attributes are sharp. The “no category fits” feeling usually traces back to a vague step 1 or a generic step 2.
• The category is real but adjacent to an existing one. Anchor to the adjacent category that gets you in front of the right buyer. Expand outward later, once you have customers and the standing to define a new label.

The exception

If you are genuinely the first instance of a thing and no adjacent category exists that puts you in front of the right buyer, category creation is unavoidable. Budget for it accordingly: three to five times the marketing spend, twice the typical sales cycle, and patience measured in years rather than quarters. Most teams that pick this path underestimate all three and run out of runway before the category exists.

6. Identify the relevant trends

What is shifting in the market that makes this positioning timely?

Trends are not features. They are market-level shifts (regulatory changes, technology shifts, buyer behavior changes, economic cycles) that make your solution feel inevitable rather than optional. A good trend connection makes the buyer think “yes, that is why I am thinking about this now.” A bad one sounds like a buzzword.

To find them:

• Read analyst reports (Gartner, Forrester, IDC) from the last six months. Trends they flag usually have buyer mindshare.
• Look at funding flows. Which categories are receiving capital, and why?
• Listen to what your buyers say is changing. Their language reveals what they think is shifting.

Pick one to three trends. More than that dilutes the case. Each trend should be observable rather than speculative, connect directly to why the buyer’s status quo is breaking, and survive the reversal test: “If this trend reversed, would the positioning still hold?” If yes, the trend was not load-bearing and should be cut.

7. Write the positioning statement

Can you compress all of the above into one paragraph the buyer would understand?

Use the template:

For [target audience], who [key problem or need], [product] is a [market category] that [key value]. Unlike [primary alternative], we [unique attribute], which means [customer outcome]. This matters now because [relevant trend].

Each slot maps to a previous step. Target audience and key problem come from step 4. Market category from step 5. Key value from step 3. Primary alternative from step 1. Unique attribute from step 2. Relevant trend from step 6. Customer outcome is the third “so what” answer from step 3.

One person owns the draft. Test it on someone outside the company. If they cannot repeat it back in their own words and identify what makes you different, rewrite it.

Validation checklist

Before treating the statement as final, run it against every item below. If any fail, the statement is not done.

• Audience is one specific group, not “everyone.”
• Alternatives are what real buyers do today, not theoretical competitors.
• Each claim is provable. You can show or evidence it on demand.
• A direct competitor reading the statement should have to disagree with at least one line. If they could put their own logo on it, you have not differentiated.
• The category is recognizable on its own. A buyer hearing the category should already know roughly what space you are in.
• The trend is observable, not a buzzword. The buyer would name it themselves if asked what is changing in their world.

Common pitfalls

• Filling in the alternatives list with only “competitors we already know.” The status quo and internal builds are usually the strongest alternatives, and the easiest to miss.
• Treating table stakes as unique attributes. Features every vendor in the category has do not differentiate.
• Skipping the “so what” exercise and writing values directly from features. The resulting sentence reads like a brochure.
• Picking a category because it is where you want to be, not where the buyer already is. Aspirational categories generate the wrong comparisons and the wrong sales calls.
• Citing a trend that does not survive the reversal test. If the trend disappeared and the positioning still held, the trend was decoration, not foundation. Cut it.

When to use this method

The competitive set is real and stable. The buyer’s decision is comparative. The product is in or adjacent to an established category. The team is willing to make some buyers walk away.

Where it disagrees with the rival

Dunford rejects consensus positioning by design. The framework is meant to produce a sentence that excludes the wrong buyers, not one that everyone agrees with. JTBD focuses on situation and outcome rather than competitive context, which makes it stronger in new categories and weaker in established ones.

When to pick the rival instead

If the product is so new there are no real competitive alternatives, step 1 of Dunford breaks. Use JTBD instead.

Self-check

Can you now use Dunford positioning?

You should be able to:

• Run all seven steps on a real product without consulting a reference.
• Spot the four kinds of competitive alternatives (direct, indirect, internal, status quo) in a market you don’t know.
• Apply the uniqueness test to any claimed attribute: could a competitor say it with a straight face?
• Run the “so what” exercise on any attribute and get from feature to value in three or fewer iterations.
• Recognize when category creation is the wrong move, and name what to do instead.
• Tell apart a load-bearing trend from a buzzword by running the reversal test on it.
• Write the positioning statement using the template and run it through the full validation checklist.

If any of these are unclear, walk back to the specific step in the Steps section.