Positioning Workshop
Run a structured 5-question discovery (target → need → category → benefit → differentiation) that outputs a Geoffrey Moore positioning statement — not a brainstorm, a forcing function for hard choices.
Your last positioning workshop ended with a tagline and a vibe — "empower modern teams to do more." Six months later, marketing, sales, and product each describe the product differently and the deck sounds like every competitor's. A positioning workshop isn't a brainstorm — it's a structured discovery that asks the same five questions and forces real answers, including "unlike whom" and "how do we prove it."
Who it's for: PMs running positioning sessions, founders aligning stakeholders, marketing leads sharpening messaging, sales enablement defining competitive narrative
Example
"Run a positioning workshop for our B2B automation tool" → Target: SMB owners (10-50 emp) / Need: 10+ hours/week manual work / Category: workflow automation / Benefit: 10hr→1hr / Differentiation: Unlike Zapier (technical setup) we provide visual no-code workflows
CLAUDE.md Template
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
npx ccplaybooks add positioning-workshop# Positioning Workshop
Run a structured 5-question discovery process that outputs a Geoffrey Moore positioning statement backed by evidence and strategic choices. Not a brainstorm — a forcing function for hard decisions about target, need, category, benefit, and differentiation.
Pairs with `positioning-statement` (output format), `proto-persona`, `jobs-to-be-done`, and `problem-statement`.
## Why This Works
- **Structured discovery** prevents positioning by committee
- **Evidence-based** — uses real marketing copy, customer feedback, competitive intel
- **Adaptive** — questions adjust based on B2B vs. B2C, new vs. repositioning
- **Actionable output** — Geoffrey Moore statement ready for stakeholder reviewGet new playbooks like this one
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What This Does
Walks through 5 adaptive questions (target → need → category → benefit → differentiation) and outputs a Geoffrey Moore positioning statement plus a one-sentence summary. Each question offers 3-4 enumerated options grounded in your context (B2B/B2C, SMB/enterprise, new/repositioning).
Pairs with positioning-statement (output format), proto-persona, jobs-to-be-done, and problem-statement. Feeds into press-release and PRD messaging.
Quick Start
mkdir -p ~/Documents/PositioningWorkshop
mv ~/Downloads/CLAUDE.md ~/Documents/PositioningWorkshop/
cd ~/Documents/PositioningWorkshop
claude
Provide product context (website copy, marketing materials, competitor messaging). Claude facilitates the 5-question flow and outputs a complete positioning statement.
The Flow
| Phase | Question | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Gather context (website, testimonials, competitive intel) | Grounding material |
| 1 | Who's your target customer? | Specific segment |
| 2 | What underserved need? | JTBD-style pain |
| 3 | What category? | Buyer mental file |
| 4 | What benefit/outcome? | Measurable result |
| 5 | Who's the competitor? | Real alternative + differentiation |
| Output | Geoffrey Moore statement | For/that need/is a/that + Unlike/provides |
Tips & Best Practices
- Use real artifacts. Paste your website copy, sales objections, competitor pages — don't workshop in a vacuum.
- Resist consensus. Positioning forces hard choices; "let's serve both segments" is the failure mode.
- Outcome-only benefits. "Has AI" is a feature; "makes decisions 3x faster" is positioning.
- Name the real competitor. Excel/spreadsheets/email threads are often the actual alternative — not the competitor you wish you fought.
- Read aloud to customers. If they don't say "yes that's me," go back to Q1 or Q2.
Common Pitfalls
- "For everyone" or "for businesses" — invisible to all
- Solution-first answers ("we need better dashboards" instead of root need)
- Category creation without budget for category education
- Feature-list differentiation ("unlike competitors, we have AI")
- Solo PM workshop with no customer validation