v1.0 to v1.0.0

74 added, 81 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: positioning

- version: '1.0'

- last_updated: 2026-05-19

- author: genesys-growth

- description: Develop positioning strategy with anchor, differentiators, status-quo alternatives, and a positioning statement. Reads from marketing/icp/ICP.md + marketing/competitors/aggregate.md. Writes to marketing/positioning/positioning.md as the canonical positioning every downstream skill reads. Triggers - "positioning", "category definition", "how do we position", "positioning strategy", "anchor + differentiators"

- goal: Develop positioning strategy with anchor, differentiators, status-quo alternatives, and positioning statement.

- outcome: marketing/positioning/positioning.md — the foundational PMM artifact every other strategy + execution skill reads.

- primitive: product-marketing

- ontology_type: positioning

- review_gate: 2

- inputs:

- required: []

- recommended:

- - icp-research

- - competitor-aggregate

- outputs:

- - type: positioning

- feeds_into:

- - product-messaging

- - landing-page-copy

- - sales-enablement

- owned_by_agent: pmm

- mcps_used:

- - exa

- triggers:

- slash_commands:

- - /positioning

- status: draft

+ description: >-

+ Develops B2B SaaS positioning from your ICP, competitor and win-loss evidence. Maps what buyers compare

+ you to, chooses between leading with a category or a problem, picks a primary and secondary anchor and

+ up to three defensible differentiators, lays out 2 to 4 worked positioning options with a comparison

+ canvas so you can decide, then locks the chosen one and tests it (clarity ladder, guarantee test).

+ Triggers: "positioning", "how do we position", "what category are we in", "how do we differentiate

+ from", "our homepage is confusing", "positioning options". Run before /messaging. Not for taglines or

+ a messaging library (use /messaging).

+ version: '1.0.0'

+ license: MIT

---

- # positioning — Stage 2 synthesis skill (PMM spine)

- Reads the canonical ICP + the canonical competitor aggregate and produces the positioning strategy. This is the foundational PMM spine artifact — every other strategy + execution skill reads from positioning.

+ # Positioning

- ---

+ Decide what you are, who it's for, what they'd use instead, and why you're the better choice, in words a buyer understands in five seconds. The method follows the public April Dunford school: start from the competitive alternatives buyers actually consider, and build out from there.

- ## When to use

+ ## When to use it

- - After ICP + competitor aggregate are both locked

- - Quarterly refresh

- - After major competitive shift (new entrant, repositioning move) that invalidates current anchor

- - After major ICP shift that changes who you're positioning for

+ - The homepage doesn't explain what you do, or demos start with "so what is it exactly?".

+ - You're choosing between going broad and niching down.

+ - A new product, a new segment, or a competitor that moved.

- ## When NOT to use

+ Don't use it for taglines, value props or a full messaging library (`/messaging`, which runs after this), or for research you haven't done yet.

- - For messaging libraries or taglines (use `/product-messaging` after positioning locks)

- - For battlecards (use `/sales-enablement`)

- - For landing-page copy (use `/landing-page-copy` after messaging locks)

+ ## Inputs

- ## How it works

+ **Required:** company name, a short description and the website URL.

- 1. Inputs: none required (skill reads canonical files automatically)

- 2. Reads: `marketing/icp/ICP.md` (champion JTBD + pain points + decision criteria), `marketing/competitors/aggregate.md` (threat matrix + where category doesn't compete), optionally `marketing/brand/brand-voice.md` (applies voice rules to the positioning statement)

- 3. Produces a positioning doc with these sections (matches the PulseAnalytics example at `marketing/positioning/positioning.md`):

- - **Anchor** — what category your product anchors to (or creates)

- - **Target customer** — pointer to ICP.md

- - **Status-quo alternatives** — what the customer does today + why each falls short

- - **Key differentiators** — what makes you different + why it matters to the ICP

- - **Value propositions (per priority)** — outcome-shaped statements ordered by ICP pain

- - **What we are NOT** — anti-positioning (explicit exclusions)

- - **Pricing positioning** — premium / mid-market / self-serve framing

- - **Tagline candidates** — 3-5 options + working tagline

- 4. Marks the file `status: locked` once approved

- 5. Writes to `marketing/positioning/positioning.md` (overwrites prior canonical; git history preserves prior versions)

+ **Recommended:** `context/icp/`, `context/competitors/`, `context/win-loss/` and `context/expert-pov/`. Positioning without ICP and competitor evidence is opinion. If those are missing, say so, run what you can, and offer `/icp-research` and `/competitor-research` first.

- ## Invoke

+ **Paths.** Write to `context/positioning/MMYY-positioning.md`. Agency or consultant? Swap `context/` for `clients/<client>/context/` throughout.

- ```

- /positioning

- ```

+ ## Steps

- Or with focus:

- ```

- /positioning refresh — competitor X just launched, anchor may need to shift

- ```

+ 1. **Read the current state.** Fetch the homepage, pricing and about pages. Run the five-second test: do the headline and sub-headline say what it is and who it's for? Note the category, differentiation and ICP the site claims today.

+ 2. **Map the alternatives.** What would a buyer do if you didn't exist?

+ - do it manually

+ - keep a legacy tool

+ - buy a direct competitor

+ - stretch an adjacent tool

+ - do nothing

+ - build it with a general AI assistant

- ## Example output

+ Rank them by how often they show up in deals.

+ 3. **Map the anchors.** What could the positioning hang on?

+ - an activity

+ - a product category

+ - a use case

+ - a problem

+ - a persona

+ - a competitive alternative ("the X alternative for Y")

- See [`marketing/positioning/positioning.md`](../../../marketing/positioning/positioning.md) for the PulseAnalytics seed. Notice the anchor leads ("the marketing analytics layer that traces revenue without an engineering quarter"); status-quo alternatives are named with concrete fail-modes; value props are outcome-shaped ("stop owning the pipeline-review prep") not feature-shaped.

+ Score the promising combinations on clarity, differentiation and relevance to the ICP.

+ 4. **Make the binary choice.** Category-led (buyers already know the category and you win inside it) or problem-led (the category is new, crowded or wrong, so you lead with the pain). Use an activity anchor only when no software category fits.

+ 5. **Lay out the options.** Take the top 2 to 4 combinations (3 by default) and work each one up:

+ - primary and secondary anchor

+ - a hero headline and sub-headline

+ - the value in three parts: category, problem, differentiation

+ - who it's for

+ - the bet it makes

+ - the risks

- ## Dependencies

+ Each option must change the anchor or the binary choice. No rewording of the same bet.

+ 6. **Build the comparison canvas.** One column per option, rows for clarity, differentiation, ICP relevance, proof available, competitive exposure and risk. Mark each cell's confidence: verified, inferred, estimated or unknown. Recommend one and name the trade-off each option forces. The user decides.

+ 7. **Lock the chosen option.** Up to three differentiators, each one a thing you'd guarantee with money on the line (pass, partial or fail). Name the primary competitive alternative and the market focus, with simple TAM maths (average deal size × customers needed).

+ 8. **Run the clarity ladder.** Compress the position to one word, one phrase, one sentence and one paragraph. If a level fails, go back to the anchors.

+ 9. **Write the positioning statement** in the form that fits the anchor:

+ - Use case: "We help [persona] [do the job] without [friction], by [approach]."

+ - Category: "We are a [category] that [differentiator], unlike [alternative] which [weakness]."

+ - Alternative: "We're the [leader] alternative that [upgrade], for [persona] who [unmet need]."

+ - Activity: "We help [persona] [do activity], replacing [manual process] with [mechanism]."

+ 10. **Map the implications.** What changes for messaging, for the ICP, and which channel leads with which facet (homepage: primary anchor; comparison pages: the alternative; case studies: proof that matches the anchor).

+ 11. **Hand off** to `/messaging`.

- - **Reads from:** `marketing/icp/ICP.md` (required, must be locked); `marketing/competitors/aggregate.md` (required, must be locked); `marketing/brand/brand-voice.md` (optional — applies voice to the positioning statement)

- - **Writes to:** `marketing/positioning/positioning.md` (canonical)

- - **Downstream readers:** `/product-messaging`, `/landing-page-copy`, `/linkedin-content`, `/outreach-emails`, `/ad-creative-brief`, every execution skill in the 5 workstreams

+ ## Output shape

- ## Customization

+ Open with a TLDR (the one-sentence position) and one block of open decisions. Then: current state, alternatives, the options with the canvas, the committed position (anchors, differentiators with guarantee verdicts, statement, clarity ladder), implications, and sources. Each caveat is stated once.

- The default "binary anchor" framing comes from the Genesys positioning ontology — pick ONE primary anchor, optionally one secondary. If you're operating in a category where you genuinely need to claim two anchors (rare; usually a positioning weakness), extend the body.

+ ## What good looks like

- The status-quo-alternatives section is the most important — most B2B SaaS positioning fails by positioning against direct competitors when the real competition is "the spreadsheet" or "doing nothing." Spend extra cycles on this section.

+ - A stranger reads the hero and knows what it is and who it's for in five seconds.

+ - No more than three differentiators, each one provable.

+ - The comparison set matches the buyer. Compare to other vendors only when buyers already use the category.

+ - The options are real choices, not three phrasings of one idea.

+ - The TAM maths is realistic, not hopeful.

- ## Where this fits in the Example 1 chain

+ ## Mistakes to avoid

- ```

- Week 1: /competitor-research × N → /competitor-aggregate → competitor canonical locked

- Week 1: /icp-research → ICP canonical locked

- Week 2: /positioning (THIS SKILL) → positioning canonical

- Week 2: /product-messaging reads positioning → messaging canonical

- Week 3+: /landing-page-copy, /linkedin-content, /outreach-emails read messaging + positioning

- ```

+ - "The platform for X" with nothing else.

+ - "AI-powered" as the main differentiator.

+ - Inventing a category nobody searches for.

+ - Choosing the position before mapping the alternatives.

+ - Differentiators you couldn't prove to a sceptical buyer.

- ## Refresh cadence

+ ## Chain

- Quarterly. Trigger sooner on competitive shift, ICP shift, or value-prop validation falling apart in customer conversations.

+ Step 8 of the suggested chain: `/company-context` → `/icp-research` → `/competitor-research` → `/win-loss` → `/expert-pov` → `/tov-guidelines` → `/brand-kit` → **positioning** → `/messaging` → `/funnel-strategy` → `/goals`.