/positioning-workshop

name: positioning-workshop
argument-hint: "[product]"
description: Run a positioning workshop that surfaces target customer, unmet need, category, benefits, and differentiation. Use when your product messaging feels fuzzy, generic, or misaligned.
intent: >-
  Guide product managers through discovering and articulating product positioning by asking adaptive questions about target customers, unmet needs, product category, benefits, and competitive differentiation. Use this to align stakeholders on strategic positioning before writing PRDs, launch plans, or marketing materials—ensuring you've made deliberate choices about who you serve, what need you address, and how you differ from alternatives.
type: interactive
best_for:
  - "Running a workshop to sharpen product positioning"
  - "Clarifying target customer, category, and differentiation"
  - "Fixing fuzzy or generic messaging before launch"
scenarios:
  - "Help me run a positioning workshop for our B2B analytics product"
  - "Our messaging feels generic. Facilitate a positioning session."
  - "We need to define who we serve and why we're different"
theme: workshops-facilitation
estimated_time: "60-90 min"

Purpose

Guide product managers through discovering and articulating product positioning by asking adaptive questions about target customers, unmet needs, product category, benefits, and competitive differentiation. Use this to align stakeholders on strategic positioning before writing PRDs, launch plans, or marketing materials—ensuring you've made deliberate choices about who you serve, what need you address, and how you differ from alternatives.

This is not a brainstorming session—it's a structured discovery process that outputs a Geoffrey Moore positioning statement backed by evidence and strategic choices.

Input

**Works best with:** The product (or feature) whose positioning feels fuzzy. **Also useful:** Current messaging, who you think the customer is, competitors, and where positioning breaks down today (sales calls, website, launch).

Anything supplied with the invocation itself — text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended `ARGUMENTS:` line — counts as answers already given. Use it and skip whatever it covers; don't re-ask.

**Arriving empty-handed? That works too.** The workshop opens by asking about your target customer and proceeds one question at a time.

**Example invocation:** `Run a positioning workshop for our API monitoring tool — we keep getting compared to Datadog and losing.`

Key Concepts

The Positioning Workshop Flow

An interactive discovery process that: 1. Gathers product context (marketing materials, competitor intel) 2. Identifies target customer segment through questioning 3. Uncovers underserved needs via Jobs-to-be-Done lens 4. Defines product category and benefits 5. Establishes competitive differentiation 6. Outputs a complete positioning statement (uses `positioning-statement.md`)

Why This Works

• **Structured discovery:** Prevents "positioning by committee" (too vague)
• **Evidence-based:** Uses real marketing materials, customer feedback, competitive intel
• **Adaptive:** Questions adjust based on B2B vs. B2C, new product vs. repositioning, etc.
• **Actionable output:** Generates a Geoffrey Moore positioning statement ready for stakeholder review

Anti-Patterns (What This Is NOT)

• **Not a tagline generator:** Positioning ≠ marketing copy
• **Not feature-first:** Starts with customer problems, not product capabilities
• **Not consensus-driven:** Forces hard choices (can't be "for everyone")

When to Use This

• Defining positioning for a new product
• Repositioning an existing product (pivot, market shift)
• Aligning stakeholders on product strategy
• Preparing for launch or major release
• Before writing positioning-dependent artifacts (PRD, press release, sales deck)

When NOT to Use This

• Before customer research (positioning requires validated insights)
• For internal tools with captive users (no market positioning needed)
• When positioning is already clear and validated

---

Facilitation Source of Truth

Use [`workshop-facilitation`](../workshop-facilitation/SKILL.md) as the default interaction protocol for this skill.

**Default entry mode:** Guided · set in `pm-skills.config.yaml` (library-wide default or a per-skill override); the user's own choice in the session always wins. On the first turn, offer all three modes, then open in the default without waiting for a pick: Guided asks the first question, Context dump invites the paste, Best guess asks for a one-sentence minimum and drafts with every assumption labeled.

It defines:

• session heads-up + entry mode (Guided, Context dump, Best guess)
• one-question turns with plain-language prompts
• progress labels (for example, Context Qx/8 and Scoring Qx/5)
• interruption handling and pause/resume behavior
• numbered recommendations at decision points
• quick-select numbered response options for regular questions (include `Other (specify)` when useful)

This file defines the domain-specific assessment content. If there is a conflict, follow this file's domain logic.

Application

This interactive skill asks **up to 5 adaptive questions**, offering **3-4 enumerated context-aware options** at each step.

Interaction pattern: Pair with `skills/workshop-facilitation/SKILL.md` when you want a one-step-at-a-time flow with numbered recommendations at decision points and quick-select options for regular questions. If the user asks for a single-shot output, skip the multi-turn facilitation.

---

Step 0: Gather Context (Before Questions)

**Agent suggests:**

Before we begin, let's gather product context to ground our positioning work:

**For Your Own Product:**

• Current website copy (homepage, product pages, value prop)
• Existing positioning statements or messaging docs
• Customer testimonials or case studies
• Sales objections or competitive win/loss analysis
• Product descript