Seven questions. No comfortable answers. This diagnostic will tell you whether your positioning is undocumented, conflicted, assumed, or tested — and what each state is costing you right now.
7 questions5 minutes
Question 1 of 7
01 / 07
If three people on your team were asked to describe your positioning in one sentence, how many different answers would you get?
April Dunford's first test: if the people closest to the product can't agree, no customer ever will.
02 / 07
Who, specifically, is this not for?
Neumeier's ZAG principle: a brand that tries to appeal to everyone has no position at all. The ability to name your non-customer is a mark of genuine positioning clarity.
03 / 07
What category does your business compete in — and did you choose that category deliberately?
Dunford's core argument: you are always positioned relative to alternatives. If you haven't defined the category, the market will define it for you — usually badly.
04 / 07
When a prospect chooses a competitor instead of you, do you know why?
Ritson's market orientation test: if you can't explain lost deals, you don't understand your market position. You understand your own assumptions about it.
05 / 07
Read your homepage headline. Does it say something only you could say — or could a competitor copy it word for word?
Neumeier's radical differentiation test. If the answer is that a competitor could use it, it is not positioning. It is a placeholder.
06 / 07
What do your best clients value most about working with you — and does your marketing lead with that?
Andy Raskin's strategic narrative test: the gap between what your best clients value and what your marketing says is where positioning breaks down. Most businesses market what they're proud of, not what clients buy.
07 / 07
When did you last revisit your positioning deliberately — not as a reaction to a problem, but as a strategic act?
Ritson's discipline test. Positioning is not a founding decision. Markets move, competitors shift, and the business you are now is not the business you launched. If positioning isn't reviewed, it drifts.