An brief, honest review of “Obviously Awesome,” and how it can help you position your next product.

Overview

I recently had the opportunity to read “Obviously Awesome” by April Dunford, and I was definitely impressed by the systematic approach that it takes you through on how to position your product within your market space.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “but Nick, I’m a UI/UXer, why are we here talking about product positioning?”

Believe it or not, product positioning has a lot to do with UI/UX and visa versa. Today, I’m going to share with you exactly:

• Why positioning matters for UI/UX processes
• What positioning can mean for your product
• The good, bad, and bottom line of this book, and
• Why you might want to check it out.
• (Plus why you might want to skip it).

Why positioning matters

We hear the term positioning thrown around a lot, but I would be willing to bet you that most people, marketers included, have no idea what it actually means.

To quote April Dunford, positioning is showing your customers “how you are the best at something that your target market cares a lot about.”

How does this relate to UI/UX? Directly. Because if your customers have a sub-par experience, get the impression that your UI is clunky, outdated, or that they’re dealing with a sub-standard system, they will drop your product like a hot rock and leave it.

Both user interface and user experience contribute directly to the perception of your product, which in many ways is what positioning is truly all about: how your customers perceive your product.

What positioning can mean for your product

When you are able to clearly communicate what your product is, what it can do for your customers, what category it occupies, and why your customers should buy it right now, you have a huge leg up on your competition who is either positioning their product incorrectly, or positioning it by default.

Quality UI & UX

When the UI and UX of your product are impeccable, more clear, smoother, and easier to understand than your competition, you’re golden. You will sell more because your value is both easier to articulate, and easier to experience form the user’s standpoint.

However, if your UI/UX is pretty run of the mill, your customers aren’t going to feel like they’re being highly regarded, considered, and will likely go with your competition who they feel cares more about them.

Moreover, if your competition has positioned themselves as a highly customer-service-based organization, and you have a SaaS product but not a CS department to back it up, while competing in the same market category, you’re going to lose.

These things seem obvious, but until you really sit down and think about them, they can be invisible to both you and your organization until it’s too late.

My honest review

“Obviously Awesome,” is a pretty darned good book in general, and may be one of the best books that I’ve personally read on product positioning to date.

The good

The information in this book is solid. I can’t find a single thing wrong with what April Dunford has said here, other than the fact that it can get a little wordy at times.

Their 10-step process to positioning is really a breath of fresh air in a world that is dominated by useless positioning statements, and documents that almost never get used anyway.

The bad

At a 148 pages it’s certainly not “War and Peace,” but there are times it gets a little slow and I found myself wishing the author would get to the point a bit faster.

That said, the pacing feels pretty good, and its a book that you could easy get through comfortably in two to three sittings.

The bottom line

In the end I give this title a 4/5.

I won’t lie, it’s a dense book with a lot of concepts that overlap. I feel like this could’ve been distilled a little more into a shorter, more punchy read, but I also really liked some of the anecdotes in there that serve to illustrate the points.

Why you might want to check it out

If you’re a UI/UXer who’s looking to expand their product awareness into the positioning sphere, while ensuring that the experiences they design are crafted with their product’s core offerings in mind, I would recommend you at least take a look at “Obviously Awesome.”

And why you may want to skip it

That being said, this is by no means a “must-read” title, and if you’re looking to skip it, you can just Google the title and find a summary of it like this one here.

Nick Lawrence Design
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