Positioning Canvas

What this is

A one-page printable worksheet with eight questions that make you get specific about your positioning. It’s the same canvas I run in paid Strategy Sprints with founders and marketing leads.

Most positioning exercises fail because they ask the wrong questions or too many of them. This one is deliberately small: eight questions on one page, done in under 90 minutes.

The eight questions

1. Who specifically are you for?

“SMBs” or “everyone who needs marketing” is too vague. Name the person: their role, their industry, their stage. If your answer applies to more than one vertical, you haven’t narrowed enough.

2. What situation triggers their search?

The moment they start looking for someone like you. A funding round? A competitor launching? A campaign that failed? The trigger shapes the messaging.

3. What do they believe right now?

The existing worldview you’re working with (or against). You can’t install new beliefs in someone. You can only redirect the ones they already have.

4. What alternatives are they actually comparing you to?

Think about their alternatives, which are often different from your competitors. It might be “hire a full-time person,” “do nothing,” or “ask a friend.” Your positioning has to beat the option they’re really weighing, whatever you’d prefer them to consider.

5. What is your unfair advantage?

Something that is hard to copy. Everyone claims “great service,” so that doesn’t count. Look at proprietary data, an unusual background, a specific process, existing relationships or a geographic advantage.

6. What do you want to be known for saying?

The one sentence people repeat when they refer you. If you can’t write it, they can’t say it.

7. What are you deliberately not doing?

What you refuse shapes your positioning as much as what you offer. Name the services, markets or approaches you exclude, and say why.

8. What proof do you have?

Case studies, numbers, testimonials and credentials: the evidence that makes your other answers believable. If you don’t have proof yet, this question tells you what to go build first.

How to use it

Solo founder (45 minutes)

1. Print the PDF or open it on a tablet
2. Set a 5-minute timer per question. Write fast and edit later.
3. Circle the answers that feel uncomfortable. Those are usually the honest ones.
4. Sleep on it. Revisit the next morning and see which answers still hold.

Team workshop (90 minutes)

1. Print one canvas per person
2. 20 minutes: everyone fills in individually (no talking)
3. 30 minutes: share answers question by question and note where the team disagrees
4. 20 minutes: converge on a single version as a team
5. 20 minutes: write the positioning statement using the formula on the back of the sheet

The positioning statement formula

For [audience from Q1] who [trigger from Q2], we are the [category] that [unique value from Q5]. Unlike [alternative from Q4], we [key differentiator]. And we can prove it because [proof from Q8].

The formula is a riff on Geoffrey Moore’s positioning template from Crossing the Chasm. The difference is the eight questions above, which make it impossible to fill in with vague, generic language.

Common mistakes

• Being too broad on Q1. “Startups” is not a positioning. “Series A B2B SaaS founders in India with 10-50 employees” is.
• Skipping Q7. Clients feel safer when they can see what you’ve chosen not to do, because it tells them you’re focused.
• Confusing features with positioning on Q6. “We use AI” is a feature. “We find the customers your competitors overlook” is positioning.

Version history

Version	Date	Notes
2.0	May 2026	Redesigned layout, added team workshop instructions
1.0	January 2026	Initial release