Marketing · Positioning consultant and author of Obviously Awesome
April Dunford Learned Positioning by Asking Who Actually Loved the Product
An engineering graduate found her marketing education in the gap between what a company sold and why customers bought it.
How did April Dunford succeed?
April Dunford developed positioning expertise through product-marketing work and repeated customer investigation. An early database project showed her that a small group of customers valued the product for a different use than the company expected. Her approach identifies alternatives, distinctive capabilities, customer value, and the buyers who care most.
The story
April Dunford studied engineering at the University of Waterloo, not a conventional marketing curriculum. In an interview about her first startup role, she described joining a company that made compilers and database products. Technical fluency and public speaking helped her enter product marketing. The specialized skill she became known for was developed through work: figuring out how to make the value of a complicated product understandable to the people most likely to buy it.
One early assignment was to speak with customers about whether a database product deserved to survive. Most conversations did not provide much enthusiasm. A small minority, however, were unusually positive. Instead of averaging their responses into a bland conclusion, she investigated the difference. Those customers were using the product for field salespeople and mobile work rather than the personal-productivity use the company had emphasized.
That discovery changed the commercial question. The problem was not simply whether the software was good or bad. It was good for a particular buyer in a particular situation. A different frame could make its advantages easier to recognize. According to the interview, the company reconsidered positioning, packaging, and pricing. The important learning process was customer observation followed by a strategic interpretation, not the invention of a more exciting slogan.
Dunford's career continued across technology startups and larger companies, giving her repeated opportunities to compare positioning decisions with what sales teams actually encountered. Her book Obviously Awesome sets out a method that makes the exercise less dependent on inspiration. What would customers use if the product did not exist? Which capabilities differ from those alternatives? Why do those differences matter? Who cares most? The market context should help a buyer understand those answers quickly.
The distinction between positioning and promotion is essential. Promotion spreads a message. Positioning determines the context that makes the message meaningful. More advertising can amplify confusion when a buyer cannot tell what a product replaces or why the difference matters. A startup with limited resources may therefore gain more from clarifying a single use case than from launching another channel before its sales story is coherent.
Dunford's story does not prove that a few interviews guarantee a successful relaunch. It demonstrates how work can become an education when surprising customer behavior is investigated rather than ignored. For the self-taught marketer, the Cheat Code is to find the circumstances in which the product already creates unusually strong value, then explain that fit with evidence.
The Cheat Code: shortcuts that worked
1. Investigate the Enthusiastic Minority
When a few customers love what others barely tolerate, study their use case. Their behavior may reveal a stronger market fit than a survey average can show.
2. Name the Real Alternative
Ask what customers would do without your product, including spreadsheets, manual work, or doing nothing. Differentiation is meaningful only against a real competing choice.
3. Translate Capability into Value
For each distinctive feature, explain which customer outcome it supports and under what conditions. Avoid assuming a technical advantage is valuable to every buyer.
4. Align the Sales Conversation
Check that the website, demo, pricing story, and sales team use the same market context. A positioning decision cannot work if buyers hear conflicting explanations.
Your plan to do the same
- Interview satisfied and dissatisfied customers about their actual use.
- List the alternatives they would choose if your product disappeared.
- Identify capabilities that genuinely differ from those alternatives.
- Connect each difference to an evidenced customer benefit.
- Choose the buyer segment for whom those benefits matter most.
- Test the revised sales explanation and record understanding, objections, and fit.
Frequently asked questions
Was April Dunford formally trained in marketing?
Her stated university background is engineering. She developed her positioning expertise through product, marketing, and sales work across technology businesses, so the self-taught element concerns her marketing specialization.
How is positioning different from a tagline?
Positioning defines the buyer, alternatives, differentiated value, and market context. A tagline is one expression of that strategy and cannot replace the underlying decisions.
Who should be interviewed before repositioning?
Include strong-fit customers, weaker-fit customers, and prospects where possible. Differences between their situations can reveal when the product's distinctive capabilities create meaningful value.