Obviously Awesome
by April Dunford · first published 2019
94% recommend6% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Practical framework for product positioning, helping founders and developers see who the real competition is and what job the product is hired to do; suits non-marketers building their own products.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
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The best thing I've read on positioning is April Dunford's "Obviously Awesome"; highly recommend. I read it after seeing her speak at a conference. I think this might be the same talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jRoYh8xL_U
on “Positioning Your Startup Is Vital” ↗April Dunford's book, Obviously Awesome, is very good and worth reading if you're a founder or marketer (or both.) We reverse engineered her workshop and did it as a team at the end of last year for my startup. Was very much worth the day.
on “I helped reposition a database product that went on to make $1B in revenue” ↗…getting the traction they want, or are considering starting a business. The 1-Page Marketing Plan - Alan Dibb. The Right It - Alberto Savoia. Monetizing Innovation - Georg Tacke & Madhavan Ramanujam. Obviously Awesome - April Dunford
on “Why is selling software so weird?” ↗…to your users and your heart. Competition is great as it validates a space and with a product like yours, there is more than enough room for other players. Best book to read for positioning yourself is Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. While you think Mailbrew is the competition, the real competition is “not doing anything”. As someone also mentioned, competition means there’s a need and may make it easier for people…
on “When you find out you’re the copycat” ↗I love Simon Sinek! I'd also like to throw in my bid for this book as a great book into copy and product positioning: https://www.amazon.com/Obviously-Awesome-Product-Positioning... I know I kept that article super short and sparse but hopefully I get someone to think more critically about how they are doing their copywriting.
on “Technical Copywriting:What Engineers Can Learn from Apple’s M1 MacBook Marketing” ↗4th this recommendation -- I highly recommend April Dunford's "Obviously Awesome".
on “Positioning Your Startup Is Vital” ↗…progress. It will help you understand where your product fits in ie. you should be able to answer the questions "what job can my product be hired to do?", "what progress does it help make? and for whom?" 2. Obviously Awesome https://www.amazon.com/Obviously-Awesome-Product-Positioning... This is a book on Positioning by April Dunford. It's absolutely fabulous! It will help you understand how to position your product in the…
on “Ask HN: I built it, nobody came, now what?” ↗…record the interviews (with your users' permission) and playback often to get a good understanding from their perspective. Maybe you are targeting the wrong market? And an obligatory recommendation to "Obviously Awesome" by April Dunford. It is a short book but full of interesting insights.
on “Ask HN: I suck at sales and marketing, got any advice?” ↗I've mainly been learning by doing (and failing), though I've read these books which helped solve problems I had at the time: - Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra - Obviously Awesome by April Dunford - The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick - Every book Seth Godin has written, particularly This is Marketing - Deploy Empathy by Michele Hansen - Forget the Funnel by Claire Suellentrop…
on “Bootstrapping Atlassian: $10k In Credit Card Debt To $20M In Revenue In 5 years” ↗…should be proud of it! Regarding your product/website, I concur with the feedback given by the other commenters here. To truly understand what they are trying to say though, I would recommend 2 books: Obviously Awesome, by April Dunford. This talks about how to position your product to your customers. StoryBrand : It will specifically help you how you tell you & your customer's story on your landing page Both of these…
on “Ask HN: Stuck at $500 MRR and Seeking Distribution/Marketing Advice” ↗Thanks! I stole this structure from Obviously Awesome [1] by April Dunford, highly recommended. I just noticed the main submission link goes to the Google Sheets add-on, instead of the Google Forms add-on [2]. Oh well. [1] https://www.aprildunford.com/books…
on “Show HN: Scan QR codes to check in guests registered via Google Forms” ↗…Thiel Always makes me feel that I’m not ambitious enough. And that too many smart people are in the wrong industry (finance). - The Dip, Seth Godin Don’t give up. Unless you’re in a cul-de-sac. - Obviously Awesome, April Dunford Your competitor is often not who you think it is.
on “Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?” ↗Microsoft offers "certification" for Copilot usage. I stopped offering to build custom demos for AGI pipelines last year because people just didn't get it. April Dunford's "Obviously Awesome" pretty simply covers why, because as very much not a product-person, I frequently fall prey to "if you build it, they will come" mentality.
on “SnapDiagram – Instantly Convert Hand-Drawn Diagrams to Digital with AI” ↗Started making side projects as a developer this year and hope to start working on my own products full-time from next year. Two books I found useful for positioning the product: - Obviously Awesome by April Dunford (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45166937-obviously-aweso...) - Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210137279-building-a-sto...)
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗April Dunford's "Obviously Awesome" is new(ish) and very good on this topic.
on “Bleeding-edge tech will kill your startup” ↗