Positioning is not the same as vision

I doubt there’s a startup founder out there without a big vision. I bet your vision includes words like “revolutionize” and “radical” and “all applications” and maybe even “enterprise.” Revolutionize developer experience. Reimagine cloud native networking. A radically different database.

I bet those are in your pitch deck for investors.

They are not your positioning.

First of all, vision is all about long-term plans, what you hope / expect your startup will accomplish over 2, 5, 10 years. Most founders start their companies with a rather grand vision, something that won’t be possible with a team of eight and a shoestring budget.

Vision is about the suite of products you’ll have. Positioning is about creating the right context so the one product you have right now has no competitors.

Positioning is a short and medium term strategy. When you adjust positioning, the goal is to accelerate your sales process and revenue growth right now, not in five years.

Positioning is about creating the right context around the product you actually have right now — one that likely has some warts and a backlog of features that it turns out are harder to build than you thought. Don’t position the product you wish you had or the product you might have next year. You go to market with the product you have now, and that’s what you position.

If you’d like to learn more about positioning for the short term versus long term, when to reevaluate your positioning and how (and when) to share your vision without confusing people about what you’ve got for sale right now, join my webinar this Thursday at 9am PT! Register here.