Positioning when your project/product has a distinct adoption window

Some products and projects have a very distinct adoption window. Adopting them only makes sense for a greenfield application (or during a major re-write). Or maybe there’s some other adoption window, tied to setting up particular hardware or onboarding team members or something like that. After that window closes, the effort required to integrate them into the application is so high it’s unlikely that anyone will do so.

How does this change your positioning strategy, if at all?

Market category, target market, point of view…

First of all, what doesn’t change? The core part of positioning really doesn’t change just because your project/product has a distinct adoption window. In terms of describing the market you intend to play in, the unique value that your project delivers or who is going to get the most out of the project, there’s really no change just because you need to attract people at a certain point in their app’s lifecycle.

The way a developer will think about how you fit into their application or their workflow, and the assumptions they will make about it, don’t really change based on where they are in their current app’s lifecycle. An authorization layer is an authorization layer…

Triggers and pain points

On the other hand, if your project has a distinct adoption window, you need to pay more attention to purchase triggers and very specific pain points.

One of the most challenging here is when your project has to be adopted at a certain point in order to prevent future pain. In that case, you’ll find your ideal audience is almost always people who have enough experience to have felt the pain in the past, on previous apps, and resolved to do it better this time. If this is the case, your positioning doesn’t change, but your messaging does.

It’s also really important to understand why people start looking for a solution like yours. First of all, you do want them to be looking for a solution in the general universe of what your project delivers. If you have to educate your audience extensively or they are completely unaware that the problem you address is solvable, you’ll face an uphill battle. But assuming your audience is searching for something, it’s important to know what triggered that search. What had just happened that made them start searching? What did they think was possible? Did they want to solve an immediate pain (and if so, what) or prevent a future pain (and if so, what precisely)?

Messaging that’s extremely focused on the triggers people experience during or just before the adoption window is really important if that window slams shut at some point. In most cases, your core positioning will stay the same, but your marketing strategy and your message will not.