Bad Alternatives & Positioning Template
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5. Overall Thesis

An overall thesis will help you drive clarity in a one- or two-page format and ensure you and your team are all marching towards the same north star.
It should be:
A concise summary
Supported by the bad alternatives, personas, positioning, and growth channels you develop throughout the rest of this doc
Easy to comprehend & repeat back
e.g. tell it to other people and see if they can parrot back what you do and—most importantly—why; the mental model should be super quick & clear for your intended audience
🔮 Concise product pitch
<your product> is the <analog>. <insert super short pitch here>
🥸 Personas & Acquisition
Launch with:
<who> (<where>)
👉 Overarching thesis
We want to:
<some mission statement>
Why?
<primary pain points>
👯 Initial analogs
(see all in )
The <Coda for finance>
1️⃣ 2️⃣ 3️⃣ Scaffolds: how we get from A to Z
Do this
Then do that
And finally, do that other thing
🤬 What’s the pain this solves?
Customer voice
I want <this benefit aka fix my pain!>
Technical voice
<by building these features>
📐 How much explicit, directly-linked pain is there?
(note: If this isn’t a 5-flame rating... you may want to re-evaluate what you’re building. Their hair needs to be on fire, with them throwing money at you to extinguish it)
🧀 What’s the wedge?
Expand
from: <first scaffold / product entry point>
composed of:
90% <persona A>
10% <persona B>
to: <another scaffold / product entry point>
composed of:
60% <persona A>
20% <persona B>
20% <persona C>

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