November 3, 2026
How do you define minimum viable positioning?
On today’s Ditcherville LIVE session, I was asked:
How do you define minimum viable positioning?
The easiest place to start with positioning is to say “I do A for B”, where A is something like “software development” and B is something like “seed-stage startups”.
If you find yourself tempted to stay super broad about your B - e.g., “I do software development for businesses” - I think you would benefit from narrowing it down more.
How?
Here are some prompts to get you started:
- Favor companies that you’ve enjoyed working with in the past.
- Rule out the kinds of companies you don’t want to work with.
- Find the sweet spot in terms of revenue, headcount, or business size.
- Identify the ideal buyer inside the organization.
After considering these prompts, maybe you find you’re comfortable saying that you want to work with “owners of professional services firms that have around 30 employees”.
“Professional services firms” is still pretty broad - e.g., it could be creative agencies, architecture firms, law firms, accounting agencies, dev shops, etc. - but even with a focus this blurry, I’d still have a Rolodex moment.
From there, you can iterate on your marketing, outreach, and conversations with those kinds of business owners and sharpen your positioning over time.
Hope that helps!
BTW - This is the kind of question that comes up every two weeks in Ditcherville LIVE, my group Q&A session for independent consultants who are done trading time for money.
If you’ve got questions like this rattling around in your head, come get them answered:
(Monthly, yearly and lifetime memberships are available)
Hope to see you inside!
Yours,
—J