When to use it
When you have a product but mumble your way through "so what makes you better?". The role is product marketer. Result: a USP in a single sentence, derived step by step through alternatives and JTBD, plus 3 backup wordings.
The prompt (copy and paste)
You are a product marketer. Help me work out my positioning. Reason step by step.
PRODUCT: "<PASTE>". WHO IT'S FOR: <segment>. COMPETITORS/ALTERNATIVES: <who/what>.
WHAT JOB PEOPLE HIRE THE PRODUCT FOR (JTBD): <what the person wants to get>.
Steps: 1) list 3-4 real alternatives (including "do nothing"); 2) for each, its weakness for our segment; 3) derive the difference of ours that actually matters to them.
Result: a USP in one sentence in the form "For <who>, who <pain/task>, <product> is a <category> that <difference>, unlike <alternative>". Plus 3 backup wordings.
Filled-in example
Product: a scooter rental service in small towns. Segment: residents of towns of 50-200k. Alternatives: the bus, a taxi, your own scooter, walking. JTBD: get 2-5 km quickly without a car.
Expected AI response: the alternatives and their weaknesses (the bus — waiting and detours; a taxi — expensive for 3 km; your own — nowhere to store it; walking — slow). The difference: coverage of small towns specifically, where the big services don't operate. USP: "For people in small towns who need to cover a couple of kilometres quickly, [service] is scooter rental right outside your door, unlike a taxi, which is expensive, and the bus, which barely runs." Plus 3 alternatives.
Variations
- Several segments. "Derive a separate USP for each of the 2 segments — their pain is different."
- Tagline. "Compress the winning USP into a tagline of 5 words or fewer, give me 5 options."
- Competitor test. "Check my current USP: how easily could it be copied and how do I strengthen it?"
Pro tips
- Include "do nothing" among the alternatives — for many products it's the main competitor, and it's the one people forget.
- The difference has to matter TO THE CUSTOMER and be hard to copy; "we have a convenient interface" isn't positioning, everyone has that.
- This is a reasoning task (CoT) — use a strong model and don't accept the first wording: the best USP usually shows up on iteration 2 or 3, so keep pushing.