There is a recurring temptation in every positioning effort. To skip a phase in order to reach the result sooner. It seems a reasonable shortcut. In fact, each phase supports the one that follows. Removing one does not shorten the path. It makes it unstable.
The method follows a precise order: first the purpose, then the value proposition, then positioning, then the network of relationships, and finally the market. The order is functional. It is the sequence in which the decisions hold each other up.
A skipped phase does not vanish
When a step is compressed, the work it held does not disappear. It reappears further ahead, in the form of a doubt that will not close or a negotiation that stalls. A positioning built without having defined the purpose remains an elegant statement, one that no one defends under pressure.
The same holds for the network of relationships. Activating it before a clear position presents the market with a business that cannot yet say why it should be chosen. Certain doors open only once. Opening them too soon closes them for the times that follow.
The work that is skipped is not erased. It is postponed, and returns when there is less room to redo it.
Here, time is structure
Compressing the sequence saves days at the start and loses many more at the end. The time spent defining the purpose or the value proposition functions as structure, the foundation on which everything that follows rests.
It is a matter of respecting an order. Each phase clarifies something the next takes as given. Skipping it forces a return, later and in worse conditions.
What changes
An effort that respects its sequence reaches the market with a position that holds. The decisions taken upstream support those taken downstream. When something needs correcting, it is clear precisely which phase to return to. Our method rests on this order.