I've been fanboying over April's work for years. Her book "Obviously Awesome" was foundational—it taught me what good positioning actually looks like. I literally read it weekly at one point. Still do, quarterly, to make sure I'm not drifting too far off.

So when I was winding down this season and wanted to go out with something special, there was only one person I wanted in the chair: April Dunford.

Problem: I'd never actually talked to her. And surely someone running a massive positioning consultancy wouldn't have time for a scrappy PMM podcast, right?

I filled out a form on her site anyway. Just threw it out there: "I know you're prob busy—but would love to have you on to talk product launches."

She responded. I think I blacked out for a moment.

Next thing I know, I'm recording with the PMM GOAT and this conversation went 30 minutes because it was too good to cut short.

She casually drops the "rolling thunder" concept—just because your product is released doesn't mean you have to launch it—and a bunch of other absolute gems about how most launches fail, why your positioning thesis is probably wrong, and what big companies do that startups don't.

Here's what we got into:

  • Why your positioning thesis is probably wrong (until you actually test it in the market with real customers). The difference between a hypothesis and gospel—and why most PMMs skip this and just ship.
  • How to decouple product release from marketing launch—and why giving yourself permission to wait doesn't kill your quarter. Just because it's available doesn't mean you announce it yet.
  • The rolling thunder strategy: phasing your launch across pre-launch, limited availability, momentum, and follow-on so you're actually in the market multiple times instead of burning out on one day. How big companies do it. Why your CEO won't actually hate you for it.


Additional Resources


And huge thanks to PMM Camp for partnering with us for S1 - it's THE place to grow as a PMM leader, get connected with like-minded PMM peers, and single handedly contributed to 2/3 of this season's guests.


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