If you’re a product owner, founder, or VP of Product, you probably live and breathe your product. You’ve spent months—maybe years—in the weeds, building it, refining it, and perfecting every feature. You understand its potential better than anyone else.
But here’s the problem: your customers don’t.
You see the entire system, the back-end logic, the roadmap, the unique architecture. You remember all the twists and turns you had to go through to land a really great feature. But when it comes time to explain why your product matters in a way that sticks, you find yourself struggling. You either say too much (overloading people with features and technical jargon) or say too little (assuming they’ll just “get it”).
Let me underline, that this is completely normal. Even when you’re an expert in messaging, positioning, and storytelling, it’s still hard to see your own work objectively. I experienced this firsthand when I launched my podcast. Even though I specialize in this exact thing, it took time, distance, and feedback to really see what we were doing clearly and articulate it in a way that made sense to others. At first, I was too close to it, making it hard to step back and view it from an outsider’s perspective. And that’s the tricky part—when you’re deep in something, you assume it makes sense to everyone else the way it does to you. You often times need a fresh set of eyes.
This is one of the biggest reasons products fail to gain traction—not because they aren’t great, but because the messaging doesn’t click.
So why does this happen? And how do you fix it?
There’s a psychological principle at play here called The Curse of Knowledge—the idea that the more you know about something, the harder it is to imagine what it’s like not to know it.
You’ve been in the weeds of your product for so long that it’s easy to forget that most people don’t know what you know.
This leads to messaging problems like:
If we look at an example like Slack, you’ll know that when it launched, it wasn’t the first workplace chat tool. But instead of listing features like “real-time messaging” or “threaded conversations,” Slack nailed their positioning with a simple, customer-focused message:
“Slack replaces email inside your company.”
They didn’t talk about their architecture, integrations, or security protocols. They made it immediately clear what the product does and why it matters.
Compare that to Microsoft Teams at launch—filled with feature-heavy descriptions that made it sound just like every other collaboration tool. One took off, the other struggled to differentiate.
The difference? Clarity.
When you’re too deep in your own product, it’s almost impossible to step back and see it the way a first-time customer would. But that’s what you need to do.
That’s why companies that nail their positioning often bring in strategic outsiders to help them clarify their messaging.
Here’s why:
When the first iPod launched, Apple could have marketed it by saying:
“A 5GB MP3 player with a 160kbps bitrate.”
Technically accurate—but completely meaningless to most customers.
Instead, they took a step back and focused on the only thing that really mattered to their audience:
“1,000 songs in your pocket.”
That single sentence explained the entire value of the product without requiring any technical knowledge.
This is the kind of message clarity you can only achieve when you step outside of your own head and think like a customer.
If you suspect your messaging isn’t landing, here’s how to fix it:
If you’ve got a great product on your hands, but it doesn’t seem to resonate with your target customer, and your product isn’t selling the way it should, your positioning might be the problem—not the product itself.
You know it’s valuable. But if your messaging isn’t clear, compelling, and relevant, your customers won’t see it.
Take a step back. Strip it down. Get an outside perspective.
When you do, you’ll find the clarity that turns potential customers into paying ones.
If you’re struggling to articulate your product’s value in a way that resonates, it’s time to step back and refine your messaging.
Let’s talk.