Example data. Fieldnote is a fictional company used to fill all 61 boards, so the examples tell one consistent story.
Mature Fieldnote, growth slowing. Karim, Nadia and marketing redraw the map after losing 3 deals to Jobber.
What the team took away
The team chose to stay niche and own recurring contracts rather than chase Jobber on polish; marketing dropped "all-in-one" from the site.
How to run it
Preparation
Product, marketing and sales, five to seven people. Sales brings the 'why we lost' notes from the last ten deals.
List 6 to 10 competitors, including the non-obvious ones (spreadsheet, agency, doing nothing). One sticky each with logo.
Prepare three candidate axis pairs in advance, drawn from customer interviews, not from your feature list.
Collect how each competitor describes itself on its homepage, one line each, and paste it on the side.
Agenda
20 min
Choose the axes Present the three candidate pairs. The test: does a customer choose between vendors on this axis? Pick the pair where the group can name a lost deal for each end.
25 min
Place the competitors One at a time, place them as the customer perceives them, not as you know them to be. Use their homepage line as evidence. Argue in one sentence, move on.
15 min
Place yourselves, twice First where customers see you today (sales decides). Then where you want to be in 18 months (product decides). Draw the arrow between the two.
15 min
Find the open space Look for the quadrant or edge with no logo and a real customer need. If there is none, the axes are wrong; go back to step 1 with the second pair.
15 min
Write the differentiating message One sentence: 'For [who], unlike [nearest competitor], we [difference the map shows]'. Two versions, sales picks the one they can say on a call.
Pitfalls
Axes like 'ease of use' versus 'power' put everyone in the top right. Pick axes where being at one end means giving something up.
Placing competitors where you wish they were, to make your space look bigger. Sales knows better; let them override product here.
A map with no arrow is a diagnosis without a decision. Always draw where you go next and what you stop claiming.
Afterwards
The message goes to the landing page, the first sales deck slide and the Product Box. The arrow becomes a strategic theme in Now / Next / Later; revisit the map every six months or after a competitor launch.