Workshop Exercises: Define

Value Proposition Statement

Summarize why a customer would choose your product or service

Illustration of Value Proposition Statement
Run a Value Proposition Statement play

Why: Address customer pain and gains to demonstrate how your offering will break through from competing solutions

When: Ideal for product or service design, when refining marketing strategies, or crafting sales messaging

Instructions for running this play

  1. Define the problem set to help vet whether it’s a problem worth solving. Validate its criticality by asking the 4 Us:
    1. Does your solution fix a broken business process (Unworkable)?
    2. Is fixing the problem Unavoidable?
    3. Is the problem Urgent?
    4. Is the problem Underserved?
  2. Evaluate whether your breakthrough proposition is unique and compelling
  3. Measure potential customer adoption. Discuss how hard it will be for customers to learn to use your proposed product by identifying pains and gains. You are looking for a 10x gain to pain ratio – if lower, customers will typically “do nothing”.
  4. Build the value proposition using this template:

    For [target customer] who [statement of the need or opportunity] our [product/service name] is [product category] that [statement of benefit].**

Tips to perfect this play

Master and adapt the play to fit your context and needs.

Tip: Think benefits over features

“Here’s what our product can do” is very different from “Here’s what you can do with our product” (Jason Fried)

Tip: Start with research

Present customer research as a precursor to this exercise

Tip: Make it testable

Make sure to craft your value proposition so that it is easily testable with your target customers

This business strategy is part of the Business Model Patterns printed card deck.

Proven business models that have driven success for global leaders across industries. Rethink how your business can create, deliver, and capture value.

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