Value Proposition Convas: How to build a self-selling product/services.

The Value Proposition Canvas

Value Proposition Canvas is a plug of the Business Model Canvas. It helps to project, test and build the business Value Proposition of customers in a more structured and reflective way, as the Business Model Canvas helps you during the process of design of Business Model.

The Value Proposition zooms in on only two blocks: Value Proposition and Customer Segment, in order to describe them in more detail. It helps the entrepreneur to project in the best way the business Value Proposition to solve problems, difficulties and needs of customers.

The Value Proposition Canvas is organized as follows;

Customer Jobs: In the box ‘Customer Jobs’ you gather all the customer needs, the problems that they are trying to solve and the tasks they are trying to perform or complete.

Customer Pains: In the box ‘Customer Pains’ you gather all the negative emotions and undesired costs, situations and risk which the customer could experience before, during and after getting the job is done.

Customer Gains: In the box ‘Customer Gains’ you gather all the customer’s benefits and desires, and may span personal, functional, or economical etc. For example, this box could include positive emotions, functional requirements, or specific cost savings.

Product & Services: In the box ‘Product & Services’ you list all the products and services which your value proposition is build around. This includes for example the services that you offer or the help the customer receives either a functional, social, or emotional.

Pain Relievers: In the box ‘Pain Relievers’ you describe how your products addresses the challenges needs and the pains of the customer, how you eliminate negative emotions, undesired costs or avoidable situations.

Gain Creators: In the box ‘Gain Creators’ you describe how your product creates customer gain, how it offers an added value to your customer.

The Value Proposition Canvas helps you to challenge, design, and build your company’s Value Proposition in a structured and thoughtful way, just like the Business Model Canvas, it assists you in the business model design process.

So, what is the difference with our Product Design Canvas? The main difference is that the Product Design Canvas aims to document the constrains (and thus inspire solutions) rather than document solutions. The image below aims to illustrate that.

Both the The Value Proposition Canvas and the Product Design Canvas have space to document the goals/objectives as well as the Product & Services. However, where the The Value Proposition Canvas has space to document on gains/pains (both customer side as well as well as product/service side), it does not allow to analyze/document the constrains on the customer side nor on the product side to inspire why a specific product or service creates a gain for a specific customer. It does not support you to think about the context of use, the product portfolio of which the new service will be part of etc.

The The Value Proposition Canvas offers an easy to understand overview of what a customer needs (and why) and depending on when and by whom it is used, this is absolutely perfect, for example, as part of a business model review, to document or present pains and gains of specific products for specific customer segments. As such, it helps to create a very good basis for design, i.e. a good and clear brief. However, it may not be a god support for the design process, during which you need to put design targets (customer to be addressed, value/goal/objective to be offered) in context of design decisions (e.g. materials, interaction) and in context of making the new product appealing for the costumer to choose (e.g. product line, cost). As product design is a multi-disciplinary field it includes not only end-user related issues, like how the device is used, what are the user needs, how does the product need to work within the context of the user’s life, but also what are the other devices the user will work with in combination. In addition, production related issues such as how are the components going to be produced, how are they going to be assembled, maintained, as well as business related issues, are of critical importance in product design, impacting various parts of the design.

The Product Design Canvas was developed to support this multi-disciplinary process, and covers the main aspects to consider in product design. With the most important aspects combined into a one-page logical overview, it supports product designers, clients, consultants and executives in their interactions, discussing scope, position and solution opportunities. The canvas eliminates misunderstandings during discussions by depicting in a structured way all elements that are relevant to the discussion.