Value Canvas for your Product's Proposition!

Launching new products and innovation is always focus for us in our to day but as we are working monotonously as product manager's. We tend to focus more on innovation rather the value it would offer to the consumers and how will it serve the purpose while also forget if the innovation would meet consumer expectations or provide the right solution. Value proposition is something which enables us to determine this in a line statement but we must deep dive to get clearer direction.

What is value proposition?

In simple terms, value proposition is the value a product would offer to the consumer and why the reason why a customer would opt for a product and leave the competitor product. It is the specific solution and promise your product offers which becomes the point of losing a sale and closing the sale.

The Value Proposition Canvas!

In 2012, Alexander Osterwalder and his team introduced the Value Proposition Designer. Their canvas tool for identifying the optimal value proposition is copyrighted and must be credited to www.businessmodelgeneration.com. The Value Proposition Design incorporates various concepts from the Lean Startup movement, including "customer jobs" and "customer challenges."

The value proposition canvas helps in giving consumer perspective in relation the value a product is offering, hence makes the product offering more clearer for the teams in setting products attributes, marketing communications and direction for sales team to be more customer centric.

The canvas has two parts, Value Map and Customer Profile. The Value Map explains more about the product/brand side of the story while customer profile explains the consumer side of the story i.e. what needs to be done, what problems are getting solved etc. Following are the main elements for the both:

Customer Profile:

Customer Jobs - It is an important part of the canvas where you have to put yourself in shoes of the customers and access consumer perspective. This would allow to understand the customer segment from emotional, functional and social perspective. These are simple tasks that a customer needs to do in their day to day which brand/ product/service would be providing support for.

Customer Pains - These are consumer pain points which means what consumers want a solution for. As an example, if its a hearing aid a consumer would want a solution to hear clearly while in a meeting or at a party. Hence its anything that bothers the consumer which they want to do the job and they cant do it properly or can be improved. We should cover as many pains as possible as this is subjective from consumer point.

Customer Gains - These are the benefits a consumer would get after using the product or service. These maybe beyond expectations, necessary (what perceived benefit would be) or desired ( expected benefits). It's important to recognize that difficulties and advantages are not necessarily opposing concepts. Benefits should encompass factors that genuinely satisfy or even delight customers, rather than merely serving as counterpoints to difficulties. They can be fundamental and not necessarily

Value Map

Product or Service - This is the product or service which will be launched or introduced. This field doesn't need to have features benefits being offered under the product.

Pain Relievers - It is the part in Value Map which shows the products ability to solve defined problems. There’s no need to go into detail about how the difficulties are resolved. Simply confirming that it addresses the customer’s current frustration with the specific task will be enough.

Gain Creators - Its further explaining the pain relievers which have been explained above. for instance it can be the fold technology which Samsung has in their phones or can be the OTC part in hearing aids category which allows it to be purchased with out prescriptions.

Conclusion

The Value Proposition Canvas aims to provide fit or mis fit between the product being offered and customer needs and wants. Customer profile can have many jobs, difficulties and benefits and value map showcases which one would be addressed. The higher items we have on the right side that align with those on left, the greater chances a product will be successful in market if everything is done right.