Value PropositionsEstimated Reading Time: just 5 min

Value Propositions is a block of Business Model Canvas that refers to how the company wants to get to the moment in which its products and services create value for a specific Customer Segment/Buyer Persona. In the Lean Startup Methodology, this moment is called the Product/Market Fit.

Some questions that are useful to understand the content of this block are
- What valuer does the product/service deliver to the customer? (i.e. newness, performance, customization, “getting the job done”, design, brand/status, price, cost reduction, risk reduction, accessibility and convenience/usability)
- Which one of our customer’s problems is the product/service helping to solve?
- What bundles of products and services are offered by the company to each Customer Segment?
- Which customer needs are satisfied by the company?

Since a Value Proposition is an innovation, a service or a feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers, it is also the reason why customers choose one company over another.
At the same time, the reason why customers choose one company over another can change over time. Therefore, Value Propositions can also change due to internal and external factors as well as a better knowledge of the Customer Segments/Buyer Personas. A company will likely end up changing its value propositions several times before it arrives at its final definition.

The link between Value Propositions and Customer Segments (Product/Market Fit) is a key success factor.

There are some tools and frameworks such as Value Propositions Canvas that help to get to the Product/Market Fit.

VALUE PROPOSITIONS CANVAS

Defining Value Propositions is about
- Identifying Customer Segments’ real needs
- Linking them to the value that the business can offer them

Value Propositions Canvas helps:
- Defining Value Propositions
- Getting to the Product/Market Fit

Value Propositions Canvas.png

Value Propositions Canvas is based on 2 sections:
- Customer Profile (also called the Circle)
- Value Map (also called the Square)

Inside these 2 sections there are 6 blocks:
- Customer Jobs
- Customer Pains
- Customer Gains
- Product and Services
- Pain Relievers
- Gain Creators

Value Propositions Canvas in BMC.png

Value Propositions Canvas takes part in the Business Model Canvas by ensuring the link between Value Propositions and Customer Segments is tight.

Learn more about the Value Proposition Canvas by following this link.

Frequently Asked Questions

What books do you suggest about Value Propositions?

These are my favourite books for the ones who want to know more about Business Model Canvas:

1. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers: the original book written by A. Osterwalder and Y. Pigneur, Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game-changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow’s enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don’t yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need a Business Model Generation.

2. Value Proposition Design How to Create Products and Services Customers Want: Value Proposition Design is an essential companion to the ”Business Model Canvas” from Business Model Generation, a tool embraced globally by startups and large corporations such as MasterCard, 3M, Coca Cola, GE, Fujitsu, LEGO, Colgate-Palmolive, and many more.
Value Proposition Design gives you a proven methodology for success, with value propositions that sell, embedded in profitable business models.

3. Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy: With a combination of open-ended interviewing and fast and flexible research techniques, you’ll learn how your prospective customers behave, the problems they need to solve, and what frustrates and delights them. These insights may shake your assumptions, but they’ll help you reach the “ah-ha!” moments that inspire truly great products.

4. The Opportunity Analysis Canvas: In The Opportunity Analysis Canvas, Dr. James V. Green shares how to become more effective in identifying and analyzing entrepreneurial opportunities, and building competitive companies. Why are entrepreneurs successful? How can we understand and develop our thinking to be better entrepreneurs? What are the keys to developing winning entrepreneurial ideas?

5. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More: Our world is being transformed by the Internet and the near limitless choice that it provides to consumers; tomorrow’s markets belong to those who can take advantage of this. The Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance, an entirely new model for business that is just starting to show its power as unlimited selection reveals new truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it. The record business has been transformed by iTunes and Rhapsody; a similar transformation is coming to just about every industry imaginable. What happens when everything in the world becomes available to everyone? When the combined value of all the millions of items that may sell only a few copies equals or exceeds the value of the few items that sell millions each? When a bunch of kids with no profit motive can record a song or make a video and get the same electronic distribution for it as the most powerful corporation?

6. Testing Business Ideas: 7 out of 10 new products fail to deliver on expectations. Testing Business Ideas aims to reverse that statistic. In the tradition of Alex Osterwalder’s global bestseller Business Model Generation, this practical guide contains a library of hands-on techniques for rapidly testing new business ideas.
Testing Business Ideas explains how systematically testing business ideas dramatically reduces the risk and increases the likelihood of success for any new venture or business project. It builds on the internationally popular Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas by integrating Assumptions Mapping and other powerful lean startup-style experiments

P.S. by following the links and buying these books, you help biz shakalaka covering its costs and getting

What is value and value proposition?

Value Proposition is a term that refers to how the company wants to get to the moment in which its products and services create value for a specific Customer Segment/Buyer Persona.

A Value is an innovation, a service or a feature that make a company or product attractive to customers, it is also the reason why customers choose one company over another.
At the same time, the reason why customers choose one company over another can change over time. Therefore, Value Propositions can also change due to internal and external factors as well as a better knowledge of the Customer Segments/Buyer Personas. A company will likely end up changing its value propositions several times before it arrives at its final definition.

How do you write a value proposition?

Defining Value Propositions is about
- Identifying Customer Segments’ real needs
- Linking them to the value that the business can offer them
Value Propositions Canvas helps:
- Defining Value Propositions
- Getting to the Product/Market Fit

What is a value proposition in sales?

Value Proposition is a term that refers to how the company wants to get to the moment in which its products and services create value for a specific Customer Segment/Buyer Persona.

In Sales, it is intended as an innovation, a service or a feature that make a company or product attractive to customers and it is also the reason why customers choose one company over another.

Nicola Zaffonato Administrator

Business Strategy | Product Marketing | Executive Master eCommerce Management | Business Innovation Master | MSc

I am driven by my personal growth and of people/contexts that surround me.

I followed a professional path in Valentino Fashion Group and Luxottica during which, thanks to the ability to understand different businesses and interests, I was able to succeed in Operations, Merchandising and Retail.

These organizations have exploited my ability to mediate and translate needs/constraints into practice, assigning me to Project Management roles.

Luxottica relied on my ability to analyze, to anticipate things and to imagine/implement solutions by appointing me in Supply Chain Management department and assigning me to the Product Management of IoT solutions for Anti-counterfeiting and Retail digitalization.

During this professional path, I also developed my leadership by managing teams to build Processes, Organizations, Systems and Governance Tools.

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