When I work with customers to help them understand and develop the value that they offer I use this questionnaire to help develop the value proposition. The value proposition design questionnaire is based on Alexander Osterwalder’s book and I’ve been slowly tweaking it as I see opportunity for improvement.
These are some great questions to ask when you are thinking about your value proposition. They are grouped into six sections. The first three are focused on your customer and help you dig into what problems they face. The second three focus on the value that you provide that solve the problems.
Jobs
First of all think back to your customer persona. Forget about what you are selling right now. Think of the customer as a person, as someone important. Then start imagining the answers to the questions below. So for example if they are entrepreneur in a CO-working space think about what they are doing in the CO-working space and why they are there? Are they their to meet your needs for a customer or do they have their own goals and vision. Why are their big problems? I’m writing this in Worq.Space in Kuala Lumpur. A few minutes ago someone saw me writing this on my huge iPadPro with my Apple Pencil and said “Cool”. Do you think that helped me gain my need for status?
- What tasks are your customers trying to perform and complete?
- What problems are they trying to solve?
- What needs are they trying to satisfy?
- What functional jobs are they trying to complete? (focusing on specific tasks or problems?)
- What social jobs are they trying to complete?
- How do they want to look good?
- How do they want to gain power?
- How do they want to gain status?
- How do they want to be perceived by others?
- What emotional jobs do they have to do?
- Are they seeking a specific emotional state?
Pains
Many entrepreneurs and businessmen have a narrow definition of pain.
Pain is the problem that the customer has that is going to let me sell to them
That is so wrong. You start by thinking back to the customer’s job and thinking about what they are trying to do. Then you think about the pains that they have in trying to achieve those goals, or deliver that vision. Pain is everything that is stopping the customer having the perfect life.
Ok. You can say this is too broad. When you do you are making a number of judgements about what the customer finds important without testing them. Simply put, if you identify many small pains, as well as he big pain you are solving, you have so many more ways to identify and create a powerful value proposition.
In the CO-working example above one of the pains for entrepreneurs is that they get hungry and have to slow down. So the CO-working space has a terminal where they can order a takeout from Food Panda. That additional value is small. It’s also a trivial cost (Food Panda provide the terminal). However it creates another point of difference versus competitors AND is a step closer to ensuring that as many of the customer’s pains are solve by the overall value proposition.
- How do your customers define too costly?
- What makes your customers feel bad?
- What are their frustrations, annoyances, or things that give them a headache?
- How are your current value propositions underperforming for your customers?
- How are your competitor’s value propositions underperforming for your customers?
- What features are they missing?
- Are there performance issues that annoy them or malfunctions that they cite?
- What are the main difficulties and challenges that your customers encounter?
- Do they understand how things work?
- Do they have difficulties getting certain things done?
- Do they resist particular jobs for specific reasons?
- What negative social consequences do your customers fear?
- Are they afraid of a loss of face, power, trust or status?
- What risks do your customers fear?
- Are they afraid of social, financial or technical risks?
- Are they asking themselves what could go wrong?
- What’s keeping your customers awake at night?
- What are their big issues, concerns and worries?
- What common mistakes do your customers make?
- Are they using a solution the wrong way?
- What barriers are keeping your customers from adopting a value proposition?
- Are there upfront investment costs, a steep learning curve or other obstacles preventing adoption?
Gains
Like the pains the gains are the things that would make the customer happy. They are not necessarily anything to do with you, your product, or your value proposition.
Again this is an exercise in imagination, or far better, questioning. Knowing what the customer wants is far far better than guessing.
Some of the gains may be absolutely impossible to achieve (I should have said something similar for the pain). That does not matter. It’s what the customer wants. It’s their perception of reality, their reality perhaps. So you, and your competitors have to play in it.
- What savings would make your customers happy?
- What savings in terms of time, money and effort would they value?
- What quality levels do they expect?
- What do they want more or less of?
- How do current VP’s delight your customers?
- What specific features do they enjoy?
- What performance and quality do they expect?
- What would make your customers lives or jobs easier?
- Could there be a flatter learning curve?
- Could there be more services?
- Could there be a lower cost of ownership?
- What positive social consequences do your customers desire?
- What makes them look good?
- What increases their power or status?
- What are customers looking for most?
- Are they searching for good design?
- Are they searching for guarantees?
- Are they search for more features or specific features?
- What do customers dream about?
- What do they aspire to achieve?
- What would be a big relief to them?
- How do your customers measure success or failure?
- How do they gauge performance or cost?
- What would increase your customer’s likelihood of adopting a value proposition?
- Do they desire lower cost?
- Do they desire less investment?
- Do they desire lower risk?
- Do they desire better quality?
Products and Services
In the products and services section we come to what YOU do. What do you do for the customer? What do you get paid for? What do you offer for free?
- What physical/tangible goods do you provide
- What intangible goods do you provide
- Copyright
- After sales assistance
- What digital products do you provide
- Downloads
- Services
- Information?
Pain relievers
The pain relievers aren’t strictly features or benefits. The way that I use them is to say that feature X delivers benefit Y and this relieves Pain Q. A trivial CO-working space example is that they have power extenders on the tables. That’s a feature. The benefit is that there is always a plug within a metre of me and so I always have power for my iPad. That relieves me of the pain of fearing that I’ll run out of power and can’t work. It is always worth asking, if my feature or benefit does not solve a pain or deliver a gain for the customer, why am I wasting my money offering it? There are many reasons for doing this. They include, doing what everyone else has always done, not understanding the customer, thinking that the feature/benefit solves a pain etc etc.How do your products and services:
Produce savings in terms of
- Time
- Money
- Effort
- Making your customers feel better
By killing
- Frustrations
- Annoyances
- Anything else that gives them a headache
Fix underperforming solutions
- By introducing new features
- Better performance
- Enhancing quality
Put an end to difficulties and challenges your customers face
- By making things easier
- By eliminating obstacles
Wipeout negative social consequences your customers encounter or fear in terms of
- Loss of face
- Lost power
- Lost trust
- Lost status
Eliminate risks your customers fear in terms of
- Financial risks
- Social risks
- Technical risks
- Generalised fear of things going wrong
Help your customers sleep better at night by addressing
- Significant issues
- Diminishing concern
- Eliminating worries
Limit or eradicate common mistakes customers make
Help them to use a solution the right way
Eliminate barriers that are preventing customers from adopting value propositions
Introducing
- lower or no upfront investment costs
- flatter learning curve
- Eliminating other obstacles preventing adoption
Gain Creators
Gain creators work just like pain relievers. They are how your features/benefits work together to deliver a gain for the customer. So, back in my co-working space I want as a gain to have a hugely productive day. One of the features of the CO-working space is the hot desk that I can jump into when I find home too distracting. The benefit then is that it provides everything that I need to work with none of the distractions that I get at home.With no distractions I get shed loads of work done.Could your products and services:
Create savings that please your customer?
In terms of
- Time?
- Money?
- Effort?
Produce outcomes your customers expect?
Produce outcomes that exceed customers expectations by offering
- Quality levels
- More of something?
- Less of something?
Outperform current value propositions and delight your customers?
Regarding
- Specific features?
- Performance?
- Quality?
Make your customer’s work or life easier?
Via better
- usability?
- Accessibility?
- More services?
- Lower cost of ownership?
Create positive social consequences?
By making them look good?
Producing an increase in power or status?
Do something specific that customers are looking for?
In terms of
- Good design
- Guarantees
- Specific features
- More features
- Money?
- Effort?
Produce outcomes your customers expect?
Produce outcomes that exceed customers expectations?
By offering
- Quality levels
- More of something?
- Less of something?
Outperform current value propositions and delight your customers?
Regarding
- Specific features?
- Performance?
- Quality?
Make your customer’s work or life easier?
Via better
- usability?
- Accessibility?
- More services?
- Lower cost of ownership?
Create positive social consequences?
By making them look good?
Producing an increase in power or status?
Do something specific that customers are looking for?
In terms of
- Good design
- Guarantees
- Specific features
- More features
Fulfill a desire customers dream about?
By helping them achieve their aspirations?
By providing relief from hardship?
Produce positive outcomes matching the customer’s success or failure criteria in terms of
- Better performance?
- Lower cost?
Help make adoption easier through
- Lower cost?
- Fewer investments
- Lower risk?
- Better quality?
- Improved performance?
- Better design?
- a desire customers dream about?
By helping them achieve their aspirations?
By providing relief from hardship?
Produce positive outcomes matching the customer’s success or failure criteria in terms of
- Better performance?
- Lower cost?
Help make adoption easier through
- Lower cost?
- Fewer investments
- Lower risk?
- Better quality?
- Improved performance?
- Better design?
We’ve covered a great deal here. The best way to use this questionnaire is to print it out, or copy and paste the whole thing into a Word document. Then write down the answers to all the questions quickly. Don’t worry about grammar. Use bullet points or notes. Let your experience flow out through the pen or your finger tips. Invariably when I do the exercises rigorously, not reading the questions and then moving onto the next in a fugue, I develop detailed insight into the value proposition that creates massive value. Please do the same. If you’d like me to help you develop or improve your value proposition do set up a meeting for an initial consultation.
