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How to Test Value Propositions like a Business Designer
ideou.com
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What is a Unique Value Proposition? “Think of a value proposition (or value prop) as a simple statement that helps describe what benefit a potential customer might get from using a specific product or service over another.” Externally, it serves as a foundation for any public communications and marketing that you might do. It's telling your customer clearly what your offer is and why they should choose you over a competitor.
For [target user], who [user need], [name of concept] solves/provides/helps [benefit]. “And then the most important part is the benefit that your customer is getting by choosing your offering.” “A value proposition serves as a north star. It helps the entire organization move in the same direction.” Angel Annunciacao, Senior Business Director at IDEO
Think of a value proposition (or value prop) as a simple statement that helps describe what benefit a potential customer might get from using a specific product or service over another. It sounds really simple, but it's incredibly invaluable and important in business design—both externally and internally. “It's telling your customer clearly what your offer is and why they should choose you over a competitor.” Internally, it's also important because it serves as a north star. It helps the entire organization, whether you’re in accounting or engineering or product, really align on what it is you’re trying to offer in the marketplace and move in the same direction.
Once we have a few value props that we feel good about, we dig into more questions to really flesh out the benefit. These questions can include: “How does the offer help create value for the customer?” How is the offer unique to what's already in the marketplace?
At IDEO, we start with a simple fill-in-the-blank sentence: “For [target user], who [user need], [name of concept] solves/provides/helps [benefit].” First, you define who your target user is that you're going after. Then there’s the user need—what is that pain point that you're trying to solve for? The name of your concept is your offering, whether it’s a product or a service. And then the most important part is the benefit that your customer is getting by choosing your offering.
For the novice entrepreneur, who doesn’t know a lot about launching an ecommerce business, Shopify provides a step by step process to set up, grow, and manage their entire transactions. “It doesn't get into the details of every single feature, but it's easy to understand and gives us enough information to understand what makes Shopify unique.” Once we have a few value props that we feel good about, we dig into more questions to really flesh out the benefit. These questions can include:
Think of a value proposition (or value prop) as a simple statement that helps describe what benefit a potential customer might get from using a specific product or service over another. It sounds really simple, but it's incredibly invaluable and important in business design—both externally and internally. “It's telling your customer clearly what your offer is and why they should choose you over a competitor.” Internally, it's also important because it serves as a north star. It helps the entire organization, whether you’re in accounting or engineering or product, really align on what it is you’re trying to offer in the marketplace and move in the same direction.