How do you write a value proposition for each customer segment?

One value proposition canvas per segment, not one for the product. Each segment has its own jobs, pains and gains, and the product's value is what it does for those, stated in the segment's words. A proposition that fits every segment fits none. The case had four segments and four canvases, and the differences between them were the first business design finding.

What is the value proposition canvas and how do you use it?

One value proposition canvas per segment, not one for the product. Each segment has its own jobs, pains and gains, and the product's value is what it does for those, stated in the segment's words. A proposition that fits every segment fits none. The case had four segments and four canvases, and the differences between them were the first business design finding.

Why should a startup have different value propositions for different users?

One value proposition canvas per segment, not one for the product. Each segment has its own jobs, pains and gains, and the product's value is what it does for those, stated in the segment's words. A proposition that fits every segment fits none. The case had four segments and four canvases, and the differences between them were the first business design finding.

Value proposition by segment · Business Design

§The hypotheses: for each segment we can name, the relieves a pain or creates a gain that the segment itself describes as important, and we can say which one in their words.

§Business design begins where the 's evidence ended: with the people who were interviewed, sorted into segments, and a question about what the product is worth to each. The instrument is Strategyzer's value proposition canvas, and the rule that makes it useful is that there is one per segment.

§ 1.1Jobs, pains, gains#

§The canvas has two halves. On the customer side: the jobs the person is trying to get done, the pains that make those jobs hard, and the gains they hope for or would be delighted by. On the product side: the products and services offered, the pain relievers, and the gain creators. The proposition is the fit between the two halves, and the fit is written in the customer's words, because a fit written in the team's words is a fit with the team's imagination.

§Christensen's jobs framing is the discipline for the left half. A job is a progress a person is trying to make in a situation, not a demographic and not a feature request. "Be recognized when I arrive somewhere I go often" is a job. "Loyalty program" is not.

§ 1.2One canvas per segment#

§The mistake this chapter exists to prevent is the single canvas for the product. A product usually serves several kinds of people, and their jobs differ, sometimes to the point of conflict, which the next chapter is about. A single canvas averages them into a proposition that describes nobody.

Case

The hospitality group's sprint had interviewed six customers and six operations staff, and the synthesis split them into four segments. Frequent customers: the job was to be known, the pain was repeating themselves, the gain was being treated as a regular across brands they did not know were related. Occasional customers: the job was a good night out, the pain was not getting a table, the gain was seeing the group's other restaurants when the first was full; five of six had loved that. Staff: the job was to serve well under pressure, the pain was walking up to a regular blind, the gain was knowing before reaching the table; five of six named the profile card. Managers: the job was to know their regulars as a business, the pain was that the knowledge lived in individual servers' heads and left with them, the gain was seeing it across shifts and brands. Four canvases, and the propositions were different enough that a single one would have been false to all four.

§ 1.3What the canvas is for#

§It is not a poster. It is a set of claims, each of which can be checked against the pages from the sprint. For every pain reliever on the right, there should be a quote on the left that names the pain. For every gain creator, a quote that names the gain. A product-side box with no matching customer-side quote is an assumption, and it goes on the running list.

§The canvas also produces the first signal without asking about money: the segment whose pains are sharpest and whose gains are most vivid in their own words is the segment most likely to pay, and chapter 10 will return to that.

§ 1.4What has to be true#

§Added to the running list from this chapter: each segment's top pain, in their words, with the quote and the interview code. Each segment's top gain, likewise. For each product-side box, the customer-side evidence, or the word "assumption" and an owner.

1. Value proposition by segment