Value Proposition Canvas
A template to see whether an offer fits a customer type: on one side, their profile (jobs, pains and gains); on the other, the offer’s value map.
What it’s for
Helps design from what a person is trying to achieve rather than from what the organization wants to sell.
Key elements
Jobs
What the customer is trying to do or solve.
Pains and gains
What bothers or worries them, and the outcomes they want.
Fit
The offer fits when it relieves the pains and creates the gains that matter most. It is a hypothesis to be tested with customers.
How it’s done
Describe the profile of a customer type: jobs, pains and gains.
Fill in the value map with products and services, pain relievers and gain creators.
Test the fit between both parts with real customers.
Applications in design
When to use it
To define or review what a product, space or service offers a specific type of customer.
Avoid
Filling the profile with assumptions and taking it as valid.
Don’t fall for it
One canvas per customer type: mixing different customers erases what matters to each one.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2014
Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda and Alan Smith
Presented the canvas for designing and testing value propositions, as a complement to their business model canvas.
Sources
Original sources
- Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., & Smith, A. (2014). Value proposition design: How to create products and services customers want. Wiley.
- Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation. Wiley.
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