How To Use Value Proposition Canvas As Part Of Your Product Discovery

There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing and starting a business. The most crucial, perhaps, is to ensure that the products and services you plan to sell will offer value to your target market. Aside from the price and quality, you have to make sure that your customers will actually need your merchandise. Otherwise, you won’t be earning a profit.

As such, you’ll have to develop an effective value proposition which you can share with consumers. But first, let’s understand what a value proposition is and the tool you can use to create an effective one.

What is a value proposition?

Your company’s value proposition is basically a high-level summary of the benefits that your products and services offer to consumers. It should present a compelling reason, such as a unique benefit or feature, for buyers to choose your brand instead of going to your competitors.

Creating a value proposition may seem simple enough. You should remember, though, that it’s different from an incentive, catchphrase, or positioning statement. (1)

A great way to help you develop an effective value proposition is by using a tool. A specialized value proposition canvas gives you a clear picture of the features and functionalities that your products should have, in order to fulfill the demands of your target audience.

The straightforward template contains two geometric shapes. First, you get a circle, which is divided into three parts. There’s a space for filling up the issues that the customers may want to address or do with your products and services, which is also called jobs. The other two areas are for the positive and negative outcomes and experiences that are associated with the buyers’ jobs.

The next shape is a square. Here, you’ll focus on the product—particularly, the features, functionalities, and benefits that it can offer. This way, you can entice consumers and accommodate their requirements, according to the information from the other parts of the canvas.

How is it useful for product discovery?

Customers are the lifeblood of any enterprise. More than using a business model canvas or other tools to grow your company, you should be aware of your consumers’ requirements and preferences. This is how you can develop products that will resonate with your target audience, since they know more about their needs and context. (2)

Here are some ways that a value proposition canvas can aid in product discovery:

Challenge assumptions

No matter how you try to keep a blank slate, there’ll always be preconceived notions about a particular demographic. These assumptions, though, only serve to hamper product discovery, since you won’t be able to address people’s needs. As such, you’ll end up with a product that no one wants to buy because it doesn’t solve anyone’s problems or, at the very least, just a few ones who fit into that stereotype.

A value proposition canvas can help you challenge assumptions that your team has about your target audience. This is because you need to dig deep and understand their problems, as well as the positive and negative experiences they have in those circumstances. You can take these preconceived notions and use them as hypotheses, which you can then test with data.

Perform empirical user research

Speaking of data, a value proposition canvas is also a useful tool for empirical user research. The data that you collect from surveys, interviews, and tests can verify the validity of your hypotheses. Untested assumptions will have a negative impact on your product discovery process, so you should maximize tools to gather quantitative and qualitative data.

Generate product discovery artifacts

These artifacts are tools or models that can help enterprises stay aware of user data. For instance, you can generate journey maps that can give you a visual of the actions that buyers or users should take to accomplish a goal.

Another valuable product discovery artifact would be consumer personas, which is a smart categorization of your niche target. It’s a complex model that takes into consideration demographics, psychographics, and buying behaviors, which enterprises can visualize as they develop products.

Takeaway

A value proposition canvas allows entrepreneurs to determine the benefits that their products and services can offer to consumers. The best thing about this tool is that it can help you create an effective product discovery process by challenging assumptions, performing empirical data research, and generating product design artifacts.

This way, your business can provide potential buyers with merchandise or services that can help them streamline daily tasks or solve everyday problems. When people experience the value that you promote, they’ll become loyal customers, and your business can continue benefiting from their patronage.

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