VALUE MAP (tool)

Brief description

Tool that helps you describe the benefits customers can expect from your product and services. It includes the features of a specific value proposition in a more structured and detailed way. It breaks your value proposition down into products and services, pain relievers, and gain creators. It is the Value Map of the Value Proposition Canvas.

Step

Ideate, Prototype Improvement

Input

Ideas or Concepts

Output

Clear value proposition of proposed solutions

Time

30 min to 1 hr

Difficulty

3/5

People

2 – 5 (participants)

Quick Guide

  • Identify the product or service you need to analyze, and the specific segment you are targeting. If you already filled the Customer Profile of the Value Proposition Canvas, use it.
  • Create a list of what you offer. List the items that your customers can see and helps them complete functional, emotional or social jobs or helps them satisfy their basic needs.
  • Outline how you intend to eliminate or reduce some of the things that annoys your customer before, during or after they are trying to complete a job or that prevent them from doing so.
  • Outline how you intend to produce outcomes and benefits that your customer expects, desires, or would be surprised by, including functional utility, social gains, positive emotions, and cost savings.

Benefits

  • Helps your design, test and build products and services.
  • Describe how you intend to create value for the customer.
  • Improves customer understanding and engagement.
  • Gives direction, focus and clarity to the team.
  • Aligns cross-functional teams.

Helpful Tips

  • You should not try to address all customer pains and gains. Focus on certain jobs, pains and gains and achieve those exceedingly well.
  • Pain relievers and gain creators are explanations or characteristics that create the value. Example: “helps save time” and “well-designed”. Products and services do not create value in absolute terms, they are always relative to the customers´ jobs, pains and gains.

Application

Format Overview

Products and Services types:
  • Physical/tangible. Goods, such as manufactured products.
  • Intangible. Products such as copyrights or services such as after-sales assistance.
  • Digital. Products such as music downloads or services such as online recommendations.
  • Financial. Products such as investment funds and insurances or services such as the financing of a purchase.
Pain Relievers Trigger questions

Ask yourself: Could your products and service…

  • Produce savings? In terms of time, money, or efforts.
  • Make your customers feel better? By killing frustrations, annoyances, and other things that give customers a headache.
  • Fix under-performing solutions? By introducing new features, better performance, or enhanced quality.
  • Put an end to difficulties and challenges your customers encounter? By making things easier or eliminating obstacles.
  • Wipe out negative social consequences your customers encounter or fear? In terms of loss of face or lost power, trust, or status.
  • Eliminate risks your customers fear? In terms of financial, social, technical risks, or things that could potentially go wrong.
  • Help your customers better sleep at night? By addressing significant issues, diminishing concerns, or eliminating worries.
  • Limit or eradicate common mistakes customers make? By helping them use a solution the right way.
  • Eliminate barriers that are keeping your customer from adopting value propositions? Introducing lower or no upfront investment costs, a flatter learning curve, or eliminating other obstacles preventing adoption.
Gain Creators Trigger questions

Ask yourself: Could your products and service…

  • Create savings that please your customers? In terms of time, money, and effort.
  • Produce outcomes your customers expect or that exceed their expectations? By offering quality levels, more of something, or less of something.
  • Outperform current value propositions and delight your customers? Regarding specific features, performance, or quality.
  • Make your customers’ work or life easier? Via better usability, accessibility, more services, or lower cost of ownership.
  • Create positive social consequences? By making them look good or producing an increase in power or status.
  • Do something specific that customers are looking for? In terms of good design, guarantees, or specific or more features.
  • Fulfill a desire customer dream about? By helping them achieve their aspirations or getting relief from a hardship?
  • Produce positive outcomes matching your customers’ success and failure criteria? In terms of better performance or lower cost.
  • Help make adoption easier? Through lower cost, fewer investments, lower risk, better quality, improved performance, or better design.
Pains & Gains vs. Pain Relievers & Gain Creators.

You do not have control over the pains & gains, whereas you have control over the pain relievers & gain creators. You decide how to create value by addressing specific jobs, pains and gains. You do not decide over which jobs, pains, and gains the customer has.

Format

For better purpose you can download and print the format.  

Download

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