Product and strategy
Value proposition canvas
Map a customer's jobs, pains and gains beside your product's pain relievers and gain creators, to check that the two really fit.
- Time60 to 90 minutes
- People2 to 8 people
- Steps4
What it's for
The canvas has two halves. On the right is a customer profile: the jobs people are trying to get done, the pains that get in the way and the gains they hope for. On the left is a value map: your products and services, how they relieve those pains and how they create those gains. There's a fit when the left answers the most important things on the right.
Start with the customer half, and fill it from research. It's tempting to start with the product and invent customers who want it.
How to run it
Customer jobs10 min
What they're trying to get done: practical tasks, and how they want to feel and be seen.
Pains and gains15 min
What gets in the way, and what they'd be glad of. Put the essential ones at the top.
The value map15 min
Your products and services, then how each relieves a pain or creates a gain.
Check the fit10 min
Draw a line from each reliever and creator to the pain or gain it serves. Notes with no line, on either side, are the gaps.
Tips
- One customer segment per canvas. Two segments squeezed onto one blur both.
- A pain reliever that answers a pain nobody wrote down is a feature looking for a reason.
Where it comes from
Created by Alexander Osterwalder and described in Value Proposition Design (2014), written with Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda and Alan Smith.
Pairs well with
Business model canvas
Nine boxes (customers, value, channels, revenue, costs and the rest) that describe how a business creates and captures value.
Jobs to be done canvas
Describe the job a customer is trying to get done, the stages they go through, and the outcomes they use to judge whether it went well.
Empathy map
A shared picture of one type of person: what they say, think, do and feel, built from research rather than guesses.