The **[[Value Proposition Canvas]]** is a [[Marketing & Analytics|Marketing]] tool that aims to visual a map between the products and services of a business, and the needs of its potential customers. ^about There are two main entities in this tool: **The Customer Profile** and **The Value Map** (i.e. you/your business); and three corresponding elements within each. ![[Value Proposition Canvas Diagram.excalidraw.svg]] It centres around detailing the persona of The Customer: what they are trying to do and the opportunities and difficulties they while doing so, then mapping that to the features of your offered products and services. Critically, you (as the business) have no control over *The Customer Profile*, you can only seek to better understand it through [[Customer Development]] and other methods. It is *The Value Map* where you have the agency to choose what and how you address *The Customer Profile*. You observe the customer, your design the value. As customer interviews and research is conducted, it is important to have an understanding and hypothesis of your value proposition *prior* to such interviews and surveys. You should be targeting and validating your hypotheses, as opposed to broadly enquiring for what pains and gains may or may not exist. Note that, at some later point, if you change your value proposition, you must change your business model. Similarly if you change your business model, you are directly or indirectly changing your value proposition. ## The Customer Profile **Jobs** - What are the tasks your customers are trying to perform or problems they are trying to solve? This can also be considered as 'needs'. These include the intuitive *functional* (e.g. sell coffee) jobs, as well as *social* (e.g. positively perceived by clients) and *emotional* (e.g. feeling confident in my role) jobs. It is important to list these through your customers' eyes and needs, and not already shoe-horned into how your offering applies to them. Consider a simple [[Five Whys]] on anything you come up with to start identifying their actual needs. **Pains** - What are the negative experiences, emotions, or risks your customers encounter or might encounter before, during, and after getting the job done? What is holding you back from achieving your jobs? **Gains** - What are the positive outcomes or benefits your customers expect, desire, or would be surprised by? What events would be an indicator of success for the customer? Note that pains are gains should not be listed as 'opposites'. Consider a neutral ground of 'expected behaviour' that is neither a pain nor a gain. Things that violate this expectation or contract will be a pain, while things that greatly exceed the expectation, or that are events that mark or measure success, would be a gain. ## The Value Map **Products and Services** - WHAT are the products and services you offer that help your customer get their job done? **Pain Relievers** - HOW do your products or services alleviate or minimize the customer's pains? **Gain Creators** - HOW do your products or services create or enhance gains for your customer? Note that pain relievers and gain creators *should be mapped* to pains and gains, in order to ensure you are constantly validating your products and services. Also note that pain relievers can related to gains, and gain creators can map to pains, and it can be a many to many situation. You will generally end up with far fewer in the value side than on the customer side. This is because the actual aspects of the customer will be many, whilst your products and services are (or should be) intentionally designed to efficiently answer the specific jobs, pains, and gains you have chosen to target. ## Product-Market Fit A **Problem-Solution Fit** is achieved when the features of your products and services match the characteristics of your customer profile. When the external market *validates* this match, you have achieved a **Product-Market Fit**. ## Related The entities of the *Value Proposition Canvas* directly translate to components of the [[Business Model Canvas]]. The customer profile translates to step 1 on customer segments, and the value map corresponds to step 2 on value proposition. Refer to [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN36EcTE54Q) for a 5-minute overview of the model, or [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0mtUQnny94) for a more detailed 60-minute best practices video. Both models are by the developer of the canvas [[Alexander Osterwalder]] through his company [[Strategyzer]].