Alex and Yves h
ave done it again.
The Business Model Generation authors have released Value Proposition Design, a long-awaited follow-up to Business Model Generation and an important new book in its own right.
Learn more by reading Steve Blank’s excellent review, and buy the book now.
Knowing how to design value propositions is essential for enterprises (for a cautionary tale on failure to design value propositions effectively, see How My Fortune 20 Employer Innovated Itself into Bankruptcy).
Value proposition (VP) design can be terrifically helpful for individuals, too. Let’s examine one way designing VPs for enterprises differs from designing VPs for individuals: You might think of it as the difference between Market Philosophy and Resource Philosophy.
When designing a value proposition for an enterprise, it’s best to ignore existing services or products and focus on Customer Jobs-to-be Done. This is Market Philosophy: The enterprise should address the most compelling market need.
When designing a Value Proposition for individuals, though, the process is somewhat different. It’s best to focus on discovering and understanding Customer Jobs-to-be Done — but only those Jobs that we care deeply about and personally want to help with. This is Resource Philosophy: Individuals should focus only on Customer needs they’re personally interested in and have the resources to address.
For example, if you’re a biology teacher, you’re unlikely to switch to computer science just because more students are seeking programming courses.
There’s a tool individuals can use to help them define and test their personal value propositions. It’s based on the PINT
methodology that Bruce Hazen developed over many years to help career seekers understand the forces that generate work in every organization. About a year ago, we adapted Bruce’s PINT model to serve as a value proposition design and testing tool. Since then, we’ve been teaching it in workshops, seminars, and courses. You can download the PINT tool or read more about PINT.
We’ll share additional PINT insights in upcoming messages. For now, do yourself a favor and buy Value Proposition Design!
