Value Preposition: What you need to know to stand out

Hector Shibata
2 min readMay 24, 2022

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Every entrepreneur when building a product needs to think about the value proposition for the customer. For example, Apple’s value proposition is to provide you with the best experience, starting with the purchase and especially during the use of their devices. Nike, for example, offers you high-performance sports equipment or lifestyle gear with color combinations and premium materials. Tiktok offers a space for users to get inspired, explore and publish their own creative content.

The value proposition is at the heart of your competitive advantage. The value proposition should not be understood as the company’s mission, slogan, motto or marketing tool. On the contrary, it is that great business differentiator and the reason why customers buy your product or service from you and not from your competitors.

In recent years, a value proposition canvas has been developed as a visual tool to position your product or service in relation to the customer.

The Value Preposition Canvas

https://advenio.es/tu-propuesta-de-valor-desde-el-cliente-value-proposition-canvas/

One element of the canvas is the customer profile and the second is the value map. The customer profile is perhaps the element to review initially since you have to create the profile of your target customer by identifying their wants and needs. For example, what is the customer’s job, i.e. what is the problem they are trying to solve, that is where your product or service comes in. By problem we refer to those elements that hinder or introduce friction elements so that the customer can meet their goals.

The second element is the customer’s expectations or gains, which consist of the ideas that the user has in relation to the usefulness of the product or service. For example, when a customer buys online, they expect the process to be intuitive, simple and secure. The third element is the customer’s pain points, i.e. the risks, negative emotions or difficulties encountered by the customer in meeting expectations.

Once you have defined the customer with their objectives, problems and profit expectations, the next step is to create the value map of your products and services. It basically consists of translating and adapting what you have discovered about the customer into the construction of the product. The first element is the value creations. That is, those elements required by the product or service to make the customer happy. To do this you have to identify your customer’s activities, skills, personality and values.

The second element is those characteristics that eliminate your customer’s pain. That is, those elements that are solving exactly the problem they have. Finally you get to the product or service indicating those characteristics of what you are offering to your customer to support him, adding value.

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Hector Shibata

Investor in VC/growth/PE supporting startups and VC funds in the US, Latam, Europe, India and Israel. Also, Fintech entrepreneur, IB, board member and speaker.