Determine Value Proposition

Determine a Value Proposition

What is a Value Proposition?

A value proposition is the reason why a consumer should use a product or service. You can think of this statement as the reason users will be interested and willing to engage with your product.

Value propositions ensure that users have a reason to use the product that you are creating, as opposed to any other product currently available.

Building Value Propositions

Starting Questions

Before developing value propositions, you need to answer these two fundamental questions:

What does your product do? Clearly explain the offering that your product provides users
Why should the user care? Describe how your product addresses users’ pain points

Four-Step Process

Step-by-Step

Step 1: Describe your product’s features and benefits

Create a list of all the great features and benefits of your product, big and small
Don’t hold back; list everything that comes to mind and then narrow it down later
Let your imagination run free and avoid thinking about implementation at this stage

Step 2: Explain the value of the product

Anything that you identify as a value proposition needs to be beneficial to your users
Sort your features and benefits into categories based on user values identified during user interviews
Features that don’t add real “value” for users should be set aside

Step 3: Connect features and benefits with user needs

The goal is to identify what’s truly valuable to the user and not just a cool feature that users didn’t ask for
Take the personas you’ve developed and pair each persona with a value proposition that meets their biggest pain point
Match specific features to specific user needs

Step 4: Review your official value proposition list

You’ve narrowed your list down by matching them with actual user needs
Review the final list of value propositions your product offers
Remove those that your competition also offers to identify your unique value proposition

Example: Gmail’s Value Propositions

When Google debuted Gmail in 2004, they were entering an already crowded market of free email services. Gmail offered:

The ability to send and receive emails for free
Email sorting, archiving, and starring functions
Spam filtering for inboxes
Email conversation views
1 gigabyte of cloud storage

Two unique value propositions that no other email services provided at the time:

Email conversation views - put individual emails in the context of a larger thread
1 gigabyte of storage - 1,000 times the amount of storage that competitors offered

Practical Application: Gym App Example

For a gym app helping users like Amal (an athlete who needs to sign up for workout classes because the class he wants fills up fast), potential features might include:

Easy access to book private trainers
Reservations for popular machines
Make music requests in the gym
On-demand videos for in-home exercises
Sign up for workout classes
Track workouts on the app via fitness devices

After filtering for Amal’s specific needs (planning visits to the gym), the value propositions become:

Easy access to book private trainers
Reservations for popular machines
Sign up for workout classes

Identifying Unique Value Propositions

To stand out from competition:

Review your list of value propositions that match to your personas
Remove those that your competition also offers
Research competitor reviews to identify unmet needs in the market
Focus on pain points that no other products are addressing

Key Characteristics

Value propositions need to be:

Short - easy to digest quickly
Clear - users can easily understand the benefit
To the point - focused on specific user needs

Users want to be able to easily identify exactly how your product will meet their unique needs and what sets your product apart in the market. Sometimes users won’t know what they need until you explain it to them - that’s the real heart of product design innovation.