A Full Guide to the Value Proposition Canvas
The Value Proposition Canvas is a template for checking whether what you offer actually matches what your customers need. One side shows your customers, with the jobs they are trying to get done, their pains and the gains they hope for. The other side shows your offer. By the end, you can see where the two fit and where they do not.
Many offers are built the other way round: you describe what your product does and hope someone needs it. The canvas reverses that order. You start with the customer and build your offer afterwards.
In workshops you will often hear it shortened to "jobs, pains and gains". It is the same tool.
What is the Value Proposition Canvas?
The canvas comes from Strategyzer and was introduced in the book Value Proposition Design by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur and co-authors. It sits alongside the better-known Business Model Canvas and zooms in on two of its blocks: customer segments and value propositions.
Here, that zoom is the whole point. On the Business Model Canvas, each of these topics gets one small box. On the Value Proposition Canvas, they get a full page, which gives you enough room to actually think them through.
The two sides: customer segment and value proposition
The canvas is made of two shapes connected by arrows.
On the right is a circle, the Customer Segment. It describes the people you are offering something to: what they want to achieve, what gets in their way, and what they hope for.
On the left is a square, the Value Proposition. It describes what you offer and how it helps the people on the right.
The goal is what is called a fit: every element on the left answers something on the right.
The 6 blocks
The block names below match the ones printed on the poster.
The customer segment
Customer Job(s): What are your customers trying to get done? This covers practical tasks, but also social and emotional ones: how they want to be seen by others, and how they want to feel.
Pains: What frustrates your customers, costs them too much time or money, worries them, or stops them from even trying a solution?
Gains: What do your customers want, expect, or would be delighted by? This includes benefits they never mention, because they take them for granted.
The value proposition
Products & Services: What exactly do you offer? This is the list of your offers, without any justification yet.
Pain Relievers: How do you take away exactly the pains noted on the right?
Gain Creators: How do you deliver exactly the gains your customers are hoping for?
How do you fill in the Value Proposition Canvas?
Start on the right, with the customer, and work your way to the left. If you start with your own product, you end up only looking for confirmation.
- Pick one customer segment. One canvas belongs to exactly one group of customers. For a second group, use a second canvas.
- Collect customer jobs. Note everything this group wants to achieve, including the social and emotional jobs.
- Collect pains. What gets in their way?
- Collect gains. What would make them happier than they are today?
- Prioritize the right side. Rank pains and gains by how much they matter to the customer. The ones at the top count most.
- Add your products and services. Only now does your offer come in.
- Add pain relievers and gain creators. Refer directly to the notes on the right as you go.
- Check the fit. Draw a line from each pain reliever and gain creator to the pain or gain it answers. Anything on the left without a partner is a candidate to drop. Anything high up on the right without a partner is your biggest gap.
This may take about an hour on your own, or around 90 minutes with a group.
What a completed canvas can look like
Let's take a freelance facilitator as an example. He/she runs strategy workshops for small companies. Their customer segment is the management of firms with ten to fifty employees. This is what their value proposition per block would look like:
Customer Job(s): set the strategy for next year, bring the team on board, make a good impression on shareholders.
Pains: hardly any time for a full day, past workshops that produced nothing tangible, a team that does not speak openly in a large group.
Gains: a clear plan in a single day, a team that stands behind it, a result worth showing.
Products & Services: a one-day strategy workshop with a preparation call and follow-up.
Pain Relievers: a fixed agenda that fits into one day, and a round of card sorting where everyone writes in silence first.
Gain Creators: a photographed result and an action plan on the same day.
Checking the fit shows that "past workshops that produced nothing" is the most important pain. The same-day action plan answers it directly, so he/she moves it to the top of her/his offer description.
Outside of business, too
The canvas works anywhere someone offers something to a group of people.
A sports club wants to attract more teenagers, for example. On the right: teenagers want to play sport with friends, burn off energy and meet new people. Under pains, training times clash with school and the membership fee is too high. On the left, the club answers with a free trial session, a later training slot and a reduced student fee.
It works just as well for a church community, a library or a volunteer project.
Common mistakes
- Several customer segments on one canvas. The pains of a managing director are not the pains of their team. One segment per canvas.
- Starting with the product. The right side then gets filled in to match the offer.
- Not prioritizing. Twenty equally important pains do not show you where to start.
- Treating assumptions as facts. What sits on the right is a guess at first. Talk to real customers before you build an offer on it.
Value Proposition Canvas or Business Model Canvas?
The two belong together. The Business Model Canvas describes the whole business model across nine blocks. The Value Proposition Canvas takes two of them, customer segments and value propositions, and looks at them in detail.
If you want to think through the entire model, start with the Business Model Canvas. If you want to know whether a specific offer works for a specific group, use the Value Proposition Canvas. And if you want to apply the same logic to your own working life, that is what the Business Model You canvas is for.
With or without trigger questions?
We print the canvas as a poster, in two versions.
Value Proposition Canvas – With Trigger Questions for Deeper Mapping
Guiding questions are printed in every block, so a group can work through the canvas without a facilitator explaining each field. A good choice for a first attempt, and for teams new to the method.
Value Proposition Canvas – Without Trigger Questions for Flexible Use
The same layout with empty blocks. More room for notes, and full control over which questions you ask. Made for facilitators who already know the method.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the Value Proposition Canvas and the Business Model Canvas? The Business Model Canvas describes the whole business model. The Value Proposition Canvas zooms in on two of its blocks, customer segments and value propositions.
How many customer segments go on one canvas? Exactly one. Each additional group of customers gets its own canvas.
How long does it take to fill in? About an hour on your own, around 90 minutes with a group.
What does "fit" mean? Fit means your pain relievers and gain creators match the pains and gains that matter most to your customers.
Do I need the version with trigger questions? For a first attempt, and for groups using the canvas for the first time, yes. If you know the method and bring your own questions, the version without them gives you more freedom.
The Value Proposition Canvas is a tool by Strategyzer AG (strategyzer.com). All rights reserved by Strategyzer AG.