Customer 2012

Value Proposition Canvas

A square and a circle: what you offer on one side, what the customer actually wants on the other. Fit is the game.

What it is

Two halves. The circle profiles one customer segment: their jobs, pains, and gains, in their words. The square maps your offer: products, pain relievers, gain creators. Run both honestly and the mismatches stare back at you. That's the point.

Reach for it when

• A team says "customers love this" and nobody can name which customers
• Discovery interviews are done and the notes need a shape
• Marketing and product each carry a different story about why people buy

Running it

1. Profile the customer first, offer second. Doing it in the other order turns the circle into a mirror.
2. Fill the circle from interview notes, not memory. Real quotes beat clean phrasing.
3. Map the square, then draw lines: which reliever answers which pain? Boxes with no line are the conversation.
4. About 45 minutes per segment. One segment per canvas, always.