Theme 2: Value Proposition

Choosing a Customer

Gather and Organize Notes

 Organize your interview notes by customer segment (group of customers with similar
buying behavior)
 Write the key insights from each interview on a post-it note, examples:
o Needs - Consumer wants more insight about the items she purchases
o Need locations - Biggest frustration is with frequent purchases like at the grocery
store
o Need features - Concern is primarily around safe food practices, plus donations
to political parties

Choose your Target Customer

 Gather similar insights within a customer segment
o Determine the common themes of the need first
o Assess where the need is the biggest / most frequent
o Additional research may be valuable
 Choose your top segment - this will be your beachhead market or target market
o Determine which segment has more positive insights
Common question: What's the right size of customer segment?
 Small enough that the customers within the group are homogenous in their buying
behavior and important demographic indicators for your industry, but
 Big enough to have profit potential for your company.
 Also, it would ideally be a customer segment with credibility in the space, where other
"follow-on markets" will trust this initial group's recommendations.

Customer Persona
What it is
One single person within your target market, ideally someone from your interviews, who…
 Has the biggest unmet need where you could create the most value and
 Will spend the time and money to adopt your offering
Basically - your ideal customer!

edx.org/course/becoming-entrepreneur-mitx-launch-x
Why it's important
 Align the company around a common vision of the customer need
 Refer back to this person when making decisions, either through reminding yourself and
asking what this customer would want or where he/she would look for solutions, or by
physically calling or emailing the person to ask!

This can be a poster, PowerPoint, video, or other visual reminder of key details.
See the online course for suggestions on how to create it, plus an example.

Value Proposition
Full Life Cycle Use Case
First, map your customer's full use case - from when they discover they have a problem,
through creating value, and getting word of mouth referrals from a satisfied customer.

Your market research approach should have solved that by asking customers to reveal more in
the early stages of discovering the need and looking for solutions.

Value Proposition
The value proposition is your sales message.
 Defines "why you should buy from us"
 Clearly communicated to the customer
 Shapes every choice you make and every aspect of the customer's experience
 Is NOT a slogan or catchphrase

edx.org/course/becoming-entrepreneur-mitx-launch-x
Your value proposition must have a few key parts:
 Customer - Who you are providing value for
 Industry - What category the company plays within
 The promise of value to be delivered
 Strategy - Belief from the customer that value will be realized

See the online course for examples of value proposition statement, and how to quantify them.

Outline for writing a value proposition statement:

For (target audience),

our company is the brand of (industry or other frame of reference or type of product/service)
that delivers (quantified primary benefit / promise)
because (key attributes / strategy).

edx.org/course/becoming-entrepreneur-mitx-launch-x
 Customer Persona and Value Proposition Worksheet

Target Customer: __________________________________________

Why did you choose this customer?

Develop a depiction of your Customer Persona:

 Name and Title ____________________________________________
 Frustrations, Needs, Challenges _____________________________________________
 Goals________________________________________________________________________
 A Quote______________________________________________________________________
 Interests_____________________________________________________________________
 Age, Location, Background___________________________________________________
 Occupation, Socioeconomic Status__________________________________________
 Other important information_________________________________________________
 A picture of the person

Full Life Cycle Use Case

Fill in the below from the perspective of your customer as they discover their problem, search
for your solution, find it, analyze whether it will solve their need, etc.

edx.org/course/becoming-entrepreneur-mitx-launch-x
Value Proposition
The value proposition is your sales message.

Outline for writing a value proposition statement:

For (target audience),
our company is the brand of (industry or other frame of reference or type of product/service)
that delivers (quantified primary benefit / promise)
because (key attributes / strategy).

Write your own:

For ___________________________________________________,
our company is the brand of _________________________________________________________
that delivers _________________________________________________________________________
because _____________________________________________________________________________.

edx.org/course/becoming-entrepreneur-mitx-launch-x