How to fill in a value proposition canvas, with an example

To fill in a value proposition canvas, pick one customer segment and start on the customer side. Write the jobs they're trying to get done, the pains along the way and the gains they want, and rank each list. Then write what you offer, how it relieves those pains and how it creates those gains, match each one to a customer note, and test the matches with real customers.

Strategyzer's page on the canvas says to describe "one customer segment: the jobs they are trying to get done, the pains they hit along the way, and the gains they are after". For your own side, it says to "list what you offer, then name the pains it relieves and the gains it creates". The sentence we'd stick above the board is this one: "Fit is a claim until customers confirm it."

We make Prompt Board, and our value proposition canvas template opens on the invented invoicing app below. A sheet of paper split into two halves works too.

Which side first

Strategyzer's page doesn't set an order, and we start with the customer. If you begin with your product, every customer note tends to come out as the mirror of a feature you already have.

Each side has three boxes on our board.

Use one test on the first three boxes. Would this note still be true if your product didn't exist? "Chase late payments" passes. "Wishes reminders were easier to set up" fails, because it assumes a reminder tool is already there.

An invoicing app, from draft to gap

Everything in this section is invented: the app, the freelancers, the interviews, the notes and the planned test. There's no such app, and nobody was interviewed.

A two-person team wants to build an invoicing app for freelancers. Their first draft is the sample on our board.

The customer side

All four notes pass the test, since every one would be true of a freelancer who'd never heard of the app. They're also thin, because the team wrote them at a desk. So the team talks to six freelancers and asks about the last invoice each one sent and how it got paid.

Two new notes come out of those talks. Under Pains goes "Types the same details on every invoice". Under Gains goes "Knows what's coming in next month". Both pass the test.

The ranking

The template asks you to move the most important note to the top of each box. The team ranks by how often it came up and how strongly people spoke about it. Chase late payments goes above Send invoices, because several people said they send invoices without trouble and then wait for the money. Awkward chasing goes above retyping details. A ranking from six talks is still a judgement, and the team writes it down as one.

The offer side

The matching

Our template suggests drawing a connector from each reliever or creator to the note it answers. Here's what the team draws.

Then come the three things this table shows.

A feature with no reason. Invoice templates sit in Products and services with no line to anything. Now that retyping is on the board as a pain, the fix is simple: add "Details filled in for you" as a pain reliever and draw the connector. The feature can stay, because a person they spoke to named the pain it answers.

A real gap. Nothing answers "Knows what's coming in next month". The team can build for it, say the product doesn't do this, or decide the note matters less than it looked. They choose to leave it, and they write that down, so the gap is on record.

A claim with no evidence. "Paid 9 days sooner" is the sample's number, and there's no measurement behind it, since this app doesn't exist. If this were your board, that note would be a guess presented as a result. The team rewrites it as "Paid sooner (not tested)" and leaves the number off the sales page.

The test

Strategyzer says to "test the matches you drew against evidence, then adjust". The team writes the test before it builds anything else: send reminders by hand for ten freelancers for two months, and compare how long their invoices took to get paid with how long their previous ten took. It also records whether any of them ask to stop, since a client relationship could suffer.

The canvas can't take this any further. Until the test runs, the team has an organised guess.

Three ways a canvas goes wrong

Several segments on one canvas. Strategyzer's wording is "one customer segment". A freelance designer and a small accounting firm have different jobs and pains, so give each their own canvas.

Features written as gains. "Has a dashboard" isn't a gain. Ask what the person would have afterwards. Check that against the test above, because a real gain would still be true with your product gone.

Answering every note. You don't have to solve everything. The top of each ranked list is where a match counts.

Value proposition canvas, business model canvas or persona

The first two fit together. Strategyzer describes value propositions as sitting between the two sides of the business model canvas, and each value proposition canvas looks closer at one customer segment and what you offer it.

Where the canvas came from

The canvas is associated with the book Value Proposition Design, published in 2014 by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda and Alan Smith. Strategyzer, the company behind the canvas, lists the book on the canvas page. We haven't read the book, so everything above comes from the public page and our own template.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a customer job and a gain?

A job is what someone is trying to do, such as chasing a late payment. A gain is what they want to have as a result, such as steady cash flow. A job gets done, and a gain is what's better afterwards.

Do you fill in the value map or the customer profile first?

We start with the customer profile, so your product doesn't shape what you write about the customer. Strategyzer's page doesn't state an order.

How many notes should each box have?

There's no set number on Strategyzer's page. Write what you heard, then rank it. Our sample has one or two per box because it's a first draft, and our example ends with a few more after interviews.

Can you fill it in without talking to customers?

You can write a first draft that way, and it tells you what to ask. Mark every note as a guess until someone has confirmed it.

What counts as fit?

Your offer answers the jobs, pains and gains that rank highest for that segment, and customers have confirmed it. The lines you draw on the board are only your claim until then.

Fill in your own

Name one segment at the top, then write the customer side from what you've actually heard. Open the value proposition canvas template, replace the invoicing notes, and draw a connector for every match. Any note without one is your list of decisions. When the fit looks right, place it in a business model canvas.