The Value Proposition Canvas is a tool for the detailed analysis and design of the fit between customer needs and the value offering. It zooms into the Value Proposition field of the Business Model Canvas and makes visible whether the offering actually matches what customers need, fear, and desire. The Canvas consists of two halves: the Customer Profile and the Value Map.
The Customer Profile captures three elements: Jobs (What is the customer trying to accomplish?), Pains (What hinders or frustrates them?), and Gains (What positive outcomes do they seek?). The Value Map describes the offering through: Products & Services (What do we concretely offer?), Pain Relievers (How do we alleviate customer problems?), and Gain Creators (How do we generate the desired benefits?). Fit is achieved when Pain Relievers and Gain Creators address the most relevant Pains and Gains. A SaaS accounting tool, for example, addresses the job of monthly bookkeeping, relieves the pain of error-proneness, and creates the gain of time savings.
The Canvas was published in 2014 by Osterwalder in Value Proposition Design. The decisive step is validation: a Canvas based on assumptions is a hypothesis that must be confirmed or refuted through customer interviews and experiments.
