CX tool: Writing Customer Value Propositions (CVPs)

One of the benefits of CX, UX and design thinking being democratised is more people are using human centred design (HCD) to make decisions, which ultimately results in better outcomes for customers. One of the unintentional downsides is that sometimes the rigour gets lost.

Problem-solving/strategy canvases - designed to make it easier for everyone to contribute - don’t always include enough specificity or clarity over how each element of a well written CVP could be used. This framework adds a little more detail by asking a team to consider 7 important elements when assessing whether a solution is offering enough value to the customer and clarifying why we ask those questions.

This information can help you write something more pointed and effective:

Customer type. Don’t focus on demographics but motivations (E.g. ‘budget shoppers’).
The size of the group. This helps the business to know how big the opportunity could be.
Their needs and goals. This is what customers will be searching for when trying to find a solution.
Barriers to overcome. This is what you will have to solve for them to be in the game.
Competitor offers. This is is what you need to improve on to compete.
Unique Selling point. How this solution will be different, thinking about what the organisation can do better than others.
Key benefits. If you were selling this to customers, what key customer benefits would you emphasise?

You can research each element rigorously or use this as a way to put your hypothesis down on paper. The resulting paragraph should provide a succinct CVP you can immediately understand:

000 number (2) of this type of customer (1) need an easy way to meet these needs and goals (3) but can't easily do that because of these barriers (4). Other companies offer these features (5) but our version will be better because of this unique solution only we will offer (6), which means customers will get these key benefits (7) if they choose us.