Value Proposition Designer

Value Proposition Designer

Purpose

Design a validated Value Proposition Canvas that maps customer jobs, pains, and gains to product pain relievers and gain creators, with an explicit fit assessment.

Input: Persona, problem statement, product concept (optional), competitive context (optional) Output: Value Proposition Canvas document with fit score and prioritized value hypotheses Examples: See [examples.md](examples.md) for worked input/output.

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Workflow

Step 1: Define customer segment

Confirm:

• Primary persona or segment (one canvas per segment)
• Context of use (when/where the product is considered)
• Current alternatives (manual workarounds, competitors, status quo)

If segment is vague, stop and request persona detail or run persona-generator.

Step 2: Build customer profile

Capture three blocks from the customer's perspective:

Jobs — functional, social, emotional tasks they try to accomplish:

| Type | Job | Importance (H/M/L) | |------|-----|-------------------|

Pains — obstacles, risks, frustrations before/during/after jobs:

| Pain | Severity (H/M/L) | Frequency | |------|------------------|-----------|

Gains — desired outcomes, benefits, aspirations:

| Gain | Relevance (H/M/L) | Expected vs unexpected | |------|-------------------|------------------------|

Prioritize top 3 jobs, top 3 pains, top 3 gains.

Step 3: Build value map

Map product offering to customer profile:

Products & services — what the offering includes (capabilities, not marketing copy).

Pain relievers — how each relieves specific pains:

| Pain relieved | How | Evidence | |---------------|-----|----------|

Gain creators — how each creates specific gains:

| Gain created | How | Evidence | |--------------|-----|----------|

Each pain reliever and gain creator must link to at least one customer profile item.

Step 4: Assess fit

Evaluate Problem-Solution Fit and Product-Market Fit signals:

| Dimension | Score (1–5) | Rationale | |-----------|-------------|-----------| | Job relevance | | | | Pain coverage | | | | Gain delivery | | | | Differentiation vs alternatives | | |

Flag gaps: pains without relievers, gains without creators, relievers without linked pains.

Step 5: Prioritize value hypotheses

Rank top 3 value hypotheses to validate:

| Hypothesis | Customer belief | How to test | Success signal | |------------|-------------------|-------------|----------------|

Step 6: Validate

Run Validation checklist.

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Decision Rules

| Condition | Action | |-----------|--------| | No persona or segment defined | Stop; request persona or run persona-generator | | Multiple segments in one canvas | Split into separate canvases per segment | | Pain reliever not linked to a pain | Remove or map to specific pain | | Gain creator describes feature, not outcome | Rewrite as customer benefit | | All pains marked low severity | Re-interview segment or narrow scope | | Value map mirrors competitor 1:1 | Articulate differentiation in gain creators |

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Validation

• [ ] One primary customer segment identified
• [ ] Customer profile has jobs, pains, gains with priorities
• [ ] Value map has products/services, pain relievers, gain creators
• [ ] Every reliever/creator links to a profile item
• [ ] Fit assessment completed with scores and gaps noted
• [ ] Top 3 value hypotheses with test methods defined
• [ ] Differentiation vs alternatives stated explicitly

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Anti-patterns

• Feature list as value map — listing capabilities without linking to pains/gains.
• Generic pains — "bad UX", "too expensive" without segment-specific context.
• Orphan relievers — pain relievers that don't address ranked pains.
• One canvas for all segments — enterprise and SMB mixed in one profile.
• Assumed fit — high fit scores without evidence or test plan.

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Best Practices

• Start from jobs, not features; jobs survive product pivots.
• Use customer language from interviews, not internal jargon.
• Rank pains by severity × frequency, not gut feel alone.
• Compare value map to top 2 alternatives explicitly.
• Treat canvas as living artifact; update after each discovery sprint.

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Output Structure

# Value Proposition Canvas: [Segment] — [Product]

## Customer Profile
### Jobs (top 3)
| Job | Type | Importance |
|-----|------|------------|

### Pains (top 3)
| Pain | Severity | Frequency |
|------|----------|-----------|

### Gains (top 3)
| Gain | Relevance | Notes |
|------|-----------|-------|

## Value Map
| Pain | Reliever | How |
|------|----------|-----|

| Gain | Creator | How |
|------|---------|-----|

## Fit Assessment
| Dimension | Score | Gaps |
|-----------|-------|------|

**Overall fit:** [Problem-Solution / PMF signal stage]

## Value Hypotheses & Differentiation
| # | Hypothesis | Test | Success signal |
|---|------------|------|----------------|

[vs alternative 1, alternative 2]

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Next Skills

| Outcome | Recommended Skill | |---------|-------------------| | Fit validated, need vision | product/product-vision-builder | | Prioritize features from value map | product/feature-prioritization | | Test assumptions before build | product/idea-validator | | Write requirements for MVP | product/prd-generator |

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: patonkikh
• Source: patonkikh/APES
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.