The three books, Business Model Generation, Customer Development, and Lean Startup, triggered a grassroots movement of practitioners around the world who informally meet to discuss better approaches to innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship. With the release of Value Proposition Design we wanted to honor this community and bring together as many practitioners as possible by co-hosting a series of Value Proposition Design launch events in more than 40 countries around the world!
For 7 days, more than 4,000 participants joined over 40 local events and webinars, and practiced Value Proposition Design together. Check out the Twitter hashtag #VPDesign to get a feel for the energy and conversations it sparked around the new tools offered in Value Proposition Design.
Our authors joined events in New York, Oslo, Tehran, Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, Hong Kong, and many, many other cities via Web or physically to discuss the application of the tools and processes in the new book in small and large organizations, and even in Social Entrepreneurship.
The events were hosted by local practitioners globally, who volunteered to organize a Value Proposition Design launch event. Strategyzer provided the slides and a suggested workshop structure and the organizers just pulled it off. We're grateful for the energy and time local hosts put into the events to connect practitioners from all over the world!
During the events participants took a deep dive into the new book and the tools it offers and then practiced them with a concrete case. The interactive sessions were followed by an online Q&A with the authors who shared their best practices to design, test and manage value propositions more effectively. Some events even provided amazing food & drinks.
If you've missed the events, we've compiled some of the most popular questions below:
- Q: How can I know if my value proposition will succeed?
A: You can’t know if your value proposition will work just by refining it and thinking hard about it. You need to design experiments to test your customers' interest and preferences. The book offers you an entire chapter on testing techniques and new tools that build on the lean startup principles. It shows you how to gather evidence about what works and what doesn't in order to minimize the risk of failure.
- Q: How long does it to take to test my value proposition? How many iterations/pivots do I need to do? When do I know I'm done?
A: There is no general rule. Sometimes it will be faster sometimes slower, depending on the industry, the specific market, your pre-existing knowledge, your starting point, etc. You need to let the process do its magic. The right path will reveal itself little by little with every customer interview and every experiment. However, don't expect your experiments to reveal a crystal-clear path. As an entrepreneur and innovator you will always have to deal with contradicting and incomplete data and make hard decisions.
- Q: Do the tools and processes in the book only apply to new and innovative value propositions?
A: Absolutely not. The book focuses on designing new value propositions, but also shows that you need evolve them and constantly check them for relevancy. Value Propositions and Business Models expire like a yogurt in the fridge, keep them fresh.
- Q: Is Value Proposition Design a standalone process?
A: No. It needs to be integrated with Business Model Design. Enter Kodak. We used to talk about “Kodak moments” to refer to special moments. But today, no one wants a "Kodak moment". It stands for a company that had over 140,000 employees at its peak and went bankrupt. They failed despite helping invent the first digital cameras and embedding them in a value proposition that customers wanted. They failed because they were unable to design a profitable and scalable business model for the digital era. Lesson learned: You can fail even with a successful value proposition!
- Q: How can you differentiate your products and outcompete other industry players?
A: Understanding competition and differentiation is important, of course, but it's even more important to first focus on your customer's most critical jobs, pains, and gains, and how you will address them. Then only should you compare your value proposition to that of your competition. The book shows you how to do so by building on the tools from the Blue Ocean Strategy book.
@ InnovasjonNorge
Thank you to all the participants who joined the events. We're grateful, because we know we can only exist because of your continuous interest in our products and services. A very special thanks to the amazing organizers who put in so much work and helped make this a large scale global launch and a worldwide success! Thank you!
Many of you asked: "What's next now?". For us at Strategyzer the biggest focus will be on bringing the tools and the practitioners into the digital era! While posters and sticky notes are an important part of the design process, they have their limitations. We bet on Computer Aided Design (CAD) to help us leverage our creativity, facilitate collaboration, and systematically organize the design, testing, and evaluation process. That's why Value Proposition Design has an online companion on Strategyzer.com. Buy the book and try it out!
Special thanks to our amazing hosts & their local teams:
- Amman: Rami Al-Karmi & Zain Jordan
- Amsterdam: Patrick Van Der Pijl, Kristel Veerman & Business Models Inc
- Auckland: Michael Eales & Business Models Inc
- Barcelona: Jorge Rodriguez Nieto & Elisava
- Berlin: Jens Korte & Stefan Haas
- Bogota: Pedro Fernandes
- Boston: Phil Blake
- Brisbane: Michael Eales & Business Models Inc
- Bucharest: Vlad Craioveanu, Alexandra Pode & Business Models Inc
- Budapest: Balázs Tibor
- Cairo: Ahmad Heshmat
- Chicago: Darcy Gassel & Business Models Inc.
- Cologne: Kamil Barbarski
- Dakar: Babacar Birane
- Florianopolis: Fabio Nunes
- Fredericton: Phil Lambert, Dan Liu & UNB
- Geneva: Olivier Perez Kennedy & Emilie Lassausaie
- Glasgow: Duncan Ross & Business Models Inc
- Hasselt: Matty Paquay
- Hong Kong: Greg Bernarda & Alexandre Wayenberg
- Krakow: Jan Dobosz
- London: Campus London
- Melbourne: Michael Eales & Business Models Inc
- Milan: Matteo Fusco & Beople
- Moscow: Sergey Khromov-Borisov
- New York: Bob Dorf, Startup Grind & New Work City
- Oslo: Jannecke Drangert Hv, Eirik Johnsen and Innovasjon Norge
- Paris: InProcess, SchoolLab & ESSEC
- Prague: Vit Mistina, Zuzana Ulmanová & HRVNK
- Salt Lake City: Todd Dunn
- San Jose: Ignacio Castro
- Singapore: Neo Kok Beng
- Sofia: Chris Georgiev
- Stuttgart: Bernd Albrecht & Lean Thinkers
- Sydney: Michael Eales & Business Models Inc
- Taipei: Diane Shen & Business Models Inc
- Tehran: Nasser Ghanemzadeh
- Tokyo: Shin Yamamoto
- Toronto: Strategyzer, Alan Smith & Dave Lougheed
- Victoria: Peter Elkins
- Warsaw: Tomasz Rudolf &
- Wellington: Michael Eales & Business Models Inc
- Zurich: Marcus A. Bergagård
If you attended one of the #VPDesign launch events, share your impressions with us!
