I already promote heavily the use of Business Model Generation by Alex Osterwalder et al, and now they have published Value Proposition Design and a new Value Proposition Canvas to go with it.
What’s important about the new canvas is that it overlays the two key boxes on the Business Model Canvas: the Value Proposition box and the Customer Segments box. Why is this? Because the square in the VP canvas is about what you offer and the circle is about what the customer wants or needs. The way it works is that iteratively you check the extent to which your value proposition meets those needs. Hence it’s important to focus on the gap between your off rand their desire.
By paying attention to how you can lower the customer’s pain and enhance the gain he’ll get from your offer, you can really sharpen what your business is all about. Of course it sounds easy, but it needs many stabs at getting it right. To understand customers you need to get out there among them and record plenty of data. It is about technology push and market pull, and getting them into alignment.
Don’t just take my word for it get the book. The investment will pay off many times over.