Value Proposition Design

Value Proposition Design. 2014. Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Greg Bernarda, and Alan Smith. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. 288 pages. Crafting a clear and compelling value proposition can help frame any new initiative or continuous improvement activity, and as a result, is an essential skill for a quality management professional. This collaboration of four authors from a software company that presents itself as “specializing in tools and content for strategic management and innovation” provides a strong basis for understanding the dimensions of a value proposition, connecting with customers and stakeholders to concisely define them, and then carrying that information through the process of creating products, services, and even new business models. It is a strong new contribution to the practitioner literature in quality management, and outlines many new approaches for value creation. This book is organized into four sections: Canvas, Design, Test, and Evolve. “Canvas” refers to creating a platform to make the process and outcomes of value creation more visible and tangible. It steps the reader through the process of creating a value map, assessing ideas for fit, and exploring contextual issues that can make a value proposition succeed or fail. The “Design” section covers rapid prototyping principles, techniques for sparking new ideas and communicating them within and beyond teams, and approaches for simulating the voice of the customer. The section on “Test” is strong, and goes beyond simply testing ideas, to proactively engaging customers in the value creation process, and determining what elements need to be true for one’s ideas to work in practice. The “Evolve” section is the weakest, providing encouragement to “improve relentlessly” and “reinvent yourself constantly” without the expansive collection of practical stories and examples that make the other sections so powerful. The authors have created a fun and engaging text, full of cartoonlike pictures and exercises, which will be easily accessible to any member of a business development or quality improvement team. There are practical examples and stories provided throughout, which illuminate the concepts effectively and can help teams expand, refine, enhance, and articulate their visions by applying best practices through successful templates. The only weakness of this book is that it does not tie any of its assertions or practices to the academic literature. However, the value proposition design canvas that this book describes in detail has demonstrated clear value already for many practitioners, and may provide researchers with ideas for making additional connections between established quality tools, principles, and practices.