Running Lean, 3rd Edition

Chapter 2. Stress Test Your Idea for Desirability

Desirability: Do customers want this?

Place yourself somewhere on the product timeline in Figure 2-1, and think back to what caused you to switch from that solution to the next one.

Figure 2-1. A music timeline

These were massive changes, where we completely replaced one way of listening to music with another. While it’s tempting to declare that we switched for better sound quality, that wasn’t it. Sound quality went up when we moved from cassettes to CDs, but it went down on subsequent evolutions. So, there was something else at play.

As entrepreneurs, we are charged with building better products, but what does better even mean? That’s the key question to address when stress testing your idea for desirability.

Defining Better

Defining better starts with recognizing that customers don’t care about solutions, but about achieving desired outcomes.

The best way, then, to get a customer’s attention is not by leading with your solution, but leading with your unique value proposition.

A compelling unique value proposition either promises a better desired outcome, a better way of achieving the desired outcome, or both.

The way you craft a compelling unique value proposition is by first getting razor focused on who you are targeting and then understanding the obstacles (or problems) that stand in the way of them achieving their desired ...