Idea to Product

Evaluate and monitor the political factors affecting your organization. How and to what degree a government and the current policies intervene in the economy? Think about: government policy, political stability or instability in overseas markets, foreign trade policy, tax policy, labor law, environmental law, trade restrictions, etc You will need to be able to respond to the current legislation. You can also anticipate future legislation, and adjust your marketing policy accordingly to better take advantage of those policies.

Evaluate and monitor the economic factors affecting your organization. Evaluate economic factors that can have a significant impact on how an organization does business and also how profitable they are. Evaluate factors like economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates, inflation, disposable income of consumers, etc

Evaluate and monitor the social factors affecting your organization. Factors that include shared beliefs and attitudes of the population.

Evaluate and monitor the technological factors affecting your organization.

Evaluate and monitor the environmental factors affecting your organization. How is your company trying to be ethical and a sustainable company, reducing your carbon footprint targets set by governments and by other organizations?

Evaluate and monitor the legal factors affecting your organization. Evaluate health, safety, equal opportunities, advertising standards, consumer rights and laws, product labeling, product packaging and product safety.

Use our highlight feature to to reveal key findings and important conclusions.

Evaluate why these competitors are leading the industry. Focus on their competitive advantage and branding that differentiates them from the rest of the industry. Tips: You can add their name or their logos and place them inside the matrix Select your key competitor before you move to step 3.

Quickly review your sticky notes board and evaluate the marketing strategies that your competitors (or if too many competitors - focus on the industry leaders) use to target customers and grow their business. Consider the following questions in addition to your initial thoughts: What social media channels do they use? How much are they spending on advertising? What keywords are they competing for? etc. Recommendations: If you are evaluating 2 or more competitors use one sticky note color per competitor. If there are many competitors to analyze try copy and pasting the entire board below.

Open the board you created in Step 3 and discuss: How can your increase your own competitive advantage? Discuss and identify your competition strengths/weaknesses and compare those with your own strengths/weaknesses. Add your thoughts and ideas in the notes here.

Focusing on your top 3 or 4 markets (6 max), define their key characteristics. Geographic: Countries, nations, cities, etc. Demographic: Age, gender, sex, education, family, and income. Psychographic: Lifestyle, social class, and personality. Behavioral: User status, usage rate, benefits, occasions, and loyalty attitude.

Who would be the early adopter and why? Early adopter: An early adopter is an individual or business that will use a new product or solution. This user usually is excited about the product or solution and helps companies grow by providing feedback.

In this step, identify and define those people you don't want to target.

Open the board and think about your buyer and your anti-buyer. What do they have in common? What do they do different? How do they think differently? How do they feel the pain? How would you use this information to better target your buyer? How would you use this infomation to find them? What channels will you use?

What additional information do you need about each segment? What are you assuming, and what should be tested? Answer the following questions. Ask yourself how you know the answer, and estimate how accurate your answer actually is. How often do they suffer? How long, What amount of time/money is wasted by the problem? How do they talk about the problem (pain)? When? Why can't they solve it themselves? How have they tried to solve the problem and failed? What if they could solve it? What would life be like? Show them the possibilities of a life without suffering. Show them the reverse of all the things we identified above. What is your solution? What is the physical nature of it? What is included?

TAM refers to the total addressable market for your solution. By defining your total addressable market, you will know the maximum amount of revenue you can generate. This metric could help you estimate a specific market’s potential. Tasks: Define your TAM. Add a short description. Calculate the maximum amount of revenue you could generate. ([# of potential users in a market] X [annual contract/product value] )

Choosing a business model helps you be strategic but also creates limitations. Here you are keeping in mind your target segment. This is usually the percentage of the TAM that is a good fit for your solution. Tasks: Define your SAM. Add a short description. Calculate your SAM ( [Target segment of TAM] X [Annual contract/product value])

What market percentage would you be able to reach? Tip: Only a monopoly can capture 100% of their serviceable addressable market. Tasks: Define your SAM. Add a short description. Calculate your SOM ( [Last year's market share] X [This year's SAM])

Use sticky notes to brainstorm for 2-5 min and select the 3 top activities that make your product or organization unique.

How will you make money?

The profit/X concept was created by Jim Collins to clarify what you are passionate about, what you can be best at in the world and how you will make money at it.

These questions will help you answer this step:

What are the consistent, accepted behaviors of your team members? (Should/Shouldn't)

What are your company's core values? Most companies already have core values, which just need to be discovered and articulated. These core values represent the behaviors of team members and are not the external corporate brand core values.

Core values are in a person and they cannot be coached and hard to identify in a candidate. If you want to discover your team's core values ask your coach or team manager to add an additional session for this purpose. (Mars Group exercise created by Jim Collins)

Add your company's core values here. One per sticky note.

Come up with at least 2 or 3 Brand Promises with a Guarantee.

How to test your Brand Promise with a Guarantee? Ask the following questions:

The Value Proposition Canvas is the perfect tool for understanding how customers and users make decisions. It helps you create offers and sales pages that truly appeal to them, allowing you to persuade more effectively by directly addressing their pain points.

👉Objective: Achieve clear problem–solution fit for one or two priority customer segment and turn it into usable messaging (deck/landing page).

Choose a single, concrete segment + situation (job context). Ask: “If we could win only one type of customer this quarter, who is the highest-leverage bet?”

Write it as → Segment Choice = [Who] + [Situation/Trigger] + [Decision-maker role]

(e.g., “10–50p marketing agencies, overwhelmed in approvals, Ops Director”).

If you choose to define two different segments, use a different color sticky note for each one.

List what they’re trying to get done in that situation. Separate Functional, Social, Emotional jobs.

Prompt yourself: “What must they accomplish? How do they want to be seen? How do they want to feel?”

Tag top-priority jobs with ⭐ (most valuable/urgent).

For the starred jobs, capture the pains that block progress: delays, errors, handoffs, tool sprawl, risk of looking bad to clients.

Use → Pain = [What goes wrong] + [Why it hurts] + [Frequency/Severity]. Mark the worst three with 🔥.

Types of User Pains

User pains can generally be categorized into a few broad types:

🛌 Functional Pains: These relate to the specific tasks users are trying to accomplish or the functional problems they encounter with current solutions. Examples include inefficiencies, poor usability, or missing functionality.

🤑 Financial Pains: These concern the costs associated with using a solution — whether monetary, time-related, or resource-intensive. Users may feel a product is too expensive, not worth the cost, or requires too much investment for the return it provides.

💁‍♀️🙋‍♂️🧑‍💼 Social Pains: These involve how a product or service affects a user’s social interactions or status. For example, users might worry about how using a product is perceived by others or feel it doesn’t align with their identity.

❤️ Emotional Pains: These relate to how users feel about their interactions with a product or service. They can include frustration with support, stress from complex interfaces, or anxiety about reliability.

🤫 Process Pains: These occur when existing solutions complicate workflows or processes. Users may be frustrated by poor integrations, steep learning curves, or cumbersome steps required to achieve results.

For the same jobs, write desired outcomes: faster approvals, fewer meetings, clearer ownership, “client sees progress without chasing.”

Use → Gain = [Outcome] + [Metric/Proof] + [Why it matters]. Vote top three.

💼 Functional Gains: These are improvements in how users complete their tasks or achieve their goals. They include increased efficiency, better usability, automation, or added features that simplify their work and make them more effective.

💰 Financial Gains: These relate to direct or indirect economic benefits — saving money, time, or resources. Users may value lower costs, faster ROI, reduced waste, or improved profitability.

💬 Social Gains: These gains enhance how users are perceived by others or how they see themselves. For example, using your product might make them look more professional, innovative, or reliable in their role or community.

💖 Emotional Gains: These focus on how users feel when interacting with your product. They include feelings of confidence, control, satisfaction, pride, or relief that things are finally “under control.”

⚙️ Process Gains: These arise when your solution makes workflows smoother, faster, or more intuitive. Users experience fewer steps, better integrations, clearer collaboration, and improved overall flow.

List the specific capabilities relevant to this segment & context (not your whole product). Then label each one as Gain Creator and/or Pain Reliever with a short “because” clause.

Formula → Feature → (Pain Reliever/Gain Creator) because [mechanism]. Remove anything not tied to a starred pain/gain.

🔗 Make the Fit Map (evidence-based)

For each link, add proof: metric, case, quote, or demo moment.

Ask: “Would a skeptical buyer believe this?” If not, tighten it.

Write 3 options using the formula and pick 1:

“We help [segment] achieve [#1 outcome] without [most hated pain], by [how we uniquely do it].”

Keep it ≤ 25 words. Test the “out loud” rule: if you wouldn’t say it to a friend, rewrite.

🔥Other formulas that you can use:

Type of value:

Create 3 pillars that back your value prop.

For each: Pillar = [Claim] + [Proof] + [Feature tie-in] + [Call-to-action].

Example: “Reduce approval chaos → 40% faster sign-offs (case) → workflow checkpoints → ‘See a live demo’.”

Important: 🧪 Define 3 Lean Tests (prove the fit quickly)

Pick the fastest ways to validate messaging:

Who are our customers, really?

What do our customers truly value?

What jobs are our customers trying to get done?

What pains are our customers experiencing?

What gains are our customers seeking?

How are current solutions underperforming for our customers?

How can we eliminate or reduce customer pains in ways others can’t?

How can we create gains that are superior to the competition?

What’s the minimum viable product (MVP) that would test our new value proposition?

How does our value proposition fit within broader industry trends?

What assumptions are we making about our customers and market?

How scalable is our value proposition?

🔥 These questions are designed to push your thinking and help you uncover new ways to add value for your customers. By exploring these areas thoroughly, you can craft a value proposition that not only meets current market needs but also anticipates and shapes future demand.

Download session data (Excel/CSV) or download the image and paste this into your AI tool to draft assets fast:

“Using this Value Proposition Canvas (segment, jobs, pains/gains, fit map, value prop, pillars), draft a one-page sales deck and a landing section (H1, subhead, 3 bullets, proof bar, CTA). Tone: confident B2B SaaS. Keep copy punchy. Include a short ‘Before vs After’ graphic cue.”

Upload your draft deck/page for review.

Why is this important to you? Why are you here?

Steps for Goal-Setting:

“Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks.” - Yo-Yo Ma

Why are you so passionate about this idea? ❤️

Start with the core of everything: what real problem do you solve, for whom, and why it matters now. Don’t describe features — describe the change you create. Ask yourself:

Value proposition statement template:

Our [🛵product/service] helps [🙂user type/target segment] who wants to [job to be done] by [verb (like reducing, avoiding)] and [customer pain] and [verb (increasing/enabling) [customer gain] unlike [...]

🎯Type of value:

Functional - Save time/money/effort

Personal - Feel better/ Feel safe

Social - Look good/professional

Entertainment - Smile/Amaze/Fun

✅ Tip: If your statement can’t finish the sentence “Customers pay us because…” — it’s still too vague.

Most people fill this box with vague words like “support” or “community.” That’s not enough.

This block should define how you build trust, maintain engagement, and turn customers into promoters — and it must be designed intentionally, not assumed.

Here’s how to think about it step-by-step:

1 | Clarify the Purpose of the Relationship

Ask yourself:

✅ Tip: Every relationship type should increase the customer’s likelihood of success. If it doesn’t, it’s just noise.

2 | Choose the Relationship Type for Each Segment

Use these five classic relationship archetypes as a starting point — then adapt them to your context:

3 | Map the Relationship to the Customer Journey.

✅ Formula:

Relationship Journey = [Onboarding Experience] + [Retention Routine] + [Expansion Mechanism].

4| Design Moments That Feel Personal & Integrate Relationships Into Operations

Add emotional intention. Customers remember how you made them feel.

Summarize it in one powerful statement: We build [type] relationships with [segment] through [method], to [outcome].

Define the specific groups of customers you serve — and the difference between them.

Avoid generic audiences (“companies,” “SMBs”). Think in jobs, pains, and behaviours:

Use this structure:

👉 Segment = [Type of Customer] + [Core Pain] + [Decision Maker Role] + [Buying Trigger]

Example: “Marketing agencies (10–50 people) that lose time managing multiple clients and projects — Operations Director buys when workload spikes.”

💡 Tip: Focus on the one who signs the contract, not everyone who uses the tool.

Map how customers discover you, evaluate you, and stay with you. Think end-to-end.

Ask yourself:

Use the Customer Journey Formula:

👉 Awareness → Consideration → Purchase → Onboarding → Retention → Referral

Write the main channel(s) for each stage and note which one converts best.

✅ Tip: Double down on channels where trust > reach (referrals > ads).

List what you must do consistently to deliver your promise — not what you “could” do.

Ask yourself:

Use this formula:

👉 Key Activities = [Action] + [Purpose] + [Strategic Impact]

Example: “Design scalable onboarding templates → reduce customer time-to-value → increases retention.”

Then pair each activity with the resources that make it possible:

👉 Resource = [Type] + [Why It’s Critical]

Example: “Team of process designers → ensures every template drives real results.”

💡 Tip: Limit to 3–5 per category — otherwise, you’re listing your to-do list, not your model.

Think strategically: who makes you stronger, cheaper, or faster?

Ask:

Use this formula:

👉 Partner = [Entity] + [What They Provide] + [How It Strengthens Our Model]

Example: “Integration with Notion → adoption channel + credibility.”

✅ Tip: Great partnerships change your economics — if they don’t, they’re just suppliers.

Get brutally clear about where money comes from and where it goes.

Start with:

Then list your key costs — people, tech, marketing — and mark the ones that grow faster than revenue with ⚠️.

Ask: “If revenue doubled, which cost would choke us first?”

✅ Tip: A good model shows leverage — one side grows faster than the other.

Download your canvas and use this AI prompt to turn it into a 1-slide summary you can share with investors or teammates:

“Using this Business Model Canvas, create a clean presentation slide summarizing the 9 blocks, highlighting key insights, and suggesting one area to optimize for growth.”

Upload your deck and share it with your team to confirm accuracy.

✅ Tip: The moment you can explain your model clearly in 60 seconds — you own it.

Look at your completed canvas and ask:

Pick 1 to 3 actions — one to validate, one to improve, one to scale.

Add a new session, and write them as action = [What] + [Why] + [Deadline] and assign them.

✅ Tip: Strategy is iteration — clarity without movement means nothing.

Provide information about your audience and their unmet need.

The frame of reference.

Single point of difference/promise or competitive advantage.

Reason to believe.

End benefit.

A business strategy can have different goals as each organization measures success differently. Here are a few examples:

Try to be specific and share your main goals by using the sticky notes below 👇

Discuss and define your growth strategy.

🔥Tip: A growth strategy is an action plan that will help you get a higher market share and grow your organization. This strategy can be short-term or long-term.

These questions will guide the discussion: What does a user expect from your product or solution? Why would they use your product? What is the purpose of your product or solution? What needs are you satisfying? How is your product different? In what fields and for what purposes will buyers use our product? What does it look like? Is the design user friendly and attractive? Is your website and marketing up-to-date? Are you following current design trends? Do all parameters (size, colors) perfectly match? What's your branding strategy? Are you missing features? Do you have any features that customers do not need but which can increase the price of the product?

Channels: Advertising, Internet marketing, TV or Radio advertising, etc These questions will guide the discussion: How will potential customers and users receive your message? When is your customer looking or listening to that type of media? What is the best time for your promotion? What social networks are you using and what's the strategy and purpose behind each of them? How is your competition promoting their solution? Develop a promotion strategy combining a few promotion techniques and channels, keeping in mind your budget and target market.

These questions will guide the discussion: How much did I spend to develop the product? How much is my user/customer willing to pay? Would I need to change the price of a particular region? Will a price reduction help attract more clients? Is the current price competitive? What's the price structure?

These questions will guide the discussion: Where are you going to offer the product? Do you have an online store? What type of store or product display better represents your product or solution? What distribution channels do you currently have? Is your distribution channel the same one as your competitors? Do you attend trade fairs, visit an online site, or use any type of salesforce?

These questions will guide the discussion: Target Audience: Who are they? What the size of your audience? Employees: How are they going to stay relevant and up-to-date? Who can provide information and share their knowledge with your team? Who are the best specialists?

These questions will guide the discussion: How can you minimize costs and increase profits? How is your team managing the ideation process? What measures do you have in place to improve efficiency? How do you manage your project and keep your team motivated? Explore payment, distribution, ideation, sales, and other processes, and develop your strategy.

Physical evidence is all of the things that will help you become a well-known company, or help users to identify you. Think about things like comfort, usability, design, interface, etc What elements will help you position your brand and target the right kind of customers or users?

This step is optional. We recommend adding your final answer to this step so you can see it in the final report. Start with an overview.

List your segments: Write down the people or groups of people that could directly use or be affected by your solution, challenge, idea, or product. Define their pains, gains and job-to-be done Describe your different segments: Once all your customer segments are on the board, define their main characteristics. *Example: Are you designing or developing a solution for moms, entrepreneurs, or graphic designers? Write down all the groups with their specific characteristics.

With your team, write down all the people who are directly involved in the buying process (or who are decision-makers) and can affect how these groups make the decision about using your product. In some cases, family or friends are big influencers, and in other cases, the user is not the buyer. For example, parents buy toys for their kids, but kids use them. Kids will use the toy and will decide how long they will play with that toy. The decision-makers are the parents, and they are influenced by other parents and parenting magazines. Note: Continue the discussion focusing on the user or buyer depending on the purpose of the session or project. If you are trying to create a marketing strategy, you may decide to focus on the buyer. You may decide to focus on the user if you are developing a product.

Once the discovery stage is done, you can create a list of reasons why they (user, customer, etc.) need your solution or idea.

In this step, dig a little bit deeper and consider the reason behind that need and what negative emotions they are trying to avoid.

Describe in detail what problem you are solving with your solution or idea.

What keeps your customer up at night? Why? Why is this important? What do they fear? What are they trying to avoid and why? What are they passionate about? What moves them? What brings a spark to their eyes? What do they care about? Why?

In this step, with your team, define how the user and the buyer feel without your solution and how they would feel once they have your solution.

With your team, find out they think about the problem the most. Also, consider when they need this solution the most.

Define the space where your user (customer, etc.) uses the solution. Try to be as descriptive as possible and imagine the space and the things around them.

Now that you and your team have defined the main audience, try to define the size of that target market and the rest of the audience. If the team has an approximate idea of the market size of each audience, we recommend adding that information here. You can add that information to the sticky board once you have all the key points and main information defined here.

Define your target customer persona. Be very specific, as if it were ONE person. Gender, education, employment, family. Identify what it is about them that makes them destined to have the problem you aim to solve.

What do they hear, what do they say, what do they see, how do they feel?

What is the nature of their specific problem? Physical, mental, emotional components? Answer the following questions. When do they actually experience the problem acutely? How often do they suffer? How long, What amount of time/money is wasted by the problem? Why can't they solve it themselves? Why ISN'T it their fault ie. What's their excuse for having this problem? Why does this problem happen to them vs others? How have they tried to solve the problem and failed? This has to do with things they thought to try themselves. It also has to do with competing solutions. Give them the 'full menu' of solutions that don't work.

What if they could solve it, what would life be like? Show them the possibilities of a life without suffering. Show them the reverse of all the things we identified above.

What is your solution? What is the physical nature of it? What is included?

Who are you to have solved this problem? What are your unique circumstances? Why were you, specifically, destined to be the person who solves this problem?

Why do you want to solve this problem for people? What is the story behind why you created this product or service? What was your inspiration? How long did it take to make, at what cost? What have you discovered since making it?

What is your solution? What is the physical nature of it? What is included?

Why has each component of your product or service been included? How does each benefit the prospect?

When can they solve the problem once they get it? Is it an instant solution? Will they have to put extra work into it? Are the benefits something that lasts forever or not?

Where else can they use the solution? Where will they gain benefit beyond solving the specific problem? Mirror this to the ripple effect discussed above. Does your solution have multiple applications?

Why is your solution the best available for your specific audience? How does it stand out among all other options? How is it not just better, but the only smart solution for these particular prospects?

Physical function. How you plan to satisfy the prospect. Resources, equipment, tools needed.

What if they don't get your solution now, what would happen? Call back the negative aspects of the prospect's side.

List of other known competitors.

List of related products you do not offer that a prospect might use alongside yours.

The reasons not to get the product or service? What doesn't it do, that the prospect might be expecting? Think of reasons customers have chosen somebody else's product over yours. Please list as many as possible. Don't hold back, because addressing these is important. (These can often be used to create an advantage for the product in prospects' minds, and also to create trust)

Other "Proof" You may have. You can use this list of common proof elements for inspiration. Any way that you can go out and CREATE the proof elements above if you don't already have them? Eg. Write an editorial-looking ad in a popular newspaper yourself, become affiliated with authorities, write a story/meaning/ philosophy for your business, request testimonials/case studies, create a new wing of your business to specialize in certain things (specialization is especially important), etc.