Scipreneurs/playbook/3 - the value proposition

<p>What do you think is the value you bring to your users? </p> <p>Focusing on what we bring to the table is often referred to as "The Value Proposition". </p> <p>Value goes way beyond money and saving costs. In deep tech, value is often associated with doing something which was not possible before. </p> <p>Take, for example, a breakthrough technology such as nanopore sequencing. It is true that costs went down, but the real impact was that suddenly people could sequence genomes much faster, and with much less need for infrastructure. It enabled a new approach to research and medicine. </p> <p>Not all ideas and products will yield the same impact, but they all share a common thread: they deliver value to their users. </p> <p>And the key of this week is to understand what can you do that your users perceive as valuable. </p> <p>I learned the importance of active listening the hard way. When I started, many companies around me were focusing on measuring nanoparticle size. I understood this was a critical parameter, and focused on explaining we could measure it with extreme accuracy using a relatively simple instrument: better results, lower cost. </p> <p>However, what I failed to understand is that size was not a critical parameter for my users. Ballpark estimates were fine, what they really needed was a way to measure other quantities: aggregation, loading, and concentration. They were using devices designed for other purposes because there was none that would give them a straight answer, and I misunderstood them. </p> <p>The hard lesson I learned is that we must ask questions and actively listen to what people say. It is incredibly common to dismiss the answers with the attitude of "I know better". The quickest way to losing a opportunities. </p> <p>It is easy to talk about "validating assumptions", but it is hard to overcome your own biases. </p> <p>I have seen people with deep domain expertise falling easily into this trap: If 10 people tell me the opposite of what I believe, I will ask the 11th person for confirmation and neglect all the others. </p> <p>When you hear someone saying "they don't know what they want", it's because they are not listening with intent. </p> <p>Ask open ended questions, anchor them to a moment such as: "last time you tried to do this, how did it go?". Don't ask for statistics such as "how often does this fail" since this leads to detachment from the emotional side; better "last time this happen, how did you proceed?" </p> <p>Be open to contradicting your thoughts, don't be afraid of going back to the drawing board, that's what it's all about: iterative learning. </p> <p>The scope of this week is that you can formulate a simple sentence: "This is the value I bring to my users." And the only way to can formulate this statement is if you talk to people. </p> <p>Later this week there'll be an intermediate post about the "problem/solution framework".</p> <h2>Problem-Solution Cycle</h2> <p>"What problem do you solve?" Is a very loaded question. Use it with care when defining your value proposition. </p> <p>Many people (especially at incubators) ask entrepreneurs to define the problem they are solving. Often for innovative technologies, it becomes impossible to formulate a statement without going in circles. </p> <p>Last time, I talked about our approach to measuring nanoparticle size. When asked about the problem we were solving, it was very easy to create a tautology: the problem people have is that they don't have our technology. </p> <p>Completely useless statement, but enough to go through a pitch competition. </p> <p>By focusing so much on solving a problem, I overlooked the importance of enabling something new for our users. Creating new knowledge or a deeper understanding of the systems they were studying. </p> <p>Creating value is not always about solving a defined problem. Innovative tech is often about enabling someone to do a job that was impossible to achieve before. </p> <p>If you don't know what problem you are solving, don't over stress. Focus, ALWAYS, on what value you create.</p>