How to Run a Product Value Proposition Workshop

To create a product that resonates with your customers you need a product value proposition statement to guide you. One of the best ways to work out your product value proposition is through a well-structured product value proposition workshop. 

This workshop helps you and your team dig into what makes your product valuable, uncovering key customer needs and pain points. By the end of it, you’ll have a clear understanding of how your product aligns with customer expectations and stands out in the market.

The workshop is all about collaboration and insight. You’ll gather input from different teams, ensuring that every angle, be it from Sales, Marketing, or Product, gets considered. This process not only helps you refine your value proposition but also brings everyone onto the same page, creating alignment and focus across the Product Team structure. It’s a hands-on, interactive way to bridge the gap between your product’s capabilities and your customers’ needs.

If you’re serious about sharpening your product’s message and making sure it hits home with your target audience, this workshop is a powerful tool. It’s practical, focused, and a little bit of fun too. Let’s walk through how to run a successful product value proposition workshop that will set you up for success.

What is a product value proposition? 

A product value proposition is a concise statement that describes why someone should use your product. It highlights the benefits and unique selling points, making it clear why your product, service, or tool is worth using. 

It’s a focused version of the more general value proposition. Instead of describing the value of your business, it’s more zoomed-in and specific on a single product. 

When you create a product value proposition, you’ll end up with a clear statement that defines who the product is for, what problems it solves, and what makes it stand out. This helps you and your entire team better understand your product, guiding what you prioritize when building it, as well as influencing how you describe it in your product marketing. 

What is a product value proposition workshop? 

A product value proposition workshop is a pre-organized, collaborative session created to help a team clearly define the unique value of their product. It’s often an all-day session with the main goal of making sure your team is well-aligned on what makes the product they’re working on stand out. 

Product value proposition workshops can have different structures, but you’ll find that in all, contributors will gather user research, analyze customers’ needs, discuss pain points, and then match these with the product’s features and benefits to paint a clear picture of how your product can help users.

This workshop is interactive and would include multiple team exercises used to think more deeply about customer needs, wants, and solutions. By the end of it, you’ll have a concise yet powerful product value proposition statement that will guide your overall product strategy. 

When creating your product value proposition, there are many models and frameworks you can use to help you find it. Many of these models will be used in a product value proposition workshop. Familiarize yourself with these models below 👇:

Why should you run a product value proposition workshop? 

We can agree that there’s a heap of value in having a formalized and agreed-upon value proposition statement, right? Yes. Good. Well, using a workshop is a great way to make it easier to land on that considered, well-thought-out product value proposition statement 

One of the main benefits is that this session gives your Product Team a space to take a step back and ask, ‘Why does this product actually matter?’ When everyone is super busy each and every day, getting through the mountains of work to make your roadmap a reality, it’s all too easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Running a product value proposition workshop is a great way to carve out some time to step away and just think seriously about WHAT this product is and WHY it exists.  

It’s also a great chance to get the whole team together outside of the nitty gritty of release planning or backlog refinement. It’s a chance to breathe and enjoy some space with your team mates! Also, by getting everyone in a room and encouraging them all to share their thoughts on the product and the market, you’ll be accessing diverse perspectives, allowing you to create an actionable product value proposition that suits everyone. 

A product value proposition workshop should be super focused on your customers. The point is to map out the product value – the qualitative benefits that users get from your product.  It’s a great exercise to seriously understand your target audience. By the end of the session, the entire team should know them like the back of their hand. 

By digging into customer pains, needs, and desires, you can challenge assumptions and ensure the product is tailored to real user expectations. After running one of these sessions with the whole team, you can be confident that no one misunderstands who you are building this product for and what they care about. It’ll lead to everyone making better decisions and crafting a much better product. 

And those aren’t the only benefits of running a product value proposition workshop… 

• You’ll clarify your product’s purpose: This workshop helps you remove the existentialism surrounding your product. No more questions as to why it exists; you’ll understand what it offers and how it solves the unique problems of your customers. 
• You’ll validate assumptions: You may think you know your customers, but this can be based on assumptions and guesses. This session helps you bust myths about your customers and products. 
• You’ll create focused messaging: Crafting a product value proposition together as a team, ensures that all your customer communication, from marketing, sales, and in-app copy is aligned and built with this value prop in mind. 
• You’ll find your niche: This workshop helps your team figure out what makes you different and unique from your competitors. A session like this lets you find your edge in what can be a competitive landscape. 

What do you do in a product value proposition workshop?

In a product value proposition workshop you’ll be crafting your product value proposition statement. It’s as simple as that. Only it’s not all that simple. Here’s the step-by-step guide to help you get there.

Step 1. Gather your data 

Before the product value proposition workshop even begins, you need to dedicate time for yourself and other workshop participants to gather customer insights and research to use in the workshop. 

By coming into the session with this pre-loaded understanding and insight,  you’ll be armed with the info you need to make decisions about your value proposition that are backed by real-life intel. Focus on having:

• Target customer research: An understanding of their pain points, goals, jobs to be done, motivations, and more.
• Competitor analysis: An overview of what competitors are doing, their strengths, weaknesses, and how your product is different. 

Need a hand with research? Using the right product research tools will help. Check out our list of the best product research tools, covering tools for market research, analysis, customer feedback, and more. Learn more below 🔽:

Step 2. Competitor analysis

It’s kind of impossible to say how your product is better than your competitors without knowing what your competitors do. You need to spend time establishing where your product stands in the competitive landscape, its product positioning, and how things like its product pricing strategy compare.

Find out and discuss these details to help you determine what you can focus on in your value proposition to make you stand out. Review your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, identify any gaps that you could fill, and begin shaping a narrative of differentiation. 

One useful model for this type of competitor analysis is the SWOT. You could run a SWOT analysis for each of your major competitor products, and then do one for your own product. You’ll then have an easily digestible summary and comparison of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. 

Step 3. Customer profiling

The next step is to dive deeper into your customers and begin to understand them. The way you do that is up to you, but some activities you can do include creating customer personas, or writing the challenges, tasks, and desired outcomes they want from your product. 

All of this work will feed into the next step and the bulk of the workshop – creating the Value Proposition Canvas. 

Step 4. Value mapping

This is the fun stage of the product value proposition workshop. Following all your competitor analysis and customer research, it’s now time to map out your value on the Value Proposition Canvas. 

This is a strategic model developed by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur and featured in their book Value Proposition Design. We dig into detail on this in our value proposition models blog, but for a quick refresher: 

When using this framework for value mapping in a product value proposition workshop, you’ll usually be placing sticky notes into specific sections. A lot of sticky notes. Treat this as an idea dump: things can be optimized and removed later if they don’t fit. All participants should be encouraged to engage with the value mapping canvas. 

Here’s a pretty simple example of how you would use this framework:

In the customer job segment of the customer profile section, you may add a sticky note like: ‘Need to manage multiple client projects.’ 

The pain could be: ‘Constantly switching between tools to track tasks, time, and feedback.’ with the gain being: ’Save time if all projects and timelines were in one place.’ 

With this noted, you can then think about the value proposition and solutions that relate to this. So a pain reliever could be an all-in-one platform with your product being a centralized dashboard to track multiple projects. The gain creator from this is automated project tracking to save time and stress.

This makes it pretty clear what problems your customers have, and if you have the solutions to fix them.

When in the workshop, you’ll do this multiple times, working on different pains, gains, and jobs. Ideally, you’ll want your canvas to be bursting with sticky notes and ideas.

Step 5. Identify gaps 

Take a step back from your canvas and review what you’ve stuck there. With the competitor research that you’ve done in steps 1 and 2 in mind, see if you can spot any gaps. Is there a solution to a problem you’re offering that others aren’t? If so, brilliant, you’ve found a really useful indicator of value. 

When identifying gaps, you also want to look to see if there are any clear gaps in what your product is offering and what customers need or want. Is there anything in the customer profile that you don’t have an answer for? You’ll need to brainstorm solutions for it so that you create a product that meets the needs of your customers. You’ll likely find, during this step, that new ideas are flying all over the place from the team. It’s a great way to ignite those creative juices and come up with a bunch of fresh ideas to pump into your discovery list!

Step 6. Craft your product value proposition statement

At this stage of the product value proposition workshop, you’ll have your sticky note-filled canvas and a good idea of the challenges your customers have and the solutions you offer. It’s now time to condense all that knowledge into a single statement that you can then action. 

When crafting your product value proposition statement, it’s a good idea to follow the six-step method from Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm, another popular model when determining value proposition. Here you craft a sentence based on a simple template, answering six questions inspired by your prior research and exercise outcomes to come up with your statement. In these questions, you nail down:

• Your target customer 
• Their statement of need 
• Your product category
• The key benefit/reason to buy your product 
• Your main competitive alternative 
• What makes you different

A good way to come up with a product value proposition statement is to use secret voting. Here you write down your own answers to the core six questions, and then all vote on the one that you think is most important and relevant for each category. The winners of each section are then used to create your final statement.

So, when using this template, you may end up with a final statement that looks something like: 

For Product Managers
Who struggle to prioritize features around a clear product strategy. 
Product X is a comprehensive Product Management platform 
That simplifies feature prioritization and roadmap planning, 
Unlike generic project management tools. 
Our product provides a collaborative roadmapping tool and real-time prioritization frameworks. 

To dive deeper into this, we’ve got a free interactive template that you can use to help you create your product vision statement. Try it out below: 

Step 7. Wrap up 

To properly end the product value proposition workshop, share the final statement you’ve created and ensure all in the meeting are happy with it. Discuss how this is going to be applied in your marketing, messaging, and future product development. 

Before leaving, identify any action items and assign responsibilities for refining and rolling out the value proposition you’ve just made.

Who leads a product value proposition workshop? 

You’re reading a Product Management blog, so it’s no surprise that a product value proposition workshop is often led by a Product Manager. As they’re the individual assigned to the development of the product in question, they make sure that the workshop stays on track and that the insight presented aligns with the overall product vision. 

As the leader, you’ll create the workshop structure and guide discussions, encouraging collaboration while keeping everyone focused and on task. 

In some cases, you might want to consider having a facilitator lead the workshop alongside the Product Manager. A facilitator can be either an internal or external person, brought in to promote smooth communication and avoid any biases in the discussion. This person can help push creative thinking without having the pressure of day-to-day product responsibilities that the Product Manager would have. 

Who else should be in a product value proposition workshop? 

You’re not just going to have the workshop by yourself. You need other people involved to make this work. When deciding on who to include in these sessions, you’ll want to make sure that you have cross-functional team members from a variety of departments. Key roles that should be round the table include:

• Marketing: These people can provide insight into market positioning, messaging, and customer needs. Plus, you’ll need them to be aligned with the eventual value proposition so the marketing messaging matches the product realities. 
• Sales: These folks understand customer objections and real-world pain points that can help with the discussion. 
• Customer Support: Your customer-facing colleagues deal with direct customer feedback on a daily basis, so can offer a deep understanding of what works and where your product needs to improve.
• Engineering: Developers can contribute insight into the technical capabilities of a product and ground the discussion in what’s feasible. It’s also super important to have your Dev Team in the room so they get a chance to appreciate the bigger picture. 
• Designers: Bring a user-centric perspective ensuring that the product value proposition resonates with how customers experience the product. 
• Executives: Including an executive sponsor or key stakeholders can help ensure alignment with broader business goals and get buy-in on the direction of the product early on.

How long should a product value proposition workshop take? 

When involved in a product value proposition workshop, be prepared to lock in for the majority of the day. These workshops usually last 4 to 8 hours, and can even span multiple days if your product is particularly complex. 

Shorter workshops that last up to 4 hours are better suited to teams who have a strong foundation of research to back up the discussion, or who are revisiting an existing product value proposition. 

If you’re a team starting from scratch, building a new product or feature, you’ll need more time to set the stage and explore your user needs through customer research. A full day dedicated to the workshop allows you to go a bit deeper. 

What do you do after a product value proposition workshop? 

Your work is not done once you finish your product value proposition workshop. There’s loads more you need to do post-session to ensure that you can action what you’ve learned and use the value proposition statement you’ve created in a positive way. Following a workshop, you’ll need to:

Validate assumptions

A workshop is designed to help you remove assumptions and build a concrete understanding of your target customers. However, as you map their pains, gains, and jobs, it’s hard to avoid some fresh assumptions cropping up. 

To move forward with confidence, you’ll need to validate these assumptions through further research like customer interviews, surveys, and user testing. This ensures that your product value proposition is grounded in real user feedback, not just internal brainstorming. 

Refine the value proposition statement

You’ll never write a masterpiece in your first attempt. Take the draft version of your value proposition from the workshop and refine it. This could mean revisiting certain points based on feedback or tweaking the messaging to ensure it’s as clear and compelling as possible. Ensure that it’s simple, easy to understand, and accurately reflects the customer’s needs and the product’s unique benefits.

Test messaging and positioning

Once your new and improved value proposition statement is validated and refined, it’s important to test it in real-world settings. You can A/B test different messaging versions in marketing campaigns, landing pages, or sales pitches that have been based on this fresh statement to see what resonates best with your target audience.

Communicate with stakeholders

Share the workshop outcomes with key stakeholders who were not involved in the session, such as executives, board members, or other departments. This ensures everyone is aligned with the product’s direction and the value proposition messaging. You want everyone in your organization to be synched up and aligned. 

Iterate and optimize

Of course, don’t think that finding your value proposition is a one-and-done task. No, your value proposition should be fluid and will need to change as your business and product grows. 

As you gather more data from validating assumptions and testing messaging, continue refining and optimizing your product value proposition. The market and customer needs may shift over time, so your value proposition should evolve with them.

Tips for conducting a product value proposition workshop

When following the product value proposition workshop step-by-step plan laid out above, there are a few other things you want to think about to make sure that the workshop is as effective as possible. Keep the following tips and best practices in mind to build and lead a quality workshop that will kick-out a agreat product value proposition statement at the end! 

Prepare beforehand

Before you start cooking a recipe, you first need to gather the ingredients. Product value proposition workshops are the same. The more customer and competitor data you can gather beforehand, the better your workshop will hit. 

Dive deep into analytics and data to see what makes your customers tick. Track adoption metrics, use NPS scores, heatmaps, and other usage analytics. These little nuggets will help you pinpoint real pain points, gains, and – crucially – the solutions that actually matter to your customers. 

Armed with this treasure trove of data, you can march into the workshop with the ammo to back up your assumptions. 

Focus on customer needs – not your product

When working on your product value proposition, let go of the product for a bit. Seriously, put it out of your mind, especially at the start of the session. During the workshop, it’s all about focusing on the customer’s needs, desires, and pains.

It’s tempting to think, “Hey, we already have a solution for that!” but you need to try and stop yourself. The best value propositions come from exploring what customers really want, not what you’re currently offering. Think of it as looking at the customer through their own eyes, not through your product-colored glasses. By doing so you’ll end up with insights that help you evolve your product in ways you might not have imagined.

Rank customer pains

You’ve done the work of identifying your customers’ aches and pains, but not all pains are created equal. Some are mere inconveniences, like a paper cut, while others are full-on migraines that stop users in their tracks. 

You’ll want to rank these on a severity scale to prioritize which issues deserve your focus when building a value proposition statement. Don’t be swayed by a vocal few. Sure, vocal customers might shout about minor annoyances, but the real value lies in solving the deep-rooted, game-stopping pains and creating a product value proposition that addresses this. 

Don’t mix customer segments

Blurring your customer segments is like mixing too much different paint together – you’ll get a weird, distorted picture. When understanding your customers, keep those personas distinct and crisp. 

If you start blending customer segments, you’ll lose the sharpness of what each group truly needs, and your value proposition will become as clear as mud. Not all customers are alike, and treating them that way will lead to confused messaging and half-baked solutions. During the workshop, make sure each persona is unique. 

Whether you’re dealing with tech-savvy early adopters or the more cautious late bloomers, each segment deserves its own space to shine – and to have its very own, very tailored value proposition.

Work it out together 

A well-executed product value proposition workshop can be a game changer for aligning your team and sharpening your product’s message. By gathering input from various departments, analyzing customer needs, and exploring market gaps, you’ll come away with a clear, actionable value proposition that speaks directly to your target audience. 

At ProdPad, we’ve used product value proposition workshops in the past – so we know they work in helping you craft killer value proposition statements. Equipped with the knowledge gained from these sessions as well as customer analysis, we’ve built a product that confidently meets the needs of Product Managers. Find out how our tool can help you with a free trial. Try ProdPad today.