Effective commercial proposition development? Use the Proposition Development Map!
The pace of change in today’s world is accelerating: COVID-19, climate change, technology skills and Generation Z are impacting the way we see the world and the way things work or don’t work. This constant change requires companies to continuously evaluate and adapt their propositions as necessary to continue to meet customer needs and requirements. At the same time, these developments offer the opportunity to introduce new propositions.
In the field of proposition development it is quite easy to experiment. “Fail fast and fail often” is a slogan that is often used. Practice often shows the opposite picture. Most business ideas focus on an assumed solution rather than a customer need. Before you know it, a new concept is launched on the market. And? Nothing happens. Energy leaks out and the organization lets the idea die a quiet death. We see this happen many times, without learning from the failures. It leads to lost effort, energy and resources.
An example we have seen is about data. Data is hot and many companies focus on monetizing data (propositions). In our example, the data proposition is a predictive information product that is used to optimize specific logistics processes. Savings add up quickly due to the large volumes and form a promising business case. Every reason to get started. The data team starts by collecting, cleaning and processing the data. Hours are spent developing a predictive model. Once the data science part is completed, the promising business case is validated. Now it’s time to contact the potential customers to sell the solution. All kinds of problems arise. Assumed data is incorrect and customer needs appear to be different. Implementing the data proposition within the customer’s IT landscape takes a long time and a lot of effort. The potential customers see the impact on their own work and are hesitant.
In practice, (new) propositions often do not (any longer) match the needs of the customer. Taking the right steps, such as involving the right person with the (potential) customer, reduces the risk of failure, long lead times and extensive rework.
Examples show that propositions based on an internal perspective usually do not match the wishes of customers. That’s why it’s important to consider the people-centric perspective when designing and developing a proposition to ensure there’s a customer base willing to pay for it.
To help you with proposition development we have created the “Proposition Development Map.” This map helps innovation departments, leaders and proposition developers to develop or re-engineer propositions in a customer-oriented way.
Interested? Contact us!
