Develop your idea with the lean startup method
Step 1: Craft your value proposition
“Customers don’t care about your solution.They care about their problems.”
Dave McClure
The value proposition defines the value that you create for your customers. It consists of two parts:
Products are bought because they solve a "job to be done". In other words, people don't want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole (Theodore Levitt). So don’t sell products and services to customers, but rather try to help people address their jobs to be done. Here's how Clayton Christenson explains it:
The value propsition canvas is useful for you to define the customer jobs, pains and gains and craft a solution to address those.
To make your idea concrete complete the ad lib:
There are two steps:
1. Find a problem worth solving (> Validating problem)
Ask: Do they care? Do they need it? Do they have a budget for it? Who really is "they"?
2. Find a potential solution (> Validating solution)
Ask: Does our solution solve their problem? Do they understand our solution? Would they pay for it?
How do you know what customers want? Go and ask them! But, don't forget what Henry Ford said: "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”
In startup no facts exist inside the building, only opinions. So get out of the building! Talking to people is a great way to learn if your business will work.