Towards a customer-centric tool for building value propositions Anne Äyväri a a
Laurea University of Applied Sciences, anne.ayvari@laurea.fi
Abstract The insights on the recent conceptualisations on value, value creation, and value proposition are reflected on the tools for building value propositions. The tools are the Value Proposition Builder™, the People Value Canvas, and the Value Proposition Canvas. The first tool represents the firm-centric approach focusing on building value propositions for the current offerings. The latter two are more customer-centric, and understand value as value-in-use depending on the time and context of the usage. It is concluded that the interactional and networked nature of value and the understanding of all the social and economic actors as resource integrators are missing in the present frameworks for building value propositions. A Living Lab as an open ecosystem is suggested as an excellent environment to study and develop the value proposition tools further in order to embed the missing perspectives, and to end up constructing more user-centric value propositions simultaneously considering the whole service ecosystem as a space for negotiating the resource sharing. Key words Value, value propositions 1 Introduction Activities related to building and testing value propositions and business models are quite familiar to anyone involved in innovation processes in Living Labs or start-ups. Often we take the tools available as for granted without considering their premises, not to mention the consequences of the premises. This article takes a closer look at three tools for building value propositions. The aim is to analyse whether the tools are aligned with the most recent conceptualisations on value, value creation and value propositions, and finally give some suggestions how the tools should be developed further. The article is structured as follows. First, we examine the nature of value. Second, we present a brief review of the development of the value proposition concept. Third, we introduce three tools for building value propositions. Fourth, we use the insights on the recent conceptualisations on value and value propositions to reflect on the three tools from the perspective of user-centric innovation processes. Finally, we discuss the ideas how to develop the tools for building value propositions especially in the context of Living Labs.
39
