How to unlock the secrets of your customers with the Customer Canvas
The Customer Canvas helps you map out a value proposition that your customers will love. Better understand their goals, frustrations, and desired outcomes. Validate your assumptions and find the perfect fit for your product or service.
Do you have an idea for a product or service that you love? The only way to increase your chances of turning your idea into a successful business is by deeply understanding your customer. So, how do you go about this?
Thankfully we have the tool to help entrepreneurs, product managers, or anyone who wishes to build a venture. It's called the Customer Canvas, and in this blog, we'll walk you through each of its sections with the help of Aspire Expert and business coach Annabell Gast. Read the prompts, watch the how-to videos, and use the downloadable PDF Canvas to map your value proposition.
The Customer Canvas
This framework is used early in your business development to ensure you position your product or service around the customer's values and needs.
The only way to increase your chances of turning your idea into a successful business is by understanding the problems your customer is facing, and what they're currently doing to solve them.
It helps if you dig deep into their motivations, desires and frustrations to do so. But how?
The Customer Canvas helps you think deeply about your customer rather than segmenting them into basic demographics, such as age or where they live. What matters is:
What are they trying to achieve?
How do they feel?
How do they go about solving the problem they are facing?
Once you understand this, you can see exactly where your product or service can deliver value.
Tip: Use this Canvas as your starting point in understanding your customer's perspective, rather than your company's perspective.
For example, a company that supplies lawnmowers might conclude that their customer is simply trying to "cut grass", while the customer might say they are trying to "make their front lawn presentable to the neighbours."
It's not about what the company provides but what the customer wants to accomplish.
Ask yourself: What is your customer trying to achieve? What are their major pain points?
Big Dreams, Big Worries
Let's say you are developing a solution for making people save money. Your potential customer is someone who's saving money.
Now, consider what they’re saving for.
It could be a down payment on a house, and their big dream is to get on the property ladder and own their own home. Or it could be a different type of saving, such as a big holiday with friends.
Tip: Complete a separate canvas for the customer segments you have identified, as there will be differences. In this example, both segments have a goal in common, 'to save money', but the tasks, frustrations and desires will look very different for the person saving for their first home, versus someone saving for the holiday with friends.
Jobs and Tasks
Here you want to understand what your customer is doing to reach their goal and what that looks like. Maybe they're working from an Excel spreadsheet to track their finances, or they've set up a direct debit to automate their budgeting.
Consider, have they already set up a savings account? Your customers may do other things to help reduce their outgoings, like using coupons or searching for discounts
Work through these tasks and understand how long these steps take and how easy they are for your customer.
Tip: Approach it from the customer's perspective, not your company's. Think of a passenger who doesn't want a ride in a taxi but wants to reach a place. Think of a mother who doesn't want to push a pram but wants to take their child out and about. Think of an HR worker who doesn't want a software programme but wants an easy way to pay wages to their workers.
Frustrations
Continuing with the same example of a solution for saving money, let's focus on what's painful for customers right now.
Is saving frustrating? Are they frustrated with being able to dip into the savings post and how it impacts the money they can save? Do you know where they spend money?
Tip: Think about each of these frustrations and how painful they are. Is it a minor problem or a big problem?
Desired Outcomes
Finally, you want to think about what desired outcome the customer is looking for.
Do they want to change their behaviour? Do they want to save without impacting their lifestyle? Do they have any annual saving goals?
That's it. You will better understand your customer once you've filled in all Customer Canvas sections. This Canvas helps you focus on your customer rather than your business and think about their goals, frustrations, and desires, as relates to your product or service.
Tip: To validate your assumptions, speak to your customers. That way, you can create a value proposition that fits your customer perfectly.