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Value Proposition

Design a detailed value proposition using a 6-part JTBD template — Who, Why, What before, How, What after, Alternatives. Use when creating a value proposition, analyzing customer value delivery, or articulating why customers should choose your product.

ai
By phuryn
22k2.2kUpdated 1 week agoMIT

Skill Content

# Value Proposition

## Metadata
- **Name**: value-proposition
- **Description**: Generate a detailed value proposition using a 6-part template with JTBD framing. Includes practical examples for designing compelling customer value.
- **Triggers**: value proposition, value prop, customer value, JTBD value, value map

## Instructions

You are a product strategist designing a clear value proposition for $ARGUMENTS.

Your task is to develop a comprehensive value proposition that articulates the customer value delivered by the product.

## Input Requirements
- Product description and features
- Target customer segment and their problems
- Competitive alternatives and current solutions
- Customer insights or market data

## Value Proposition Template

### 6-Part Structure

**1. Who**
- Who is this value proposition for?
- What customer segment are we addressing?
- What are their characteristics and constraints?

**2. Why (Problem)**
- What is the customer's core problem or need?
- What's the Job to Be Done (JTBD)?
- What desired outcomes are they trying to achieve?

**3. What Before**
- What is the customer's current situation?
- What are they using today to solve this problem?
- What friction or pain exists in the current approach?

**4. How (Solution)**
- How does the product solve the problem?
- What specific features or capabilities deliver value?
- Why is this solution better than alternatives?

**5. What After**
- What is the improved outcome or future state?
- How does the customer's life/work change?
- What becomes possible that wasn't before?

**6. Alternatives**
- What other solutions could customers use?
- Why would they choose us instead?
- What's the switching cost or friction from alternatives?

## Example: Canva
- **Who**: Non-designers who need to create marketing graphics
- **Why**: They need professional-looking designs but can't hire designers or use complex tools
- **What Before**: Using PowerPoint, Photoshop (too complex), or hiring expensive designers
- **How**: Drag-and-drop templates, built-in design elements, AI design assistance, intuitive interface
- **What After**: Create professional designs in minutes, launch campaigns faster, save design costs
- **Alternatives**: Photoshop (complex), Fiverr (slow, expensive), Canva competitors (fewer templates, harder UX)

## Output Process
1. Identify and profile the target customer segment
2. Define the core problem and JTBD
3. Describe the current state and friction points
4. Articulate how the product solves the problem
5. Envision the improved outcome
6. Compare against competitive alternatives
7. Create a concise value prop statement (1-2 sentences)
8. Develop a positioning statement for marketing use

### Domain Context

**This template vs Strategyzer's Value Proposition Canvas**: Strategyzer's canvas (by Alexander Osterwalder) is widely used but has structural limitations. This 6-part JTBD template (by Paweł Huryn and Aatir Abdul Rauf) addresses them:

- **Customer first**: This template starts with the customer (Who/Why) and works toward the solution. Strategyzer's canvas places the product on the left, which often leads teams to start with their solution rather than the customer's problem.
- **One segment at a time**: This template is designed for one segment per pass. Strategyzer's canvas encourages mapping multiple products/services simultaneously, which dilutes focus.
- **Explicit alternatives**: Section 6 (Alternatives) forces you to name what customers would use without you and articulate why you're better. Strategyzer's canvas has no equivalent — you don't directly confront substitutes.
- **Simpler structure**: "What before → How → What after" is easier to fill out than separating Customer Jobs, Pains, and Gains on one side and Pain Relievers, Gain Creators, and Products on the other. The separation often creates confusion about where things go.
- **Actionable output**: The final Value Proposition Statement is ready for marketing, sales, and onboarding. Strategyzer's canvas doesn't produce a reusable statement.

Use Strategyzer's Value Proposition Canvas when you need a detailed pains/gains decomposition for a mature product with complex customer needs. Use this 6-part template for clarity, speed, and actionable output.

## Notes
- Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework focuses on the progress the customer is trying to make, not demographics
- Value propositions are segment-specific; you may have different value props for different customer groups
- The stronger your value prop, the easier marketing, sales, and product decisions become
- Test value props with real customers before finalizing
- Use a **Value Curve** (Blue Ocean Strategy) to visually compare your offering against competitors across key factors

---

### Templates

- [Value Proposition Template (PPTX)](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RXH1Udj71aXQJzGeqYSOStnfQ-6dNz14/edit?slide=id.g2a98aeea3b1_0_247#slide=id.g2a98aeea3b1_0_247)

---

### Further Reading

- [How to Design a Value Proposition Customers Can't Resist?](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/how-to-design-value-proposition-template)
- [How to Achieve Product-Market Fit? Part I: Market and Value Proposition](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/how-to-achieve-the-product-market)
- [Jobs-to-be-Done Masterclass with Tony Ulwick and Sabeen Sattar](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/jobs-to-be-done-masterclass-with) (video course)
- [Product Innovation Masterclass](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/product-innovation-masterclass) (video course)

How to use

  1. Copy the skill content above
  2. Create a .claude/skills directory in your project
  3. Save as .claude/skills/pm-skills-value-proposition.md
  4. Use /pm-skills-value-proposition in Claude Code to invoke this skill

GitHub stars License: MIT PRs Welcome Companion: pm-skills Companion: burnstop Companion: claude-usage

PM Skills Marketplace: The AI Operating System for Better Product Decisions

68 PM skills and 42 chained workflows across 9 plugins. Claude Code, Cowork, and more. From discovery to strategy, execution, launch, growth, and shipping AI-built code.

PM Skills marketplace: skills, commands, and all 9 plugins at a glance

Designed for Claude Code and Cowork. Skills compatible with other AI assistants.

Start Here

New idea? → /discover
Need strategic clarity? → /strategy
Writing a PRD? → /write-prd
Planning a launch? → /plan-launch
Defining metrics? → /north-star

If this project helps you, ⭐ the repo.

Why PM Skills Marketplace?

Generic AI gives you text. PM Skills Marketplace gives you structure.

Each skill encodes a proven PM framework — discovery, assumption mapping, prioritization, strategy — and walks you through it step by step. You get the rigor of Teresa Torres, Marty Cagan, and Alberto Savoia built into your daily workflow, not sitting on a bookshelf.

The result: better product decisions, not just faster documents.

How It Works (Skills, Commands, Plugins)

Example prompts: a skill and two commands (/write-prd, /ship-check) in action

Skills are the building blocks of the marketplace. Each skill gives Claude domain knowledge, analytical frameworks, or a guided workflow for a specific PM task. Some skills also work as reusable foundations that multiple commands share.

Skills are loaded automatically when relevant to the conversation — no explicit invocation needed. If needed (e.g., prioritizing skills over general knowledge), you can force loading skills with /plugin-name:skill-name or /skill-name (Claude will add the prefix).

Commands are user-triggered workflows invoked with /command-name. They chain one or more skills into an end-to-end process. For example, /discover chains four skills together: brainstorm-ideas → identify-assumptions → prioritize-assumptions → brainstorm-experiments.

Plugins group related skills and commands into installable packages. Each plugin covers a PM domain — discovery, strategy, execution, and so on. Installing the marketplace gives you all 9 plugins at once.

Commands use skills. Some skills serve multiple commands. Some skills (like prioritization-frameworks or opportunity-solution-tree) are standalone references that Claude draws on whenever relevant — no command needed.

Commands are designed to flow into each other, matching the PM workflow. After any command completes, it suggests relevant next commands — just follow the prompts.

Installation

Claude Cowork (recommended for non-developers)

  1. Open Customize (bottom-left)
  2. Go to Browse pluginsPersonal+
  3. Select Add marketplace from GitHub
  4. Enter: phuryn/pm-skills

All 9 plugins install automatically. You get both commands (/discover, /strategy, etc.) and skills.

Installing PM Skills in Claude Cowork

Claude Code (CLI)

# Step 1: Add the marketplace
claude plugin marketplace add phuryn/pm-skills

# Step 2: Install individual plugins
claude plugin install pm-toolkit@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-product-strategy@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-product-discovery@pm-skills 
claude plugin install pm-market-research@pm-skills 
claude plugin install pm-data-analytics@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-marketing-growth@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-go-to-market@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-execution@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-ai-shipping@pm-skills

Codex CLI (OpenAI)

Codex reads the same plugin marketplace file as Claude Code, so you can install PM Skills natively — no conversion or file-copying needed:

# Step 1: Add the marketplace
codex plugin marketplace add phuryn/pm-skills

# Step 2: Install the plugins you want
codex plugin add pm-toolkit@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-product-strategy@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-product-discovery@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-market-research@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-data-analytics@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-marketing-growth@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-go-to-market@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-execution@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-ai-shipping@pm-skills

What you get: every skill (the PM frameworks), available to Codex and invocable by name. Install whole plugins rather than cherry-picking individual skills — a workflow usually relies on several skills that ship together.

What's different from Claude Code: the /slash commands (/discover, /write-prd, …) install but don't run as Codex slash commands — Codex plugins don't expose commands. To run a workflow, just describe the steps in plain language, for example:

Run product discovery on [your idea]: brainstorm options, map assumptions, prioritize the risky ones, then design experiments — pause between each step.

Optional — let Codex turn the workflows into skills. Because the command files ship inside each installed plugin, you can ask Codex to convert the ones you use most:

Read the command files in the pm-execution plugin and create equivalent Codex skills for the workflows I use most often.

This is a best-effort, model-driven conversion (some Claude-specific command syntax won't translate), but it's a quick way to get the guided workflows on Codex without leaving the CLI.

Other AI assistants (skills only)

The skills/*/SKILL.md files follow the universal skill format and work with any tool that reads it. Commands (/slash-commands) are Claude-specific.

ToolHow to useWhat works
Gemini CLICopy skill folders to .gemini/skills/Skills only
OpenCodeCopy skill folders to .opencode/skills/Skills only
CursorCopy skill folders to .cursor/skills/Skills only
KiroCopy skill folders to .kiro/skills/Skills only
# Example: copy all skills for OpenCode (project-level)
for plugin in pm-*/; do
  mkdir -p .opencode/skills/
  cp -r "$plugin/skills/"* .opencode/skills/ 2>/dev/null
done

# Example: copy all skills for Gemini CLI (global)
for plugin in pm-*/; do
  cp -r "$plugin/skills/"* ~/.gemini/skills/ 2>/dev/null
done

Available Plugins

<details> <summary><strong>1. pm-product-discovery</strong> — Ideation, experiments, assumption testing, OSTs, interviews (13 skills, 5 commands)</summary>

Skills (13):

  • brainstorm-ideas-existing — Multi-perspective ideation for existing products (PM, Designer, Engineer)
  • brainstorm-ideas-new — Ideation for new products in initial discovery
  • brainstorm-experiments-existing — Design experiments to test assumptions for existing products
  • brainstorm-experiments-new — Design lean startup pretotypes for new products (Alberto Savoia)
  • identify-assumptions-existing — Identify risky assumptions across Value, Usability, Viability, and Feasibility
  • identify-assumptions-new — Identify risky assumptions across 8 risk categories including Go-to-Market, Strategy, and Team
  • prioritize-assumptions — Prioritize assumptions using an Impact × Risk matrix with experiment suggestions
  • prioritize-features — Prioritize a feature backlog based on impact, effort, risk, and strategic alignment
  • analyze-feature-requests — Analyze and categorize customer feature requests by theme and strategic fit
  • opportunity-solution-tree — Build an Opportunity Solution Tree (Teresa Torres) — outcome → opportunities → solutions → experiments
  • interview-script — Create a structured customer interview script with JTBD probing questions
  • summarize-interview — Summarize an interview transcript into JTBD, satisfaction signals, and action items
  • metrics-dashboard — Design a product metrics dashboard with North Star, input metrics, and alert thresholds

Commands (5):

  • /discover — Full discovery cycle: ideation → assumption mapping → prioritization → experiment design
  • /brainstorm — Multi-perspective ideation (ideas|experiments × existing|new)
  • /triage-requests — Analyze and prioritize a batch of feature requests
  • /interview — Prepare an interview script or summarize a transcript (prep|summarize)
  • /setup-metrics — Design a product metrics dashboard

Examples:

Skills:

  • What are the riskiest assumptions for our AI writing assistant idea?
  • Help me build an Opportunity Solution Tree for improving user activation
  • Prioritize these 12 feature requests from our enterprise customers [attach CSV]

Commands:

  • /discover AI-powered meeting summarizer for remote teams
  • /brainstorm experiments existing — We need to reduce churn in our onboarding flow
  • /interview prep — We're interviewing enterprise buyers about their procurement workflow
</details> <details> <summary><strong>2. pm-product-strategy</strong> — Vision, business models, pricing, competitive landscape (12 skills, 5 commands)</summary>

Product strategy, vision, business models, pricing, and macro environment analysis. Covers the full strategic toolkit from vision crafting through competitive landscape scanning.

Skills (12):

  • product-strategy — Comprehensive 9-section Product Strategy Canvas (vision → defensibility)
  • startup-canvas — Startup Canvas combining Product Strategy (9 sections) + Business Model — an alternative to BMC and Lean Canvas for new products
  • product-vision — Craft an inspiring, achievable, and emotional product vision
  • value-proposition — 6-part JTBD value proposition (Who, Why, What before, How, What after, Alternatives)
  • lean-canvas — Lean Canvas business model for startups and new products
  • business-model — Business Model Canvas with all 9 building blocks
  • monetization-strategy — Brainstorm 3–5 monetization strategies with validation experiments
  • pricing-strategy — Pricing models, competitive analysis, willingness-to-pay, and price elasticity
  • swot-analysis — SWOT analysis with actionable recommendations
  • pestle-analysis — Macro environment: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental
  • porters-five-forces — Competitive forces analysis (rivalry, suppliers, buyers, substitutes, new entrants)
  • ansoff-matrix — Growth strategy mapping across markets and products

Commands (5):

  • /strategy — Create a complete 9-section Product Strategy Canvas
  • /business-model — Explore business models (lean|full|startup|value-prop|all)
  • /value-proposition — Design a value proposition using the 6-part JTBD template
  • /market-scan — Macro environment analysis combining SWOT + PESTLE + Porter's + Ansoff
  • /pricing — Design a pricing strategy with competitive analysis and experiments

Examples:

Skills:

  • Compare Lean Canvas vs Business Model Canvas vs Startup Canvas for my marketplace startup
  • Design a value proposition for our AI writing assistant targeting non-native English speakers
  • Run a Porter's Five Forces analysis for the project management SaaS market

Commands:

  • /strategy B2B project management tool for agencies
  • /business-model startup — AI writing tool for non-native English speakers
  • `/value-proposition SaaS onboarding tool for en

View source on GitHub