Value Proposition Canvas Template

The Value Proposition Canvas is a framework developed by Alexander Osterwalder that helps companies ensure their product's value proposition actually matches what their customers care about. It's the most useful tool for diagnosing why messaging isn't resonating or why product adoption is slower than expected.

The canvas has two sides: the Customer Profile (what your customer is dealing with) and the Value Map (what your product offers). The goal is to achieve "fit" — where your value map precisely addresses your customer profile's most important elements.

Why This Canvas Matters for Startups

Most startups build products that solve problems they personally experienced or observed, then write messaging that describes the product. The problem: the product solves a real problem, but the messaging doesn't speak to how customers experience that problem.

The Value Proposition Canvas forces you to start from the customer's reality rather than your product's capabilities. The result is messaging that makes customers feel understood before they're convinced — which is the most effective sequence for conversion.

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How to Use This Template

Complete the Customer Profile first. Resist the urge to jump to the Value Map — that's where most teams start and where most messaging frameworks fail. Spend 60 minutes on the customer profile before you write a word about your product.

The best way to complete the customer profile is from actual customer conversations, not assumptions. If you haven't done customer discovery interviews, do 5-10 before completing this template. The accuracy of your canvas is only as good as your understanding of the customer.

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Side 1: The Customer Profile

Section A: Customer Jobs

Customer jobs are what your customers are trying to accomplish — the tasks they're trying to perform, the problems they're trying to solve, the needs they're trying to satisfy. Jobs can be functional, social, or emotional.

Functional jobs (practical tasks, solutions to problems):

What are the primary functional tasks your customer is trying to complete in the area where your product plays?

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Social jobs (how they want to be seen by others):

How does your customer want to appear to their peers, boss, or team? What status signals matter to them?

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Emotional jobs (how they want to feel):

What emotional states is your customer seeking (confidence, calm, control, recognition)?

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Supporting jobs (context around their primary jobs):

What else do they need to accomplish to do their main jobs? (communicating progress, documenting results, justifying budget)

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Rank the jobs by importance to the customer (not by what's easiest for your product to address):

Most important job: _______________________________________________ Second most important: _______________________________________________ Third most important: _______________________________________________

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Section B: Customer Pains

Pains are everything that annoys, frustrates, or prevents customers from getting their jobs done. They're the risks, negative outcomes, and obstacles they experience or fear.

Types of pains to consider:

• Undesired outcomes and problems (functional, social, emotional)
• Obstacles that prevent them from getting started
• Risks they worry about (financial, social, technical)

Functional pains (things that don't work, take too long, cost too much):

1. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

2. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

3. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

4. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

5. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

Social pains (fear of looking bad, losing status, being blamed):

1. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

2. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

Emotional pains (stress, anxiety, frustration, doubt):

1. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

2. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

Risk-based pains (what could go wrong, financial exposure, security concerns):

1. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

2. Pain: _______________________________________________ Severity (1-5): ___

Top 3 most severe pains (the ones your messaging must address):

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Section C: Customer Gains

Gains are the outcomes and benefits customers want — the things that would make them delighted, not just satisfied. They can be required (expected, minimum baseline), expected (the standard), desired (beyond standard), or unexpected (pleasant surprises).

Required gains (minimum the customer expects — table stakes):

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Expected gains (standard good experience):

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Desired gains (beyond standard, but they'd love it):

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Unexpected gains (would delight them — they haven't even thought to ask):

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Top 3 most important gains (the ones your messaging should promise):

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Side 2: The Value Map

Now that you've defined the customer profile, define how your product maps to it.

Section D: Products and Services

List the specific products, features, and services you offer that are relevant to the customer jobs identified in Section A.

Product / Feature	Primary Job It Addresses

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Section E: Pain Relievers

Pain relievers describe exactly how your products/services alleviate specific customer pains from Section B. Be specific — vague pain relievers ("saves time") are weak. Specific ones ("reduces reporting time from 3 hours to 15 minutes") are powerful.

Pain: _______________________________________________ How we relieve it: _______________________________________________ How customers experience this relief: _______________________________________________ Measurable impact: _______________________________________________

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Pain: _______________________________________________ How we relieve it: _______________________________________________ How customers experience this relief: _______________________________________________ Measurable impact: _______________________________________________

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Pain: _______________________________________________ How we relieve it: _______________________________________________ How customers experience this relief: _______________________________________________ Measurable impact: _______________________________________________

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Pain: _______________________________________________ How we relieve it: _______________________________________________ How customers experience this relief: _______________________________________________ Measurable impact: _______________________________________________

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Pain: _______________________________________________ How we relieve it: _______________________________________________ How customers experience this relief: _______________________________________________ Measurable impact: _______________________________________________

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Section F: Gain Creators

Gain creators describe how your products/services create the gains your customers are looking for in Section C. Again, be specific.

Gain: _______________________________________________ How we create it: _______________________________________________ Customer-facing evidence of this gain: _______________________________________________

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Gain: _______________________________________________ How we create it: _______________________________________________ Customer-facing evidence of this gain: _______________________________________________

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Gain: _______________________________________________ How we create it: _______________________________________________ Customer-facing evidence of this gain: _______________________________________________

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Unexpected gain we create (something customers don't expect but love):

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The Fit Assessment

A "fit" occurs when your value map directly addresses your customer profile. Complete this assessment to evaluate your current fit.

Pain-Reliever Fit

For each major customer pain, does your product have a specific pain reliever?

Customer Pain (from Section B)	Pain Reliever (from Section E)	Fit Score (1-5)	Notes

Pains with no pain reliever (product gaps or messaging gaps):

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Gain-Creator Fit

For each major customer gain, does your product have a specific gain creator?

Customer Gain (from Section C)	Gain Creator (from Section F)	Fit Score (1-5)	Notes

Gains with no gain creator (opportunities or messaging gaps):

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Overall Fit Assessment

Our strongest fit (where we most precisely address customer jobs/pains/gains):

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Our weakest fit (where there's a gap between what customers want and what we offer):

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Is the gap a product gap or a messaging gap?

• Product gap: We don't have the feature/capability to address this
• Messaging gap: We have the capability but haven't communicated it clearly
• Both: _______________________________________________

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Turning Canvas Insights into Messaging

Use your canvas to write messaging directly from customer reality.

From Customer Pain to Value Proposition Language

Customer pain (their words, from discovery): _______________________________________________

Our pain reliever: _______________________________________________

Value proposition language (combining both): _______________________________________________

Homepage headline candidate: _______________________________________________

From Customer Gain to Outcome Messaging

Customer desired gain: _______________________________________________

Our gain creator: _______________________________________________

Outcome statement (what we promise): _______________________________________________

Social proof that validates this promise: _______________________________________________

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Further Reading

• craft your brand positioning
• mission statement generator
• how to build a B2B marketing strategy that converts
• Averi's Strategy Map to make your value proposition the foundation of every marketing initiative

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my Value Proposition Canvas is accurate?

Test it against real customer language. Read back your "customer pains" to actual customers and ask "does this resonate with your experience?" If they say yes enthusiastically, you have a real pain. If they say "sort of" or look politely puzzled, you've described something adjacent to but not quite their actual pain. The canvas is only as accurate as the customer discovery behind it.

What's the difference between features and value propositions?

Features describe what your product does. Value propositions describe what your customer gets as a result. "Real-time collaboration" is a feature. "Your entire team stays in sync without a single status meeting" is a value proposition. The Value Proposition Canvas helps you make this translation systematically.

Can one product have multiple value proposition canvases?

Yes — one per customer segment. If you serve markedly different customer types (small business vs. enterprise, or engineering teams vs. marketing teams), each segment has different jobs, pains, and gains. The value map might be the same product but the messaging emphasis will differ. Build one canvas per significant customer segment.

How long does it take to complete the canvas properly?

A rigorous canvas, built from real customer discovery, takes 3-4 hours to complete. Don't rush it — the insights from the customer profile section determine the quality of everything downstream (messaging, positioning, content strategy). Most companies underinvest in customer discovery and then wonder why their messaging doesn't land.

How does the Value Proposition Canvas connect to content marketing?

Directly and powerfully. Your customer's jobs become your content topics (they're searching for help completing those jobs). Your customer's pains become your content hooks (pain-aware headlines). Your gain creators become your case study structure (before-state, how it changed, after-state). When you've done a good canvas, your editorial calendar practically writes itself.