Compare template
Use when you can identify a realistic alternative and a useful difference. Include the status quo if that is what people actually choose.
Product name: [Product name] Audience: [Audience] Audience need: [Audience need] Category: [Category] Value promise: [Value promise] Alternative or competitor: [Alternative or competitor] Key difference: [Key difference]
- Audience
- Who is your product for?
- Audience need
- What does this audience need to do?
- Product name
- What is your product or service name?
- Category
- What category should people place your product in?
- Value promise
- What useful outcome does your product help customers achieve?
- Alternative or competitor
- What competitor or alternative should this compare against?
- Key difference
- What useful difference can you demonstrate against that alternative?
Customer focus template
Use to separate a customer’s existing struggle from the outcome you intend to help them reach. Come back to alternatives and differentiation when you have evidence.
Product name: [Product name] Audience: [Audience] Category: [Category] Customer struggle: [Customer struggle] Desired outcome: [Desired outcome]
- Audience
- Who is your product for?
- Product name
- What is your product or service name?
- Category
- What category should people place your product in?
- Customer struggle
- What pain point or unresolved job does this audience face today?
- Desired outcome
- What can customers achieve after using your product?
Review the choices, then the wording.
Write a phrase or sentence beside each label. Both formats keep your wording intact, so you can discuss one choice at a time. Name the customer’s outcome under Value promise and the capability that enables it under Key difference. Focus keeps the current struggle and desired outcome on separate lines.
Keep unverified claims in an evidence log. A complete template is still a draft. Read the practical guide before presenting it as an established strategy, or borrow the structure of a fictional example.
Put the decisions into words.
Use your own inputs to make a working draft. Then test its assumptions with prospective customers.
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