If you found value in Part One of this series, I can assure you that this next part will make a more significant impact on your understanding of this subject of value proposition design for medical products.
As a fellow practitioner, I am firmly convinced that by understanding our customers and empathizing with them, we can design products that customers will “love”.
It is the same reason why the customer side of the canvas is the focus of this post, so you do not want to miss any part of this, especially the concluding notes.
The customer
The starting point of every value proposition canvas is the customer and is why you should create customer profiles for each customer segment.
You should also ensure that all the stakeholders involved with the product are identified, as these stakeholders will generate the different customer profiles.
Why is this so important, you may ask?
It is because, in the past, pharmaceutical companies selling blockbuster developed a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing products, and the same happened to MedTech companies who developed a uniform strategy to address the market.
While this undifferentiated approach was sufficient, today, as products are similar and the number of diverse stakeholders increases, companies need to become more specific and develop a highly differentiated approach.
Its importance also stems from considering that the perception of value is individual and linked to the context because different individuals derive value in various ways and have different needs according to the context.
Thus, each customer profile might have different needs and be in search of diverse benefits, thereby gathering different values.
Let’s take the example of a drug for treating insomnia and consider its several customer profiles:
Profile 1: The patient taking the drug could be segmented to generate other customer profiles, such as the chronic insomnia suffering patient, early morning awakening patient, jetlag suffering patient and worker suffering from shift work sleep disorder, etc.
Profile 2: The doctor prescribing the drug, which could be segmented into general practitioner, sleep specialist, neurologist, psychiatrics, and again, if relevant, working privately or within a healthcare service.
Profile 3: The payer deciding the reimbursement of the drug. For instance, public or private health insurers.
Profile 4: The pharmacist dispensing the drug and being the bridge between the prescriber and the patient.
Considering the four profiles, we can deduce that depending on the market conditions, some customer profiles could be more relevant than others; nevertheless, it is fundamental to design the value proposition for all the most significant profiles.
Customer jobs
Customer jobs is a phrase that describes the things your customer is trying to achieve.
The “Jobs to be done” theory was first developed by Harvard Business School Professor – Clayton Christensen.
It says customers “hire” products and services to get “jobs” done rather than purchasing them based on attributes and buying behaviors.
On the basis of this theory, join me to examine the 3 kinds of “Job to be done”:
Functional jobs
Functional jobs are the practical roles a product or service fulfils, bearing in mind that for our customers (such as healthcare professionals) these functional jobs are of utmost importance.
To further explain, jobs are the tasks the customer is trying to perform, in our case, treating a patient’s insomnia.
Social jobs
Social jobs refer to how the customer wants to be perceived from others.
For example, a doctor who wants to be considered an innovator will probably use a treatment considered innovative, implying that customers have a sense of their social role and will make decisions to support that role.
Personal/emotional jobs
Personal/emotional jobs relate with how the customer feels doing the task at hand.
For instance, the doctor who seeks reassurance will probably use an old and proven safe treatment.
In essence, emotional jobs are the feelings that shape customers decisions, leading them towards positive feelings instead of rational logic.
The job context is an element to consider when exploring the “Jobs to be done,” as the jobs depend on the specific context. In addition, doctors can perform different or contrasting jobs in a public or private context.
In our industry, many erroneously think that all the customer decisions are only related to functional jobs. It is not to say that efficacy, efficiency, quality, usability, convenience, affordability and safety are unimportant.
My point is that, very often, our customers do not focus only on the functional job but on how the functional benefit makes them feel.
Pains
Customers pains are the obstacles, negative experiences, emotions, and risks the customer experiences before, during and after getting the job done.
Doctors prescribing warfarin encounter its well-known negative aspects of finding the individualized dose for each patient and monitoring INR.
Gains
Customer gains are the benefits and outcomes which the customer expects.
Gains include functional utility, social benefits, positive emotions, and cost saving.
Although it is a complex phenomenon, general practitioners unnecessarily prescribing antibiotic for respiratory tract infections get these gains:
- increased patient satisfaction because of receiving a prescription
- reduced rate of subsequent return visits because patient tend to complete the antibiotic treatment, which normally last few days
- shorter time for the consultations involving the prescription compared to offering alternatives and explaining the course of the illness.
All these gains explain why this practice is, in some countries, common among GPs despite not being supported by guidelines.
What are your thoughts about the value proposition canvas? Let me know in the comments below, and if you like the content of this blog, remember to subscribe and share it with friends.
Allow me to remind you that there’s a third part to this series, and there I’ll discuss the value map, analyzing gain creators and pain relievers, where companies define the most compelling stories.
Watch this space for more updates.