Thinking differently about your practice: A tool to put the client first

Welcome to The Business of Psychology Podcast. In this episode I want to share how we can use a value proposition to help us plan service that meets the needs of our clients.

Full show notes for this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links:

The Value Proposition Canvas - Strategyzer Template

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

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Shownotes

In this episode I wanted to share how we can use a value proposition to help us plan service that meets the needs of our clients.

This is a great follow on from my episode talking about creating a customer persona and why that is so important. Essentially, once you deeply understand your customer, what their barriers are to engaging with support, and their real priorities then you need to move on to thinking about what your proposed product or service needs to do for them. In other words, how you add value.

There is a tool available from Strategyzer called The Value Proposition Canvas that is designed to help you do exactly that. You complete a canvas for each client group or customer segment that you are working with.

You start with the section on the right that asks you to define the pain the client is experiencing, what is keeping them up at night with worry, what are they doing that they regret, or not doing that they wish they were doing? What are they unhappy about? Then you move on to think about what they want to gain from their time with you. What are they hoping they will be able to do? What do they want to be different? How do they think their life will be enriched? Remember this is all from their perspective not yours! Then you move on to the "jobs to be done", again from the client's perspective, what does your service need to achieve for them? This can include practical things like "easy booking system" and "appointments that fit around work" to bigger things like "get me back to work."

Then we move to the left side of the canvas and start thinking about our product or service. Using the identified client pains we map out what we are putting into our product or service that alleviates those pains. Then using the client gains section we map out what we are including that will get those gains for the client. Finally, we check that the jobs to be done are all covered and give a brief description of the product or service itself. Whenever I work through one of these I always change something about my offer because I realise I'm not quite hitting one of the jobs to be done (or sometimes more). Also completing these has sometimes made me completely rethink a business model. For example, filling out one of these recently for my therapy service made me think an intensive model might actually be what my clients need from me more than a weekly therapy model. Definitely food for thought there!

I've linked to the Strategyzer template in the show notes so you can download a copy and start using it to check what you are offering fully meets the identified needs of the client group or to design something new.

Let me know how you get on with it over on Instagram. I'm @rosiegilderthorp and I'd love to hear from you. Also if you could spare a moment to rate and review the podcast I'd be so grateful, the reviews mean a lot to me and also help this podcast get found.

See you next Friday!