Make Your Product Stand Out with the Strategy Canvas
Few products are ground-breaking innovations with zero competition. Chances are that alternatives for your product exist. You should therefore ensure that your product stands out from the crowd and that people have a compelling reason to choose it over competing offerings. The Strategy Canvas is a great tool to achieve this, as I explain in this article.
The Strategy Canvas
The Strategy Canvas was developed by Kim and Mauborgne, the authors of Blue Ocean Theory. The canvas was originally intended as a business strategy tool to discover new markets. Luckily, it can also be applied to individual products, as the following example illustrates.[1]
The Strategy Canvas above ranks the first iPhone against its rivals, including the Nokia N95 and the BlackBerry Curve. The horizontal axis of the canvas captures the key factors companies compete on to provide their products. In the example above, there are twelve factors, which range from offering different models to stylish design.
The vertical axis of the Strategy Canvas describes the offering level, the degree to which the competitors offer the factors. Video, for instance, was not offered on the original iPhone but it was provided by its competitors; a camera was available on the first iPhone but it’s quality was inferior compared to the competition; but its media player was better, and the iPhone offered two new factors, a touch screen and a stylish design.
By assessing the degree to which the iPhone and the competitor products fulfil the twelve factors, two lines are created. The dark one represents the value curve of the smartphone industry in 2007; the light one the first iPhone.
When comparing the two lines, we see that the they diverge. This means that the first iPhone was clearly differentiated. Apple achieved this by removing certain features, such as physical keyboard, stylus, and video; reducing some, including voice quality and e-mail integration; and improving others, for example, mobile Internet and media player. Additionally, the two new factors — the touch screen and stylish design — gave the phone a significant competitive advantage and helped Apple disrupt the mobile-phone market.
[1] The sample canvas is based on Disruptive Product Innovation Strategy: The Case of Portable Digital Music Players.
Applying the Canvas to Your Product
Before applying the Strategy Canvas, you should be clear on your product’s value proposition — the main problem it solves or the primary benefit it provides — and the market segment you want to serve. I capture these pieces of information using my Product Vision Board. (The canvas therefore complements the board in my approach.) Additionally, you should know who your main competitors are.
Start creating the canvas by determining the key factors. Make sure you choose those factors that define the current standard in your market and are used to advertise and sell products, rather than the ones that favour your own product. Product reviews and test reports can help you discover the right factors, since they compare a product against the expected standard. Additionally, limit the number of factors you use to about ten. This creates focus and avoids an overly complex canvas.
Read On …
To read the rest of this article and access the remaining tips, please head over to my website: https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/make-your-product-stand-out-with-the-strategy-canvas/
Learn More
You can learn more about the Strategy Canvas by reading my book Strategize and by attending my Product Strategy and Product Roadmap training course.
