Mini Propositions

This tool will help you to flesh out the clusters of ideas you have come up with previously and to make them presentable so they can be shown to potential customers very quickly. This means you'll be able to start gathering data on what people think about your ideas almost immediately. That means you'll be using early validation to help you guide your selection process.

It allows you to get a clear picture of what the ideas you created could become, while still postponing deciding on one single idea.

The point is to try to explore the most interesting aspects of the ideas you came up with in isolation, by making simple (but compelling) propositions that focus on those interesting aspects and leave out everything else.

The Mini Proposition canvas was adapted from the Ad Lib Value Proposition by Alex Osterwalder et al. in Value Proposition Design and the value proposition statement introduced by Geoffrey Moore in Crossing the Chasm.

Let's say you are working on an idea that will help people to travel more efficiently. You have done the Wall of Ideas exercise and have come up with a ton of ideas, clustered into a number of clusters.

One cluster focuses on ideas around scheduling and journey planning. In the cluster there are ideas that are broad and work for all travelers, but you have also come up with a few ideas that are targeted specifically at busy executives.

A second cluster focuses on ideas around a trend you have observed, namely social travel and ride sharing.

For cluster one, you decide to take the focus on the executives to the extreme, and you come up with a virtual assistant that will track and predict your movements 24/7, and keep you on schedule.

For cluster two, you decide to focus on the social aspect of traveling and you come up with a mini proposition of an app that will always allow you to find like-minded travellers nearby.

Note that in both cases, this proposition is not aimed to be a valid business model. That is not what you are testing at this moment. What you are trying to do is to see which of the potentially interesting ingredients you have come up with has the most potential, and how customers respond to it. By doing this in isolation you make it much easier to focus the conversation.

Later, you'll face the task of balancing all of the features you have come up with into one coherent, overarching value proposition. That is very difficult. It will help you a lot to focus first on small aspects and learn how people respond to them. Perhaps some resonate strongly, even if they require adjustment. Perhaps others that you felt confident about before do not strike a chord with customers at all. It's better to find that out right away

Example For a cyber-security proposition, we came up with a certificate that small business owners could get when their security was above a certain level. From initial data it seemed that this would be a sure bet, and we expected entrepreneurs would be interested in this. When we made the mini proposition, and tested with actual customers, we found out that they didn't like the idea at all. They strongly preferred another mini proposition that we decided to include only as a wildcard.

Steps