Most SaaS products are sold as self-service software – because it’s the most scalable business model. But this inherently creates a massive customer value gap around training, support, and potentially we’ll-do-it-for-you professional service.
These aren’t the only gaps.
The Value Expansion Matrix contains 9 boxes (& 14 questions) distributed across the ‘Who’, ‘What’, and ‘When’ of end-to-end customer value.
Applying the Value Expansion Matrix
Let’s walk through how to apply this matrix against a product offering.
Last week, I talked with a founder of a athletic performance app for a niche sport. His initial commercialization plan was to charge the individual athletes. In addition to the awkwardness this individual focus introduced to a team sport, the numbers didn’t pencil out, as its essentially a $0.99 consumer app.
So, he called me.
The initial value matrix looks something like this. You can see the awkwardness: the coaches are value executors but not value owners or the value beneficiaries. Meaning, they have a reluctant obligation.
We can resolve the awkwardness and dramatically expand the overall value by shifting the:
Who: to the Head Coach as value owner/buyer, and the rest of the coaching staff the Value Executors, the entire team now becomes beneficiary.
What: to coordinating coaching and performance improvements across the entire team.
When: to include coaching staff planning/coordination
The core functionality of the app remains the same (tracking individual athlete performance) now with a coordination layer for the entire coaching staff.
This is no longer a low end consumer app, it solidly pro-sumer, and depending on the size of the coaching staff, team size, and team budget could reach SMB B2B annual subscription levels. Especially if the performance improvements led to a substantially improved record and championship wins.
I invite you to run your current product idea through the blank matrix below, let me know where it helps you expand, where it falls apart, and where you have questions.
