were arguably successful because they reduced the need to plan ahead in daily
activities (getting cash from the bank, or arranging to meet).
Value propositions for IoT
The guidelines above can of course be applied to any type of product or
service. But connected products can be complex and often do novel things that
are hard to communicate succinctly.
Core value propositions should be straightforward, e.g. a company offering
smart meters may promise to “tell you where your energy spend is going”,
which is relatively simple. A good test of an IoT product proposition is that
end users should not need to focus on its connectivity or onboard computing: it
should just make sense.
But there may be complicating factors that users need to understand before
buying. You may have to explain which other systems can interoperate with
yours, or who owns the user’s data and what they can do with it. (The
technology and value of interoperability is discussed in further detail in
chapter 10). You might have to guarantee how far into the future you will
maintain the internet service (if your company is acquired, goes bust or
discontinues the product).
The entrepreneur and academic Steve Blank describes 4 types of market in
which a product can operate^4 (see figure 4-6). The type of market influences
how you position the value of your product. Below, we look at what this might
mean for IoT products:
(^4) Steve Blank, 2005: “The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for
Products that Win” (K&S Ranch Press)