Hello !

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Today, we will dive into how to best articulate the value of your strategy, product, or service.

I will share the most common mistakes and exercises I love to do with my teams so you can save time and make sure you develop something people will like.

Get comfortable for your 5 minutes of sparks to hack.

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✨ Spark

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✏ Why this is critical

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You don't want to develop a service or product nobody uses or buys?

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Let's see the 3 most common mistakes I see for healthcare projects.

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✏ Mistake 1: Egocentricity - using your own jargon

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A coach talks about methods, schools of thought, or certifications. An employee uses company-specific jargon (do you speak Roche, or do you speak MSD, or do you speak J&J? 😅). A product team uses technical jargon: "Our proprietary AI-based neuro-facilitation system enhances cognitive output."

But the challenge is that we (and our customers) only listen to what is familiar and in line with our immediate needs.

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(When I look at this visual, I understand now why my teenagers don't "hear my voice when it's time to set the table or do home work 😅).

✅ The solution: better be clear than clever. Use simple words, ideally from your target customer's language: "Our AI-driven tool helps improve brain function and memory."

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✏ Mistake 2: Data is the new oil is a lie. Insights are worthless.

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People buy transformations, not products or services. This is why you might have, (like me 🫣), paid for numerous online courses to improve a skill, or get back in shape but never found the time to complete them. You purchased the anticipated transformation, not the product itself.

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✅ The solution: highlight the new capabilities your product enables and the resulting transformation. Here are 2 examples.

For physicians, it’s not the insight on the patient’s profile. It is a support for a decision that will guide them to identify and select the best available treatments (if no treatment is available, how much value does it bring ?)

For patients, it’s not a mental health online program. It is the effortless adherence to the program and transforming their behaviors.

The question you should be able to answer is simple: What are the changes, new decisions, and different behaviors will your service enable?

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✏ Mistake 3: Technology focus and ignoring emotions

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With the rise of artificial intelligence, I see more and more this mistake: a team focusing on features only: "Our app provides advanced healthcare analytics."

✅ The solution: foster human connection. Remember, people make emotional decisions that they justify afterward with rational explanations (yes, we all do that 😉) "Our app empowers you to take control of your health with personalized insights."

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✨ Hack

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So here I will share 3 exercises I do with my teams in corporate, university, or startup accelerator contexts. If you want to see more of that, we have a 3 months coaching program that could help you, it is here .

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✏ The banana test

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Jury member or coach for up to 20 teams per month, I have been tired lately of pitches starting with we have developed "a new AI-based algorithm," "a blockchain-based platform, ""a digital App," ...

Here is a crash test I love doing. The banana test. The team has to replace any reference to technology with the word "banana." It forces them to focus on the new capabilities and their benefits.

And it is fun.

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✏ Why Now Elevator Pitch

A more elaborate exercise from Ash Maurya guides the team to pitch an idea without mentioning it. Yes!

The benefit is that you are not focusing on your solution but on the problem you solve and your customers.

When [customers] encounter a [triggering event], they need to [job-to-be-done] to achieve [desired outcome]. They would normally use [existing alternatives], but because of [switching trigger], these [existing alternatives] no longer work because of [these problems]. If these problems are left unaddressed, then [what’s at stake].So we built a solution that helps [customers] achieve [desired outcome] by helping them [unique value proposition].
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Here is an example of one of Ash's products:

When entrepreneurs get hit with a killer idea, they often need to raise money to get their idea off the ground. They would normally write a 40-page business plan, but because of the recent explosion in the number of startups worldwide (global entrepreneurial renaissance), no one reads business plans anymore. We are living at a time when there are far too many ideas competing for attention. Investors today don’t fund or read business plans and instead look for startups with traction. If a startup fails to grab the attention of investors, they don’t get the necessary resources to grow its idea, and it withers away.So we built a solution that helps entrepreneurs communicate their idea clearly and concisely in under 20 minutes and get buy-in from key stakeholders —so they can spend more time building versus planning their business.

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Notice that nowhere in this pitch does he name the product Lean Canvas.

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✏ Focus on one central capability only

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Instead of exhaustively listing all the features and capabilities your service offers, try to explain one capability only. Anthony Pierri talks about capability market fit vs product market fit.

So the question for you is what is the one capability that will bring more interest?

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That's it for today! You get some of my secret recipes here. You see, we have fun in our Bambooster programs 😃.

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Hit reply to let me know if you liked this edition or if you tried these tips. I respond to every person who writes to me!

See you in two weeks. Keep the spark alive, and be intentional :)