I’m always on the lookout for tools and frameworks that can help me better understand and serve our customers. One such tool that has revolutionized my approach to product strategy is the Buyer Utility Map. In this post, I’ll dive deep into what a Buyer Utility Map is, how to create one, and why it’s become an indispensable part of my product management toolkit.
Introduction
In product management, it’s easy to get caught up in features, sprints, and roadmaps. But at the end of the day, our success hinges on one crucial factor: how much value we deliver to our customers. That’s where the Buyer Utility Map comes in.
I first encountered the Buyer Utility Map concept while reading “Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. Initially, I was skeptical. Another framework? Another matrix to fill out? But as I delved deeper, I realized this wasn’t just another business school buzzword. The Buyer Utility Map offered a structured way to identify opportunities for innovation and value creation that I hadn’t seen before.
In this post, I’ll share my journey with the Buyer Utility Map – how I’ve used it, the insights it’s given me, and the tangible impact it’s had on my product decisions. Whether you’re a seasoned product manager or just starting out, I believe this tool can transform the way you think about customer value and product innovation.
What is a Buyer Utility Map?
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, let’s start with the basics. What exactly is a Buyer Utility Map?
In essence, a Buyer Utility Map is a framework that helps us understand how our product or service creates utility for customers across different stages of their experience. It’s a two-dimensional matrix that maps the buyer’s experience cycle against what Kim and Mauborgne call the “utility levers” – the ways in which a company can create exceptional utility for its customers.
Think of it as a heat map of customer value. It allows us to visualize where our product is delivering exceptional value, where it’s falling short, and where untapped opportunities might lie.
The power of the Buyer Utility Map lies in its ability to shift our perspective. Instead of focusing solely on our product’s features or how it compares to competitors, it forces us to view our offering through the lens of customer experience and utility. It’s a customer-centric approach that can lead to breakthrough innovations and a sustainable competitive advantage.
In my experience, the Buyer Utility Map has been particularly useful in:
- Identifying gaps in the market that our competitors have overlooked
- Pinpointing areas where our product could deliver more value
- Generating ideas for innovative features or services
- Aligning our team around a shared understanding of customer utility
But to truly appreciate the Buyer Utility Map, we need to understand its components. In the next sections, we’ll break down the two axes of the map: the buyer experience cycle and the utility levers.
The Six Stages of the Buyer Experience Cycle
The horizontal axis of the Buyer Utility Map represents the buyer’s experience cycle. This cycle consists of six distinct stages that a customer goes through when interacting with a product or service. As a product manager, understanding these stages has been crucial in helping me design holistic product experiences that address customer needs at every step of their journey.
Let’s walk through each stage:
- Purchase: This is where the buying process begins. It includes everything from researching the product to the actual transaction. In my experience, many companies focus heavily on this stage, optimizing their websites and sales funnels. But as we’ll see, it’s just one piece of the puzzle.
- Delivery: Once the purchase is made, how does the product get to the customer? This could involve physical delivery for tangible goods or the process of accessing a digital product or service. I’ve found that innovations in delivery can be a significant differentiator, especially in crowded markets.
- Use: This is the core of the customer experience – how they actually use and interact with the product. As a product manager, this is often where I spend most of my time and energy. But the Buyer Utility Map reminds me that it’s not the only stage that matters.
- Supplements: What additional products or services does the customer need to fully utilize your offering? This could include accessories, add-ons, or complementary services. I’ve discovered that thinking about supplements can often lead to new product ideas or partnership opportunities.
- Maintenance: How is the product maintained or kept up-to-date? For physical products, this might involve repairs or replacements. For software, it could include updates and customer support. I’ve learned that a great maintenance experience can significantly boost customer loyalty.
- Disposal: Finally, how does the customer get rid of the product when they’re done with it? This stage is often overlooked, but with growing environmental concerns, it’s becoming increasingly important. I’ve seen companies gain a competitive edge by offering innovative disposal or recycling options.
By considering all these stages, the Buyer Utility Map encourages us to think beyond just the core product features. It pushes us to consider the entire customer journey and find opportunities to add value at every step.
In my own work, I’ve found this comprehensive view invaluable. For instance, when working on a software product, I realized we were so focused on the ‘Use’ stage that we were neglecting ‘Delivery’. By streamlining our onboarding process, we significantly improved our activation rates and customer satisfaction.
But the buyer experience cycle is just one dimension of the Buyer Utility Map. To complete the picture, we need to consider the utility levers – the ways in which we can create value for our customers. Let’s explore those next.
The Six Utility Levers
The vertical axis of the Buyer Utility Map represents what Kim and Mauborgne call the “utility levers”. These are the fundamental ways in which a product or service can create value for customers. Understanding these levers has been a game-changer for me in product management, helping me think more creatively about how to deliver value.
Here are the six utility levers:
- Customer Productivity: How does your product help customers do things more efficiently or effectively? This lever is all about saving time and effort. In my experience, improvements in customer productivity can be a powerful differentiator, especially in B2B contexts.
- Simplicity: Does your product make things easier for the customer? This lever is about reducing complexity and cognitive load. I’ve found that focusing on simplicity can lead to significant improvements in user adoption and satisfaction.
- Convenience: How does your product make customers’ lives more convenient? This could involve factors like accessibility, ease of use, or integration with other tools. In today’s fast-paced world, I’ve seen convenience become an increasingly important factor in customer decisions.
- Risk: Does your product reduce financial, physical, or emotional risks for the customer? This lever is about providing peace of mind. In my experience, addressing customer risks can be a powerful way to build trust and loyalty.
- Fun and Image: Does your product provide enjoyment or enhance the customer’s self-image? While this might seem less relevant for some products, I’ve found that even in serious B2B contexts, elements of fun or prestige can be important differentiators.
- Environmental Friendliness: How does your product contribute to environmental sustainability? With growing awareness of environmental issues, I’ve seen this lever become increasingly important across various industries.
The power of these levers lies in their ability to help us think beyond traditional product attributes. They encourage us to consider value creation from multiple angles, leading to more innovative and comprehensive solutions.
For example, in a particular project, we were struggling to differentiate our product in a crowded market. By systematically considering each of these levers, we identified an opportunity to significantly reduce the financial risk for our customers through an innovative pricing model. This not only set us apart from competitors but also addressed a key customer pain point we hadn’t previously recognized.
Now that we understand both axes of the Buyer Utility Map, let’s explore how to actually create and use one in your product management practice.
How to Create a Buyer Utility Map
Creating a Buyer Utility Map might seem daunting at first, but I’ve found it to be an enlightening and often fun process. Here’s the step-by-step approach I use:
- Set up the matrix: Draw a table with the six stages of the buyer experience cycle as columns and the six utility levers as rows. This gives you 36 cells to work with (see example image above).
- Gather your team: While you can create a Buyer Utility Map solo, I’ve found it’s much more effective as a team exercise. Include people from different functions – product, marketing, sales, customer support. The diverse perspectives lead to richer insights.
- Start with your current offering: For each cell in the matrix, discuss how your current product or service creates value. Be honest – it’s okay (and expected) to have empty cells.
- Identify competitor positions: Next, do the same exercise for your key competitors. This helps you understand where you stand in the market.
- Look for blue oceans: Now comes the fun part. Look for cells that are empty for both you and your competitors. These represent potential “blue oceans” – untapped areas of value creation.
- Brainstorm ideas: For the empty cells, especially those that represent blue oceans, brainstorm ways you could create value. Don’t censor ideas at this stage – wild ideas often lead to breakthrough innovations.
- Prioritize opportunities: Once you have a set of ideas, prioritize them based on factors like potential impact, feasibility, and alignment with your overall strategy.
- Create an action plan: For your top priorities, create concrete action plans. How will you bring these ideas to life?
I remember the first time I created a Buyer Utility Map with my team. We were working on a SaaS product for project management, and we thought we had a pretty good handle on our market. But as we filled out the map, we were surprised to find several empty cells – areas where neither we nor our competitors were creating significant value.
One particular “aha” moment came when we were discussing the ‘Disposal’ stage. We realized that none of the products in our space, including ours, addressed the challenge of what happens when a customer wants to switch to a different tool. Data export was typically cumbersome and incomplete. This led us to develop a comprehensive data portability feature, which not only filled a gap in the market but also paradoxically increased customer trust and retention.
The Buyer Utility Map isn’t a one-and-done exercise. I revisit it regularly, especially when we’re planning major product updates or entering new markets. It’s a powerful tool for continuous innovation and staying ahead of customer needs.
In the next section, we’ll explore the key benefits of using a Buyer Utility Map in your product management practice.
Benefits of Using a Buyer Utility Map
After incorporating the Buyer Utility Map into my product management toolkit, I’ve experienced numerous benefits that have significantly improved my decision-making process and the overall success of my products. Here are some of the key advantages I’ve found:
- Customer-Centric Innovation: The Buyer Utility Map forces us to look at our product from the customer’s perspective across their entire journey. This shift in viewpoint often leads to innovations that we might have otherwise missed. For instance, when we applied this framework to a data analytics product, we realized we were overlooking the ‘Supplements’ stage. This led us to develop a marketplace for custom data visualizations, which became a major differentiator for our product.
- Holistic View of Value Creation: By considering both the buyer experience cycle and the utility levers, the map provides a comprehensive view of how we create value. This holistic perspective has helped me avoid the common pitfall of over-focusing on one aspect of the product at the expense of others.
- Identification of Market Opportunities: The visual nature of the map makes it easy to spot gaps in the market – areas where neither we nor our competitors are creating significant value. These gaps often represent lucrative opportunities for differentiation and growth. In one case, identifying such a gap led us to develop a novel onboarding process that significantly improved our activation rates.
- Competitive Analysis: The Buyer Utility Map provides a structured way to analyze competitors. By mapping out how competitors deliver value, we can more easily identify our unique strengths and areas where we need to catch up. This has been invaluable in shaping our product strategy and positioning.
- Cross-Functional Alignment: Creating a Buyer Utility Map is an excellent team exercise. It brings together perspectives from different parts of the organization – product, marketing, sales, customer support – and aligns everyone around a shared understanding of customer value. This alignment has led to more cohesive product development and go-to-market strategies in my experience.
- Prioritization of Product Initiatives: With limited resources, prioritization is crucial in product management. The Buyer Utility Map helps in this process by highlighting the areas of highest potential impact. I’ve found this particularly useful during roadmap planning sessions.
- Continuous Innovation: Regularly revisiting the Buyer Utility Map keeps us focused on continuous innovation. It prevents complacency by constantly challenging us to find new ways to create value for our customers.
- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: By addressing customer needs across the entire buyer experience cycle, we create a more satisfying overall experience. This comprehensive approach has led to improved customer satisfaction scores and increased loyalty in products where I’ve applied this framework.
The Buyer Utility Map isn’t just a theoretical exercise – it has real, tangible benefits when applied consistently. In the next section, I’ll share some real-world examples of how companies have used this framework to drive innovation and create competitive advantage.
Real-World Examples
To illustrate the power of the Buyer Utility Map, let’s look at some real-world examples. While I can’t share specific details from my own projects due to confidentiality, I can discuss some well-known cases that demonstrate how this framework can lead to breakthrough innovations.
- Cirque du Soleil: This entertainment company revolutionized the circus industry by focusing on previously overlooked areas of the Buyer Utility Map. They enhanced the ‘Fun and Image’ lever across multiple stages of the buyer experience cycle. For example, in the ‘Use‘ stage, they eliminated animal acts (addressing environmental and ethical concerns) and introduced artistic elements more commonly associated with theater. This allowed them to attract a new audience who previously wouldn’t have considered attending a circus.
- Netflix: When Netflix started, they identified an opportunity in the ‘Delivery’ stage of the movie rental experience. By mailing DVDs directly to customers’ homes, they eliminated the inconvenience of visiting a physical store. Later, they revolutionized the industry again by focusing on the ‘Use’ stage, introducing streaming which further enhanced convenience and immediacy.
- Apple’s iPod: Apple’s success with the iPod came from addressing multiple cells in the Buyer Utility Map. They simplified the ‘Use’ stage with the intuitive click-wheel interface. They enhanced convenience in the ‘Supplements’ stage with the iTunes store, making it easy to purchase and organize music. They also paid attention to the ‘Fun and Image‘ lever, making the iPod a desirable fashion accessory.
- Uber: Uber’s innovation came from focusing on the ‘Convenience’ and ‘Simplicity’ levers across multiple stages of the taxi service experience. They simplified the ‘Purchase’ stage with one-click ride requests, improved the ‘Delivery’ stage with real-time driver tracking, and enhanced the ‘Use’ stage with cashless payments.
- Dollar Shave Club: This company disrupted the razor market by focusing on the ‘Delivery’ and ‘Supplements’ stages. They introduced a subscription model that automatically delivers razor blades to customers’ homes, addressing the common pain point of running out of blades or forgetting to buy them.
These examples demonstrate how the Buyer Utility Map can lead to innovations that create new market spaces or disrupt existing ones. They also show that breakthrough ideas often come from addressing overlooked areas of the customer experience or combining improvements across multiple cells of the map.
In my own work, I’ve found that even small improvements identified through the Buyer Utility Map can lead to significant competitive advantages.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
While the Buyer Utility Map is a powerful tool, I’ve learned through experience that there are several pitfalls to watch out for when using it. Here are some common mistakes I’ve either made myself or seen others make, along with strategies to avoid them:
- Focusing only on empty cells: It’s tempting to concentrate solely on the empty cells in your map, seeing them as opportunities for innovation. However, I’ve found that sometimes the most significant improvements come from enhancing areas where you’re already creating value. Don’t neglect the filled cells – there might be room for even more value creation there.
- Ignoring industry norms: While the Buyer Utility Map encourages thinking outside the box, it’s important not to completely disregard industry norms and customer expectations. I once worked on a project where we got so excited about an innovative idea that we forgot to include a feature that was standard in our industry. The result? Confused and frustrated customers. Always balance innovation with meeting basic customer expectations.
- Trying to fill every cell: Not every cell in the Buyer Utility Map needs to be filled. Attempting to create value in every single area can lead to a bloated, unfocused product. I’ve learned it’s better to excel in a few strategic areas than to be mediocre across the board.
- Overlooking technical feasibility: In the excitement of ideation, it’s easy to come up with ideas that sound great on paper but are technically challenging or impossible to implement. Always involve your technical team in the process to ensure your ideas are grounded in reality.
- Neglecting to prioritize: After completing the map, you might end up with dozens of ideas for improvement. Trying to implement them all at once is a recipe for disaster. I’ve found it crucial to rigorously prioritize based on potential impact, resource requirements, and strategic fit.
- Failing to validate with customers: The Buyer Utility Map is based on your team’s perceptions of customer value. While these are usually insightful, they’re not infallible. Always validate your insights and ideas with actual customers before investing significant resources in implementation.
- Using the map as a one-time exercise: The first time I used a Buyer Utility Map, I thought it was a one-and-done exercise. Big mistake. Markets, technologies, and customer needs evolve. Regularly revisiting and updating your map is crucial for ongoing innovation.
- Ignoring cross-functional input: Creating a comprehensive Buyer Utility Map requires input from various parts of your organization. Neglecting to involve sales, marketing, customer support, and other functions can result in a skewed or incomplete picture.
By being aware of these pitfalls and actively working to avoid them, you can maximize the value you get from the Buyer Utility Map framework. Remember, like any tool, its effectiveness depends on how you use it.
Integrating the Buyer Utility Map into Your Product Strategy
Now that we’ve covered what the Buyer Utility Map is, how to create one, and the pitfalls to avoid, let’s talk about how to integrate this tool into your overall product strategy. Here’s the approach I’ve found most effective:
- Use it as a north star: The insights from your Buyer Utility Map should inform your product vision and strategy. I often use it as a reference point when defining our product’s unique value proposition and competitive positioning.
- Inform your roadmap: The opportunities identified in your Buyer Utility Map can be translated into concrete features or initiatives on your product roadmap. I find it helpful to tag roadmap items with the specific cells of the Buyer Utility Map they address.
- Guide prioritization: When faced with competing priorities, refer back to your Buyer Utility Map. Which initiatives will create the most value across multiple cells? Which address key gaps or reinforce your competitive advantages?
- Inspire innovation: Make the Buyer Utility Map a central part of your ideation processes. I’ve found it valuable to regularly brainstorm new ways to create value in empty or underserved cells.
- Align cross-functional teams: Share your Buyer Utility Map with marketing, sales, and customer success teams. It can help align messaging, sales strategies, and customer support efforts with your product’s core value proposition.
- Inform partnership decisions: When evaluating potential partnerships or integrations, consider how they might fill gaps in your Buyer Utility Map.
- Guide user research: Use the map to identify areas where you need more customer insight. This can help focus your user research efforts.
- Evaluate success: After launching new features or initiatives, revisit your Buyer Utility Map. Did you successfully create value where you intended? Are there unexpected effects in other cells?
- Competitive analysis: Regularly update your understanding of how competitors are positioned on the map. This can help you stay ahead of market trends and maintain your competitive edge.
- Long-term planning: When thinking about the long-term evolution of your product, use the Buyer Utility Map to identify larger shifts you might make. Could you expand into new stages of the buyer experience cycle? Could you leverage a different utility lever?
By integrating the Buyer Utility Map deeply into your product management practice, you create a powerful framework for continuous innovation and value creation. It becomes more than just a tool – it becomes a lens through which you view your entire product strategy.
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Conclusion: The Buyer Utility Map
As we wrap up this deep dive into the Buyer Utility Map, I hope you’re as excited about this framework as I am. From my experience, the Buyer Utility Map is more than just another business school concept – it’s a practical, powerful tool that can transform your approach to product management.
By forcing us to consider the entire buyer experience cycle and multiple dimensions of utility, it pushes us beyond feature comparisons and incremental improvements. It challenges us to think holistically about the value we’re creating for our customers and to identify opportunities for breakthrough innovations.
Remember, the true power of the Buyer Utility Map lies not just in creating it, but in how you use it. Integrate it into your regular product management processes. Use it to align your team, guide your roadmap, and inspire innovation. Revisit and update it regularly as your market and customer needs evolve.
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