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One-Sentence Value Proposition Builder

Run the One-Sentence Value Proposition Builder MicroSim Fullscreen
Edit in the p5.js Editor

About This MicroSim

Jordan's finished value proposition follows a pattern with four parts:

[Target Customer] gets [Core Benefit], from [Founder Advantage], unlike [Main Alternative].

Each part answers one question a stranger would ask:

Part Question it answers Jordan's wording Priya's wording
Target Customer Who is it for? busy dog owners without easy groomer access dual-income parents on rotating shifts
Core Benefit What do they get? grooming without losing an afternoon a real dinner without any advance planning
Founder Advantage Why you? someone they already trust in the neighborhood someone who understands unpredictable schedules firsthand
Main Alternative Compared with what? the booked-solid groomer across town another night of takeout

This MicroSim has one dropdown for each part. Every dropdown offers Jordan's wording, Priya's wording, and Write your own, which opens a text box beside the dropdown. The preview card rebuilds the sentence on every change, as you type, and wraps it to fit the screen. Each part keeps its own color, and a missing part stays as a bracketed placeholder. The verb agrees with the customer: "parents get" but "a nurse gets".

Below the preview, the sentence gets formative feedback:

  • Parts filled in: a counter shows how many of the four parts are done.
  • Read time: once all four parts are in, a word count and an estimated read time at about 4 words per second. Green means 8 seconds or less, amber means 9-10 seconds, and dark orange means over the ten-second goal from the chapter.
  • One message: the most important next step. In priority order, the message flags a missing part, parts mixed from two founders, generic words that any competitor could claim (such as "affordable" or "high quality"), and a sentence that is too long to read in ten seconds. A complete sentence gets a next step instead.

Both founders' versions come in at about 7 seconds (27 and 25 words).

On a phone-width screen each role label moves above its dropdown and the button labels shorten.

How to Use

  1. Click Load Jordan's Version and read the finished sentence. Match each colored part to its dropdown.
  2. Click Load Priya's Version and compare. The template is the same; every part changes.
  3. Change one dropdown back to Jordan's wording. Read the warning about mixing two ventures.
  4. Click Clear, then choose Write your own in each dropdown and type the four parts for your own idea. Watch the sentence, word count, and read time update as you type.
  5. Revise until the message box turns green, then copy your sentence out for the five-second test.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/eight-hour-entrepreneur/sims/one-sentence-value-proposition-builder/main.html"
        height="602px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Audience

Adult early-stage entrepreneurs and aspiring founders in a live virtual cohort.

Learning Objective

Participants will compose a one-sentence value proposition for their own venture by choosing or writing a target customer, core benefit, founder advantage, and main alternative, and revise it until it reads clearly in under ten seconds.

Bloom Level: Create (L6). Bloom Verb: compose.

Duration

15-20 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Chapter 8: Value Proposition: Benefit & Advantage (the value statement)
  • Chapter 12 reading through "The One-Sentence Value Proposition"

Activities

  1. Take apart a finished example (3 min): The facilitator shares the screen and loads Jordan's version. Participants name which question each colored part answers.
  2. Break it on purpose (2 min): The facilitator swaps one part to Priya's wording. The group explains in the chat why the mixed sentence no longer describes one business.
  3. Compose your own (7 min): Each participant chooses Write your own in all four dropdowns and types the parts for their own venture, revising until the message box turns green and the read time is under ten seconds.
  4. Five-second swap (5 min): In breakout pairs, each partner shows their sentence for five seconds, hides it, and asks the other to say back what the business offers. Partners then cut any word the listener didn't need.

Assessment

  • Does the participant's sentence fill all four parts with specific language, not wording any competitor could claim?
  • Is the sentence 32 words or fewer, so it reads in about 8 seconds or less?
  • Can a partner repeat back the customer, the benefit, and the alternative after five seconds?
  • Can the participant explain why a sentence mixing two ventures' parts fails even though it is grammatical?

References

  1. Value proposition - Wikipedia - The promise of value a business makes to a specific customer, the idea this sentence compresses.
  2. Unique selling proposition - Wikipedia - The single most compelling point of difference, which the Founder Advantage and Main Alternative parts make explicit.
  3. Elevator pitch - Wikipedia - The short spoken form of a value proposition that grows out of the one-sentence version.
  4. Words per minute - Wikipedia - Typical adult reading speeds, the basis for the read-time estimate of about 4 words per second.
  5. Value Proposition Design by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Greg Bernarda, and Alan Smith (2014) - A practical guide to matching a product's value to a specific customer's jobs, pains, and gains.