THE TRADE-OFF MAP: Simply Mapping All Customer Needs, Selections, and Experiences in a Market

Inexpensively Leapfrogging the Competition
THE TRADE-OFF MAPSimply Mapping All Customer Needs, Selections, and Experiences in a MarketDr. Rod King

DELIGHT-PAIN BALANCE Stage of Customer Experience Cycle: Adoption/Usage/Maintenance/Disposal
MARKET (CUSTOMER MAIN DESIRED EXPERIENCE/INTENT/NEED/OBJECTIVE/JOB): …………………………………………………………………..……….
DELIGHT (Fidelity)
PAIN (Inconvenience)

Quality (Content/Performance)
Cost (Price)
Differentiation (Social Status/Cachet)
Inaccessibility/Unavailability
Personalization (Identity/Character)
Complexity (Time)

TOOL
ALTERNATIVES: ………………
Trade-off Quotient (TQ)
= Pain/Delight
= Inconvenience/Fidelity
= Customer Exp. Quotient
SELECTION/ACTION: ………
Copyright 2009. Dr. Rod King. rodkuhnking@sbcglobal.net &http://tradeoffmap.ning.com & http://twitter.com/RodKuhnKing

TRADE-OFF PARADIGMFactors for Selecting Alternative Products, Services, and Business Models in a Market
Customer Experience Cycle: * Awareness * Order/Request * Purchase * Delivery/Storage * Main Usage * Supplementary/Complementary Usage & Context * Maintenance * Disposal

TRADE-OFF MAP for a Market(“Trade-off Equation” by Dr. Rod King: Trade-off Quotient = Pain/Delight = Customer Experience Quotient)
Zero Trade-off
(“What customers ultimately want:
Free, Perfect, Now”)
MARKET (CUSTOMER JOB): ………………………………….
Period/Year: …………….…………………………………………..
High
Luxury Spot
Disruption Spot
(+): DELIGHT
Low
Strategic Choice
Low
High
(-): PAIN

VISUALLY ANALYZING A MARKET

Identifying gaps and non-customers
Patterns in the evolution of products, services, and business models/markets
Degree of Trade-off of product/service
Value Quotient of product/service

IMPROVING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

Maximizing customer fidelity (delight)
Minimizing inconvenience (pain)
Significantly reducing the Degree of Trade-off in products and services
Greatly increasing the Value Quotient

SIMPLIFYING COMPETITVE ANALYSIS

Visual Benchmarking (Profiling)
Visual Positioning (Branding)
Competitive (Relative) Degree of Trade-off & Switching
Competitive Value Quotient

VISUALLY MAKING BETTER DECISIONS
Visual decision-making relating to:

Hit Zone: SuperHit/Sweet Spot/

Luxury Spot/Disruption Spot

Fidelity Belly: Oasis/Volcano/Green Ocean/No Man’s Land/Red Ocean

BENEFITS OF
THE TRADE-OFF MAP
(Trade-Off Analysis & Decision-making)
PREDICTING ‘HITS’ & ‘FLOPS’

Design goals for ‘Hit’ products/services
Competitive Degree of Trade-off
Competitive Value Quotient (VQ)
Evaluating Unique Value Propositions
Determining in what spot to invest

VISUAL COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES

Fidelity Strategy for Value Chain
Inconvenience Strategy for Value Chain
SuperHit Strategy (“existing market”)
Zero Trade-off Strategy (“new or hybrid ecosystem; uncontested market”)

VISUAL BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION
Redesigning business model/value chain:

SuperHit
Sweet Spot
Luxury Spot
Disruption Spot

VISUAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE/MNGT

Self-monitoring & management of performance of product/service
Tracking and monitoring of competitors
Tracking push and pull effects of technological innovation & competition

TRADE-OFF MAP Showing the Hit Zone & Fidelity BellyStage of Customer Experience Cycle: Adoption/Usage/Maintenance/Disposal
Zero Trade-off
(cf. “Wrecking-ball moment”)
‘Hit’ Zone
Period/Year: …………….…………………………………………..
High
Luxury Spot
Disruption Spot
DELIGHT:
Fidelity
Low
Strategic Choice
Fidelity Belly
(Super-)convenience
Low
High
PAIN: Inconvenience

SUPERHIT

Google – Search (Knowledge)
Dell (Knowledge)
Amazon.com (Knowledge/Retail)
Swatch (Consumer Accessory)

SWEET SPOT

Cirque du Soleil (Entertainment)
Target (Retail)
Borders (Knowledge)
Barnes & Noble (Knowledge)
FedEx (Transportation – Packages)

Examples of
PRODUCTS/SERVICES
IN
THE HIT ZONE
(2009)
LUXURY SPOT

iPhone(Communication/Computing)
Disneyland (Entertainment)
Porsche (Transportation)
Singapore Airlines (Transportation)
Louis Vuitton(Fashion)

DISRUPTION SPOT

Southwest Airlines (Transportation)
Nintendo – Wii(Consumer Electronics)
Wal-Mart (Retailer); IKEA (Furniture)
YouTube (Knowledge – Media)
Netflix (Entertainment – Media)

AVAILABILITY/ACCESSIBILITY

Exclusive
Rare

COST (PRICE)

Expensive
Premium price

SOCIAL AURA & CACHET

High social aura and value
High social cachet
Cool/Creative/Rebellious
Hot/Unique
A “treat”

IDENTITY (‘CHARACTER’)

Unique/Not one of the crowd or masses
Rare
Special place and social context
Privileged/Elite/Cognoscenti

Characteristics & Strategies of
PRODUCTS/SERVICES
IN
QUALITY (CONTENT/PERFORMANCE)

Hard-to-beat level of fidelity
Business requires strong and unique core competence
Maintaining luxury spot is difficult due to disruptive technology and innovation

THE LUXURY SPOT
(“Super-fidelity”)
LOVE (LOYALTY/FUN)

Customers love product/service
Easily recognizable brand
Easily gains media attention
Great customer service

BUSINESS MODEL (SIMPLICITY)

Relies on niche or well-off customers
Customers are in the ‘short head’ of the customer spectrum (top of pyramid)
Higher profit margin
Big budget PR/advertising

NEED

Customers don’t really need to have (all features of) product/service
Customers can live without product/ service since it is not a ‘basic’ need

ACCESSIBILITY/AVAILABILITY

Relatively ubiquitous
Easy to access, get, and/or use
Wide coverage

COST (PRICE)

Inexpensive
Low price/Relatively cheap/Free

SOCIAL AURA & CACHET

Low or no social aura
Low or no social cachet

IDENTITY (‘CHARACTER’)

Usually has bland identity
Not special
Often involves commoditization
Common/the masses

PRODUCTS/SERVICES
IN
QUALITY (CONTENT/PERFORMANCE)

Good enough-quality; hybrid; prototype
Hard-to-beat level of convenience
Simple to use; focus is on core function
Many iterations for higher convenience
Requires disruptive technology/model

THE DISRUPTION SPOT
(“Super-convenience”)
LOVE (LOYALTY/FUN)

Customers habitually need product/ service especially at lowest price
Brand is not a darling of the media
Customers do not have strong loyalty to product/service

BUSINESS MODEL (SIMPLICITY)

Relies on mass market; word of mouth
Customers are in ‘long tail’ of customer spectrum (bottom of pyramid)
Lower profit margin
Requires economies of scale & high vol.

NEED

Customers desperately or daily need product/service
Customers can hardly live without product/service

TRADE-OFF STRATEGY For Luxury SpotStage of Customer Experience Cycle: Adoption/Usage/Maintenance/Disposal
Name of Business: ………………………………………………………………………………………………….… Year: ……………………
Sector/Ecosystem/Industry: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Mission/Vision: ……………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………
ELEMENTS OF TRADE-OFF STRATEGY FOR LUXURY SPOT-PRODUCT/SERVICE:
Trade-off (Value Chain) Strategy

DELIGHT (Fidelity) TACTICS:
Eliminate ……………………………………………

- Reduce ……………………………..…..……………
- Increase ……………………….……….……………
- Create/Procure ……………….…….……………

PAIN (Inconvenience) TACTICS:
Eliminate ……………………………………………

- Reduce ……………………………..…..……………
- Increase ……………………….……….……………

Create/Procure ……………….…….……………

Customer Value Proposition
High performance (brand) at exclusive price
Targeted Customer Segment(Interviewees)
Well-to-do customers in the ‘short head’
Customer Experience/Value Proposition: …………………………………………………………………………….…………………
Copyright 2009. Dr. Rod King. rodkuhnking@sbcglobal.net &http://businessmodels.ning.com & http://twitter.com/RodKuhnKing

TRADE-OFF STRATEGY For Disruption SpotStage of Customer Experience Cycle: Adoption/Usage/Maintenance/Disposal
Name of Business: ………………………………………………………………………………………………….… Year: ……………………
Sector/Ecosystem/Industry: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Mission/Vision: ……………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………
ELEMENTS OF TRADE-OFF STRATEGY FOR DISRUPTION SPOT-PRODUCT/SERVICE:
Trade-off (Value Chain) Strategy

DELIGHT (Fidelity) TACTICS:
Eliminate ……………………………………………

- Reduce ……………………………..…..……………
- Increase ……………………….……….……………

PAIN (Inconvenience) TACTICS:
Eliminate ……………………………………………

- Reduce ……………………………..…..……………
- Increase ……………………….……….……………

Customer Value Proposition
Good enough-performance (quality) at a low price
Targeted Customer Segment(Interviewees)
The masses/customers in ‘long tail’
Customer Experience/Value Proposition: …………………………………………………………………………….…………………
Copyright 2009. Dr. Rod King. rodkuhnking@sbcglobal.net &http://businessmodels.ning.com & http://twitter.com/RodKuhnKing

TRADE-OFF INTERACTION DIAGRAMInteraction of Factors Influencing Selection of a Product, Service, or Business Model
Quality
(Content/ Performance)
Need
Accessibility/
Availability
CUSTOMER
Love (Loyalty/Fun)
Cost (Price)
Social Aura/Cachet
Simplicity
Identity
(‘Character’)

OASIS

Segway(Transportation)
Hulu(Knowledge – Internet TV)
Music CDs (Entertainment)
Starbucks (Food/Entertainment)
Mariott Hotels (Hospitality)

VOLCANO

Amazon – Kindle (Knowledge)
Movie Theaters (Entertainment)
Blu-Ray (Entertainment – DVD Player)
Apple’s Newton – PDA (Knowledge – Computing)

Examples of
PRODUCTS/SERVICES
TRAPPED IN
THE FIDELITY BELLY
(2009)
NO MAN’S LAND

Traditional Newspapers (Knowledge)
Earthlink(Knowledge – Internet)
EarlyElectric Cars (Transportation)

GREEN OCEAN

Small independent bookstores (Knowledge)
NHL – TV Broadcast (Entertainment)
Special products/services or niches: kids (toys); elderly; disable

RED OCEAN

Yugo Car (Transportation)
Webvan(Food)
Kodal’s 1st Digital Camera (Knowledge)
Teledesic(Communications)
General Magic’s Telescript(Knowledge)

OASIS

Good enough to use
Technology is in up/down transition
Apathetic or disappointed customers: neither loved nor desperately needed product

VOLCANO

Expensive; Largely unavailable
Appeals to early adopters or fans
Difficult to use; less frequently used
Most customers are dissatisfied and looking for better alternatives

PRODUCTS/SERVICES
IN
THE FIDELITY BELLY
NO MAN’S LAND

Existing customers are dissatisfied and looking for better alternatives
Declining customer base
Obsolete or inappropriate technology

GREEN OCEAN

Less frequently used
Low level or commoditized technology
Commodity; ‘bloody’ price wars
Existing customers are dissatisfied; niche such as kids, elderly, and/or disable

RED OCEAN

Expensive; Largely unavailable
Difficult to use; less frequently used
Existing customers dislike product/ service and eventually stop using it
Mismatched technology: ahead of time

CUSTOMER NEEDS, SELECTIONS, AND EXPERIENCESStage of Customer Experience Cycle: Adoption/Usage/Maintenance/Disposal
Zero Trade-off-Experience
(cf. “Wrecking-ball
moment”)
‘Hit’ Zone
Period/Year: …………….…………………………………………..
High Fidelity
SuperHit-Need/Experience
Sweet Spot-Need/Experience
Luxury Spot-Need/Experience
Disruption Spot-Need/Experience
DELIGHT:
Fidelity
Low Fidelity
Fidelity Belly
(Super-)convenience
Inconvenience
PAIN: Inconvenience

CATEGORIES OF CUSTOMER NEEDS, SELECTIONS, AND EXPERIENCESStage of Customer Experience Cycle: Adoption/Usage/Maintenance/Disposal
Zero Trade-off-Experience
‘Hit’ Zone
Period/Year: …………….…………………………………………..
High-end
SuperHit-Need/Experience
Sweet Spot-Need/Experience
Luxury Spot-Need/Experience
Disruption Spot-Need/Experience
Oasis-
Need/Experience
Volcano- Need/Experience
DELIGHT:
Fidelity
Low-end
Green Ocean- Need/Experience
No Man’s Land- Need/Experience
Red Ocean- Need/Experience
Fidelity Belly
Convenience
Inconvenience
PAIN: Inconvenience

TRADE-OFF MAP For Computing MarketPatterns in the Evolution of Computing Ecosystems
Zero Trade-off
‘Hit’ Zone
MARKET (CUSTOMER JOB): COMPUTING at Work/Home/Outdoors Period/Year: ……………………..
SuperHit –

Mobile/Handheld Computer
Internet

Sweet Spot –

Mini-Computer (Server)

Luxury Spot –

Mainframe/ Super-Computer

High-end
Disruption Spot –

Desktop Computer
Laptop Computer

Oasis –

Analog Mini-Computer

Volcano –

Analog Mainframe Computer

DELIGHT:
Fidelity
Green Ocean –

Calculator

No Man’s Land –

Slide Rule

Red Ocean –

Calculation (Log) Charts

Low-end
Fidelity Belly
Convenience
Inconvenience
PAIN: Inconvenience

WHO?
WHAT?
WHERE?
WHY?
MARKET
(CUSTOMER DESIRE/ NEED/JOB):
WHEN?
HOW MUCH?
HOW?
WHAT NEXT?

TRADE-OFF VOICE
Collecting information on total customer experience for designing ‘hit’ products, services, and business models
TRADE-OFF PARADIGM
Defining and describing factors of
trade-off or customer experience:

Delight vs. Pain
Fidelity vs. Inconvenience
Trade-off (Customer Experience) Quotient

TRADE-OFF SWOT
Collecting and comparing present and future trade-offs of competing products, services, and businesses
TRADE-OFF MAP
Simply organizing and making decisions for ‘hit’ products, services, and business models
Observing patterns in the evolution of systems, subsystems, and environment
SUITE OF TOOLS FOR
VISUAL TRADE-OFF ANALYSIS & DECISION-MAKING
TRADE-OFF SPECTRUM
Easily organizing and making decisions for ‘hit’ products, services, and business models
Designing competitive advantage strategies for ‘hits’
TRADE-OFF STRATEGY (RADAR)
Redesigning a business model and strategy for a spot in the ‘Hit’ Zone
Generating strategies and tactics for a redesigned value chain
TRADE-OFF INTERACTION DIAGRAM
Developing scenarios for the interaction between selection factors for alternative products, services, and/or business models
TRADE-OFF PERF. DASHBOARD
Monitoring the trade-off and performance of the value chain of a product, service, or business model as well as those of competitors

SUPER-FIDELITY OR SUPER-CONVENIENCE
FIDELITY VS. CONVENIENCE
FIDELITY MIRAGE
FIDELITY BELLY
THE 8 PILLARS OF
THE FIDELITY SWAP
CONCEPT
(TRADE-OFF)
WRECKING-BALL MOMENTS
SOCIAL ACCELERANTS
TECH EFFECT (INNOVATION)
“HIT ZONE”

BRAND EQUITY
PROFIT (REVENUE/COST)
COMPETITIVE POSITION IN SECTOR
CUSTOMER LOYALTY
Higher Level Criteria for
ASSESSING IMPACTS OF A BUSINESS STRATEGY
CORE COMPETENCE (KNOWLEDGE)
SHAREHOLDER VALUE
STRATEGIIC FIT IN VALUE NETWORK
ECOSYSTEM GROWTH/SUSTAINABLILITY

REFERENCES
Christensen, C.M. (1997) The Innovator’s Dilemma. Boston: Harvard Business School (HBS) Press.
Kim, W.C.; Mauborgne, R. (2005) Blue Ocean Strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School (HBS) Press.
King, R. (2009) Fractal Box Thinking: A Simple Visual Tool for Total Problem Solving and Innovation. Fresno, California: TOAD Publishing.
Maney, K. (2009) Trade-Off. New York: Broadway Books.
Verganti, R. (2009) Design-Driven Innovation. Boston: Harvard Business School (HBS) Press.
Dr. Rod King

Thought Leader, Speaker, Consultant, and Trainer on Trade-Off Mapping & Customer Experience Management
rodkuhnking@sbcglobal.net & http://tradeoffmap.ning.com
http://twitter.com/RodKuhnKing