Ten minutes in this exercise is a guide for drafting a promise. A competitor may already work the same way: whether there is a difference and whether customers value it still require separate verification.
A service-business owner honestly writes: ‘Quality. Service. A personal approach.’ Then they open three competitors’ websites — the same words are already sitting there. Even the commas look familiar.
Everything may be true. But the customer has not worked with you and cannot verify it before buying from those words alone. Instead of a reason to choose you, they receive a warm wish: things will supposedly be good here.
1. Not an adjective. A situation
Strategyzer’s official Value Proposition Canvas connects what the customer is trying to do, what gets in the way and which outcome matters with specific ways the offering relieves problems or creates desired results. The proposition is refined using customer evidence. Our exercise starts with the customer’s situation, but this is not a mandatory Strategyzer sequence: in ‘What great value propositions look like,’ the authors explicitly allow starting with customers, products or services and emphasize moving quickly to live testing.
Strategyzer adds an uncomfortable test: customers must perceive the difference, and it must exist on dimensions they care about. It is not enough for the founder to see a distinction in technology, equipment or an internal process.
The SBA also puts customer research beside competitive analysis. You need to understand the segment, alternatives, saturation, prices and real responses. Our practical takeaway: do not guess that everyone values quality; find the moment when the customer genuinely risks losing something.
That is where a service business’s USP begins: not with ‘how good we are,’ but with what happens to the customer at the critical moment and what we do so they are not left alone with the problem.
2. An advantage requires work from you
Here is GrandMa’s editorial test. If a competitor can copy your sentence in a minute and change nothing about how they work, the sentence alone does not prove an advantage. It may be decoration. This test checks whether there is work behind the words; it does not establish uniqueness or demand. A competitor may already have the same process. The formula below and the interactive builder are also GrandMa editorial tools, not methods validated by Strategyzer or the SBA. The advertised ten minutes is time for a draft promise; checking delivery and customer value requires separate work.
The working formula
- Who experiences the problem, and at what moment.
- What exactly should change for the customer.
- Which process creates that change.
- What the customer will see as proof.
- Where your responsibility ends.
An unlimited ‘we will make everything perfect’ is weak because it gives no clear criterion for verification. A precise commitment demands discipline from the business and gives the customer that criterion.
Hypothetical example
Before: High-quality apartment cleaning with excellent service and a personal approach.
Decision: The customer owns a short-term rental. The critical moment is the narrow window between guests. The mechanism is an agreed photo checklist and an early warning when something goes off plan.
After: For short-term rental owners: we work from an agreed photo checklist, send photos of problem areas before check-in and warn about delay risk before you confirm readiness to the guest.
Continue the same fictional example. Check-in is at 15:00, and the owner plans to confirm readiness at 14:00. The team agrees to send photos and a status update by 13:30 and report any identified delay risk immediately. Evidence that this promise was kept consists of the completed checklist and timestamped messages. The boundary: cleaning the agreed areas; repairs are excluded. If access to the apartment is delayed, the team reports it and agrees a new time instead of promising readiness under all circumstances. These times are assumptions for the example, not an industry standard. It remains to be tested whether the team can meet them in practice and whether the information actually helps the owner make a decision.
This wording is not prettier. It simply takes on more responsibility. A competitor can copy it, but then must actually use the photo checklist, show problems and warn before the point of no return. Otherwise it is false. They need to change their work only if they do not already do this. The wording is therefore a draft of a verifiable promise; its difference from competitors and its value to customers still need testing.
3. Now remove the words that leave no trace
Cross out ‘high quality,’ ‘reliable,’ ‘professional,’ ‘fast’ and ‘personal.’ Not because those things are bad. Just take away your crutches for a few minutes.
Recall the last call in which a customer sounded nervous. Did they fear losing time, receiving an unexpected bill, not knowing the state of the work or discovering a problem too late? Find one action that reduces that risk and name its visible trace.
Build a USP without adjectives
Two questions give you a draft promise framework. Conditions define its scope; performance requires separate evidence.
Create the proof first
Do not replace ‘quality’ with a new invention. Record the team’s real action at the critical moment.
A promise about time
Name the critical moment and the process that keeps work from stalling.
A promise about control
Show what the customer sees during the work, not only afterwards.
Predictability draft: evidence needed
State when the customer learns the spending limit and what happens if it changes. The condition alone does not prove performance. Keep the promise as an internal draft: on an agreed trial job, record agreement on the limit and the actual stop before extra costs if the relevant condition occurs. If that situation has not occurred, performance of that part of the promise remains untested.
A promise the customer can see
Name the trace of work and the specific quality criterion it lets the customer verify. Do not extend the conclusion to things that evidence does not show.
Show the mechanism
Name the action that creates the result.
Show the proof
The artifact must come from the real work.
State the boundary and verify performance
An honest condition clarifies a promise but does not prove performance. Keep the wording as an internal draft. Before publication, test the commitment on an agreed trial job and collect evidence of the actual action under the stated conditions. Separately check the promised next step when conditions change; if no change has occurred, mark that part as untested.
Check your answers
Choose the main risk and indicate what you already have: performance evidence, conditions alone or nothing verifiable yet.
The formula without JavaScript: For [customer], at [risk moment], we deliver [change] through [process]. Proof: [visible trace of performance]. Boundary: [condition].
A boundary defines the scope of the promise and does not replace performance evidence. If you have only a condition, keep the text as an internal draft: before publication, test the action on an agreed trial job and collect evidence of it. Mark untested conditions separately. Customer value and differentiation from alternatives also need testing.
If the answer is ‘we cannot show anything yet,’ do not invent a guarantee. Add one control step, capture its trace and check with real customers whether it reduces an important risk.
A strong USP does not need to shout. It must survive the question: ‘Show me how this works.’ If the answer already lives in your process, you have the basis for a verifiable promise. It becomes an advantage when customers value that difference from available alternatives. Strategyzer recommends comparing it with what the customer already does, including choosing to change nothing. If the answer lives only on the homepage, for now you have an adjective.