Example data. Fieldnote is a fictional company used to fill all 61 boards, so the examples tell one consistent story.
Pre-PMF Fieldnote, after 8 interviews with technicians and owners. Karim, Ana and Nadia check the fit for Léa's side of the product.
What the team took away
The gap: nothing on the left addressed "blamed on Friday". A parts confirmation screen at the end of the day was added to the backlog.
How to run it
Preparation
Product plus the people who hear customers say no: sales for prospects, support for existing users. Four to six people.
Pick one segment for the session. Two segments means two canvases, never one.
Bring 5 to 10 interview quotes or call recordings snippets. The customer side must be filled with their words.
Cover the left side (value map) with a big sticky until the customer profile is done.
Agenda
25 min
Customer jobs Functional jobs first ('submit the monthly report'), then social and emotional ('look competent to my boss'). Rank them by importance to the customer, not to you.
30 min
Pains and gains Pains: what makes the job slow, risky, annoying, with severity. Gains: what would make them recommend you, with how much they care. Ten stickies each, then rank.
25 min
Reveal the value map Uncover the left side. List products and features, then for each write which pain it relieves or which gain it creates. Features with no arrow to the right are exposed.
25 min
Fit check Take the top 3 pains and top 3 gains. Is there a pain reliever or gain creator for each? Mark matched ones green, unmatched red.
15 min
Gaps and next moves Red items are either a product gap or a messaging gap. Decide which for each, with an owner. Orphan features get a 'keep or cut' question.
Pitfalls
Filling the value map first turns the customer profile into a justification. Keep it covered.
Pains written as 'lack of feature X' are your roadmap in disguise. Rewrite from the customer's day: 'spends Friday afternoon reconciling numbers'.
Fit is not a feeling. Count the matches on the top 3 pains and gains; below two out of three on each, you do not have fit yet.
Afterwards
Matched pairs become the messaging for the Positioning map and the landing page. Red gaps become Assumption mapping items; orphan features go to the Impact/effort matrix for a keep-or-cut call.