TALE: A Possible Theme called “Early Discovery”
The Pre-proposition Phase
The above picture represents a Possible Theme called “Frame for Work”.
- Name: Early Discovery
- Clue: The Pre-proposition Phase
- Type: knowledge theme
- Contributors: Ash Maurya, Kevin Mackenzie
- Reference: Ecological Strategic Cognition, PreStudy,
- Related themes: Strategic Thematic Exploration, Spontaneous Concept System, Product Engagement
The possible theme “Early Discovery” was born on June 4, 2023. See the diagram below.
The above diagram was designed to visualize the journey of Knowledge Engagement. In the past several weeks, I worked on developing the “Strategic Thematic Exploration” framework.
I consider Strategic Thematic Exploration and Conceptual Elaboration as two phases of EARLY DISCOVERY of the journey of knowledge Engagement.
You can find more details in Themes in the Field: Self, Agency, and Activity (Part III) — The Territory of Concepts.
Today I realized that the theme of “Early Discovery” can be used to understand the process of product development and value engagement too. Thus, I designed the above picture to highlight the theme and its clue “The Pre-proposition Phase”.
The Pre-proposition Phase
The clue “the Pre-proposition phase” is inspired by a thematic conversation around Ash Maurya’s post about Value and Business Models.
There are two equations to a working business model.
1. The Value Equation
…
2. The Monetization Equation
…
Create Value > Capture Value >= Cost (Deliver Value)
Value Creation is the core of a business. I also made a canvas called Value Engagement in 2021.
In a classical book titled Competitive Advantage, Michael Porter suggested an activity-based view of business, according to Porter:
“Activities, narrower than traditional functions such as marketing or R&D, are what generate cost and create value for buyers; they are the basic units of competitive advantage.” (1985, p.xv)
Porter offered us a great tool called Value Chain which focuses on the internal activities of business value creation.
However, we should notice that the customers are also part of the activities of business value creation. In order to highlight this notion, I made the Value Engagement Canvas in Oct 2021.
See the attached diagram. You can find more details in:
D as Diagramming: The Value-fit Framework and Canvas
https://medium.com/p/786f658f1336
Kevin Mackenzie shares a model about value creation with six states:
1. Latent — Unexplored problem space
2. Hypothesized — An idea
3. Potential — Productized idea (VP)
4. Created — An experienced, net positive outcome, that gets attributed worth by a customer/recipient. This only manifests post some form of transaction.
5. Captured — Revenue or some proxy that will enable you to get closer to revenue (improved brand awareness, successful free trials).
6. Extracted — returns that exceed your WACC. Failing this you have not “created” value for shareholders.
I really like this model. It inspired me to coin the term “Pre-proposition”.
We can call №1 and №2 the “Pre-proposition” phase.
I also use “Early Discovery” to describe the early phase of knowledge engagement.
Though Knowledge Engagement and Product Development are two different activities, the early phase is similar. It is all about discovering tiny sparks and developing significant insights.
Why did I coin the new term “Pre-proposition”?
It’s similar to my idea about “Expansive Activity Analysis”. Originally, I worked on the “Activity Analysis” project. However, I expanded my unit of analysis from “Activity Analysis” to other levels.
In order to solve the problem, I use “Pre-Activity Analysis” and “Post-Activity Analysis” to name some units of analysis. In addition, I name all units of analysis as a new meaningful whole: Expansive Activity Analysis. See the diagram below.
If your primary theme is “Value Proposition”, you can try to use the clue “Pre-proposition” to reframe your creative journey.
You can use “Post-proposition” too. In this way, you get a new framework called “Expansive Value Proposition”.
