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products-services

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Updated 10-16 08:04

About this skill

Products & Services Skill

Overview

Generate Section 03 of the business plan: the products and services section. Use this skill to explain what the business offers, why customers care, how delivery works, and what makes the offer commercially defensible.

Use When

  • Use when drafting or revising the products and services section for a plan, proposal, or investor document.
  • Use when the business needs a clear value proposition, offer structure, and delivery explanation.
  • Use when later pricing, marketing, operations, or financial sections depend on precise offer definitions.

Do Not Use When

  • Do not use for detailed market sizing, channel strategy, or financial modelling beyond what supports the offer definition.
  • Do not invent features, IP, or regulatory status that the client has not established.
  • Do not describe offerings in jargon that hides the real customer benefit.

Required Inputs

  • Product or service list, customer problem, and intended outcomes
  • Delivery model, pricing logic, development stage, and key dependencies
  • Country or regulatory context where licences, standards, or IP matter
  • Adjacent section drafts that must stay consistent with the offer definition

Workflow

  1. List each offer clearly in customer language before adding detail.
  2. Map features to benefits, customer pain points, and commercial value.
  3. Explain delivery, production, suppliers, and compliance requirements where relevant.
  4. Distinguish current offers from pipeline or aspirational offers.
  5. Reconcile the section with pricing, operations, IP, and market claims elsewhere in the plan.
  6. Flag any missing validation, capability, or compliance facts that weaken the offer narrative.

Quality Bar

  • A reader can understand what is sold, to whom, and why it matters.
  • Benefits are clearer than feature lists, and claims are commercially believable.
  • Delivery and compliance logic match the operating reality of the business.
  • The section creates a usable basis for pricing, marketing, operations, and projections.

Anti-Patterns

  • Feature-heavy descriptions with no customer or revenue logic.
  • Mixing live offers, prototypes, and future ideas as if they are equally mature.
  • Unsupported claims of uniqueness, IP protection, or regulatory clearance.
  • Copying reference frameworks instead of writing the actual offer narrative.

Outputs

  • A finished or revised Section 03 products and services draft
  • Explicit assumptions, dependencies, and unresolved product questions
  • Cross-skill notes for pricing, marketing, operations, risk, and finance

Generate a clear, compelling description of what the business offers and why it matters to customers.

What to Generate

Required Elements

  1. Product/service descriptions What each offering is, in plain language
  2. Value proposition The specific problem solved and benefit delivered
  3. Features vs. benefits mapping Features are what it does; benefits are why customers care
  4. Pricing overview Pricing model and rationale (detailed pricing in marketing section)
  5. Product lifecycle stage Development, introduction, growth, maturity, or decline
  6. Intellectual property Patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets
  7. R&D pipeline Planned products, features, or improvements
  8. Production/delivery method How products are made or services delivered
  9. Supplier dependencies Key inputs and supplier relationships
  10. Regulatory requirements Licences, certifications, compliance needs

Product Description Framework

For each product or service:

Name:
Category:
Description: [2-3 sentences]
Target customer: [who buys this]
Problem solved: [specific pain point]
Key differentiator: [why this vs. alternatives]
Revenue model: [how it generates income]
Stage: [development / launched / mature]

Technology Build Strategy

For products/services requiring technology systems, evaluate the build strategy (Dennis et al., 2021):

Strategy When to choose Key consideration
Custom build Unique competitive advantage, in-house skills available Highest control, longest timeline
Buy (packaged) Common business need, speed critical Faster deployment, vendor dependency
Outsource Non-core function, skills gap Focus on core business, loss of direct control

For each technology decision, document:

  • Which strategy was chosen and why
  • Feasibility assessment (technical, economic, organisational)
  • Integration requirements with existing systems

Feasibility Assessment for New Products

Before committing to product development, assess three dimensions (Dennis et al., 2021):

  1. Technical feasibility Can we build itSection Rate: technology familiarity, project size, system compatibility
  2. Economic feasibility Should we build itSection Calculate: development costs, operational costs, NPV, ROI, break-even timeline
  3. Organisational feasibility Will users adopt itSection Assess: strategic alignment, champion existence, stakeholder readiness

Generation Process

  1. Ask for: list of products/services, target customers, industry
  2. Map each product to a specific customer problem
  3. Articulate differentiators what makes this offering better or different
  4. Identify lifecycle stage and growth trajectory for each
  5. Document IP protection status and R&D plans
  6. Flag any regulatory or compliance requirements

Quality Criteria

  • Benefits are expressed from the customer's perspective, not the company's
  • Differentiators are specific and defensible (not "better quality")
  • Pricing rationale connects to value delivered
  • R&D pipeline shows forward thinking without over-promising

References

  • Porter's value chain differentiation sources: See ../08-operations-plan/references/value-chain-porter.md for the full value chain (9 activities), uniqueness/differentiation drivers (policy choices, linkages, timing, location, learning, integration, scale, institutional factors), the cost of differentiation, and competitive scope from Porter (1985). Read when explaining what makes this product or service genuinely unique and how that uniqueness is sustained.
  • Value chain and core competencies: See references/value-chain-competencies.md for value chain design, core competency identification (Prahalad), capabilities analysis, small business strategy (SWOT/niche), stakeholder value mapping, capability gap analysis, and VRIO resource-based strategy from Fahey & Randall, Harris & Lenox, and Evans
  • Pricing strategy: See references/pricing-strategy.md for the Five Ways to Grow framework, cost-plus critique, Value Scales model, Price Triangle, Gold/Silver/Bronze tiered packaging, bundling and cross-selling, discount/volume breakeven tables, pricing psychology (anchoring, decoy, charm pricing), directional pricing, competitive pricing, implementing price changes (A/B/C customer grading), and a condensed pricing action checklist from Hill (Kogan Page, 2013)
  • Product development lifecycle: See references/product-development-lifecycle.md for the Value-Driven Product Development (VDPD) 7-stage process, idea validation, customer discovery interviews, persona building, proof of concept, prototyping, MVP vs. prototype distinction, launch checklist, Marketing Quadfecta, CAC benchmarks, innovation types (product/process/position/paradigm), dynamic capabilities framework, funding by stage, and Business Model Canvas integration from Bates (2024) and Tidd & Bessant (Wiley, 2013)
  • Product management frameworks: See references/product-management-frameworks.md for Product Owner stances model, customer value layers, feature-to-outcome mapping, product vision template, roadmap types (goal-oriented, now-next-later, user story map, visual, Gantt), innovation sources (inside-out/outside-in), Truth Curve experiment selection, hypothesis template, 8 scaling strategies, pricing alignment check, and Key Value Areas (KVAs) from Verwijs, Overeem & Lennartz (Scrum.org, 2023)
  • Technology strategy and feasibility: Build/buy/outsource decision framework, three-dimensional feasibility analysis (technical/economic/organisational), and NPV/ROI methodology from Dennis, Wixom & Tegarden (Wiley, 2021)
  • MVP and product validation: See references/mvp-validation-frameworks.md for MVP framework (low-fi vs. high-fi, User Story format), BFCE Use Case evaluation (Better/Faster/Cheaper/Easier), Product Vision strategic questions (network effects, lock-in, margins), Experience Implications Template (People/Process/Technology), and prototyping taxonomy from Blank & Dorf (2012) and Alam
  • Business model innovation: See references/business-model-innovation.md for the 4V framework (value proposition/creation/delivery/capture), five business model performance drivers (customer engagement, external linkages, internal processes, strategic awareness, reconfiguration capacity), freemium strategy (conversion rate benchmarks 25%, seven strategic requirements, failure patterns), multi-sided platform design (six redesign operations, network effects, cold-start problem), open business model dimensions (five dimensions + strategic responses), analogy-based creative modelling, and business model vs. competitive strategy distinction from Mangematin et al. (Journal of Business Strategy, Emerald, 2017). Read when evaluating a freemium, platform, or open-model business design, or when using analogies to justify a novel business model.
  • Business models, strategy, and innovation: See references/business-models-innovation-teece.md for Teece's business model definition (value creation architecture + value capture mechanism), business model vs strategy distinction, business model innovation types, value creation vs value capture problem, appropriability mechanisms (IP/complementary assets/first-mover/network effects/complexity), dynamic capabilities (sense/seize/reconfigure), business model archetypes table (Uganda examples), and application to business plan sections from Teece (Long Range Planning / Elsevier, 2010). Read when designing the revenue model, defining competitive advantage, or evaluating a platform, subscription, or razor-blade business model.
  • Uganda IP protection: See 10-financial-projections/references/uganda-ip-framework.md for Uganda's full IP registration framework trademark registration via URSB (Nice Classification, 45 classes, UGX 175,000 total filing fee, 7-year initial term + 10-year renewals), patent filing (20-year protection), utility model (10-year), industrial design (15-year), copyright (automatic, life+50 years), ARIPO regional protection covering 19 African countries from a single application, trade secret protection via NDAs, IP as a balance sheet asset and loan collateral, fees table, and Uganda IP Policy 2019 institutional framework. Read for any business with a brand, recipe, software, invention, or creative work to protect.
  • Sustainable product design and circular economy: See references/sustainable-product-design.md for 4 design-stage decisions governing 7080% of lifecycle environmental impact, simplified lifecycle scan table, circular product business models (product-as-a-service, deposit-refund, by-product exchange, refurbishment), technopreneurship product categories for Uganda/EA (clean cookstoves, solar water pumps, cold chain, organic waste-to-compost), 10-question product sustainability assessment tool (scored 020), and NOGAMU organic certification premium data Source: Kumar et al. (CRC, 2025) and Leleux & van der Kaaij (2019). Read when designing sustainable products, evaluating lifecycle impact, or incorporating circular economy into the products and services section.