There’s no such thing as customer value

As alluded to earlier, I work with quite a few companies in a consulting, advisory, board, research collaboration or other capacity. In many of these engagements, the discussion turns to what to build or how to extend the product with new functionality. When asked why we’re prioritizing certain types of functionality, the typical answer is that the prioritized work will maximize customer value.

The notion of customer value is very hard to disagree with. Of course, we all want to deliver value to customers and improve their lives, their business or any other aspect that our offering is concerned with. The problem is that the term “customer value” mostly is a ‘feel good’ concept. When we start to drill into it and try to define what constitutes customer value, the glossiness rapidly crumbles. In practice, there’s a severe lack of agreement in companies and teams as to what constitutes customer value. And even if there’s a qualitative agreement in terms of storytelling, when seeking to quantify this, things rapidly fall apart.