This article builds on our previous write-up (Part 1) where we demonstrated how to transform your initial thinking into a compelling value proposition. We showed how you can increase your chances for approval and funding by using generative AI and CO-STAR to accomplish this critical first step in ideation and complete it almost instantaneously.
To take the next step and enhance the quality of your value proposition and deepen your understanding of its potential, we suggest prompting your generative AI tool to address each component of your CO-STAR. We will repeatedly prompt the AI to produce research that both creates and informs the story of our value proposition. Successful prompts have clear instructions with strong verbs, keywords, and include as much detail as possible. The more specific you are, the better the AI will be able to understand your request and generate the most relevant information. For Sarah’s Sound Effects Company’s CO-STAR on Disposable Hearing Aids, we used multiple prompts to refine our idea into an effective value proposition.
Who is the Customer?
To better articulate the value proposition for the customer and their unmet needs, we used prompt 2: For the Customer, please describe a persona of this person. Note that Bard retained the context from our original prompt to generate the persona (Review Part I).
Bard Output:
Sure, here is a persona from a low-income and vulnerable community:
Name: Karen Biel
Age: 62
Occupation: Retired factory worker
Location: Lives with her two grandchildren in a small apartment in Los Angeles, CA
Income: Receives Social Security benefits and a small pension from her factory job.
Challenges: Karen has been experiencing hearing loss for the past few years. She is on a fixed income and does not have health insurance, so she cannot afford traditional hearing aids. She also lives in a noisy environment, which makes it difficult for her to hear.
Goals: Karen wants to find a hearing solution that will help her to hear better and communicate more effectively. She also wants a hearing solution that is affordable and accessible.
Pain points: Karen is frustrated with the fact that she cannot hear well. She often feels isolated and left out of conversations. She is also worried about her safety, as she cannot hear cars coming when she is crossing the street.
Why would Karen choose disposable hearing aids? They would be a more affordable and convenient option for her. She would also appreciate the fact that they are easy to use and that she can dispose of them after a few months…
Feel free to generate and refine multiple personas, and ask several prompts, until you are satisfied with understanding the Customer of your value proposition. Generating multiple personas can be used to inspire other use cases, surface new needs, and delve into additional customers and stakeholders who might be impacted by your solution.
What is the Opportunity?
We liked the potential presented by the Karen Biel persona but wanted to investigate other possibilities as well. We decided to gauge the size of the opportunity presented by the “active” market, so we engaged Bard with prompt 3: Describe the size of the market for a John Smith persona who is an active customer with a high risk of damaging their hearing aids. Here are the results:
Bard Output:
Sure, here is a description of the size of the market for the John Smith persona:
The market for disposable hearing aids for active people is still in its early stages, but it is growing rapidly. According to a report by Grand View Research, the global disposable hearing aids market for active people is expected to reach $1 billion by 2025.
The John Smith persona is a good representation of the target market for disposable hearing aids for active people. He is an older adult who is experiencing hearing loss and who is active. He is looking for an affordable and convenient hearing solution that he can use without having to worry about damaging it while he is being active. He is also concerned about the environment and wants to choose a hearing solution that is sustainable.
Here are some additional details about the size of the market for disposable hearing aids for active people:
- The global disposable hearing aids market for active people is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15% from 2020 to 2025.
- The North American market is expected to be the largest market for disposable hearing aids for active people, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific…
Each group you target with your solution, whether it is fellow employees or your company’s current or future customers, will have its own dynamics and scale. It is up to you to refine these market opportunities into one customer group or separate them into segments to pursue based on your deployment strategy.
What is the Solution?
Now that you have explored and defined the Customer and Opportunity, you can research and detail your idea’s solution. To create a more complete description of the actual solution, you can use several different types of prompts incorporating what we learned from the answers to other parts of the value proposition:
Prompt 4: Describe how the solution (insert idea) addresses (insert persona) needs.
For this example, we decided to see if we could add greater value to our solution by exploring a socially responsible and climate-friendly prompt 4: Describe the disposable hearing aid solution incorporating sustainable materials and responsible manufacturing practices in its development.
Bard Output:
Sure, here are some ways to incorporate sustainable materials and responsible manufacturing practices in the development of disposable hearing aids:
- Use sustainable materials. Disposable hearing aids can be made from sustainable materials, such as recycled plastics or bioplastics. These materials are better for the environment than traditional materials, such as plastics made from petroleum.
- Use responsible manufacturing practices. Disposable hearing aids can be manufactured in a responsible way, using energy-efficient processes that reduce waste. This will help to minimize the environmental impact of the product.
- Design for end-of-life. Disposable hearing aids can be designed to be easily recycled or composted at the end of their life. This will help to ensure that the materials in the product are not wasted.
Here are some specific examples of sustainable materials and responsible manufacturing practices that could be used in disposable hearing aids:
- Recyclable plastics. Disposable hearing aids could be made from recyclable plastics, such as polypropylene or polyethylene. These plastics can be recycled into new products, reducing the need for new materials.
- Disposable hearing aids could be made from bioplastics, which are plastics made from renewable resources, such as corn or sugarcane. Bioplastics are biodegradable, meaning that they can be broken down by bacteria in the environment…
Who should be on the Team?
After you develop a draft statement of the solution, you can prompt the AI to help describe the Team needed to build and test your idea. We experimented with several prompts and appreciated this prompt’s output:
Prompt 5: To efficiently develop a prototype disposable hearing aids, what roles, skills, and experience are needed on the team?
Bard Output:
Here are the roles, skills, and experience needed on a team to efficiently develop a prototype of a disposable hearing aid:
Project Manager
- Roles: The project manager is responsible for coordinating the activities of the team and ensuring that the project stays on track. They should have experience in managing complex projects and working with multidisciplinary teams.
- Skills: The project manager should have strong organizational and communication skills.
- Experience: The project manager should have experience in the medical device industry or a related field.
Engineer
- Roles: The engineer is responsible for designing the disposable hearing aids and ensuring that they meet the requirements of the project. They should have experience in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and software engineering.
- Skills: The engineer should have strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Experience: The engineer should have experience in designing medical devices or a related field.
Audiologist
- Roles: The audiologist is responsible for testing the disposable hearing aids and ensuring that they are effective in amplifying sound and that they meet the needs of people with hearing loss. They should have experience in hearing loss assessment and hearing aid fitting.
- Skills: The audiologist should have strong clinical and research skills.
- Experience: The audiologist should have experience in the medical device industry or a related field….
Once you have formed your project team, consider prompt 6: Describe why your team is the most qualified to take disposable hearing aids to market and create a thriving business.
What are the Advantages over other solutions?
To understand how our disposable hearing aid solution compares to others. We used prompt 7: What are the top alternatives to disposable hearing aids? The output was a list of existing competitors with their websites:
Bard Output:
In-the-ear (ITE) hearing aids: These are the most common types of hearing aids. They are inserted into the ear canal and are custom-fit to the user’s ear. ITE hearing aids are available in a variety of styles and sizes, and they can be programmed to meet the specific needs of the user.
www.hearinglife.com
In-the-ear (ITE) hearing aids
Behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids: These hearing aids are worn behind the ear and are connected to a small receiver that is placed in the ear canal. BTE hearing aids are more powerful than ITE hearing aids and can be used to treat more severe hearing loss.
entphysiciansinc.com
Behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids
Receiver-in-canal (RIC) hearing aids: These hearing aids are similar to BTE hearing aids, but the receiver is placed directly in the ear canal. RIC hearing aids are smaller and more discreet than BTE hearing aids, but they may not be as powerful.
Another prompt that yielded critical content to strengthen the value proposition was: prompt 8: What are the advantages disposable hearing aids have over the top alternatives? This prompt highlighted why your solution is superior to other options.
What Results do you expect to achieve?
Now that we have our description of the advantages over the alternatives for competing solutions, let’s draft some results.
To further refine the solution’s Results and begin proving the value of our idea, we tasked Bard with three more prompts. We asked Bard to determine the financial returns, identify the risks associated with building and bringing the product to market, and identify the hypotheses we should test to decide if the disposable hearing aid idea has the necessary desirability, feasibility, and viability to be a successful product.
The output from these prompts helped us to focus on affordability for vulnerable communities and inspired prompt 12: Describe how affordable disposable hearing aids improve people’s lives in vulnerable communities.
Bard Output:
Affordable disposable hearing aids can improve people’s lives in vulnerable communities in several ways, including:
- Improved communication: Disposable hearing aids can help people to communicate more effectively, which can improve their social interactions and relationships. This can be especially important for people in vulnerable communities, who may already face challenges in communicating with others.
- Reduced isolation: Disposable hearing aids can help people to feel less isolated, as they will be able to hear what is going on around them and participate in conversations. This can be especially important for people who live in noisy environments or who have difficulty hearing in noisy environments.
- Improved safety: Disposable hearing aids can help people to be safer, as they will be able to hear cars coming or other hazards. This can be especially important for people who live in urban areas or who walk or bike frequently.
- Increased confidence: Disposable hearing aids can help people to feel more confident, as they will be able to hear better and participate more fully in life. This can be especially important for people who have been struggling with hearing loss.
In addition to these benefits, affordable disposable hearing aids can also help to improve the lives of people in vulnerable communities by:
- Reducing the financial burden: Disposable hearing aids are often more affordable than traditional hearing aids, which can make them more accessible to people in vulnerable communities.
- Improving access to healthcare: Disposable hearing aids can help to improve access to healthcare, as people will be able to hear better and participate more fully in their healthcare appointments.
- Promoting social inclusion: Disposable hearing aids can help to promote social inclusion, as people will be able to communicate more effectively and participate more fully in social activities.
Generative AI helped facilitate our journey to develop a solution with the highest potential for success. At each step, we were able to quickly explore divergent options. The work now shifts toward convergence on a well-aligned value proposition where each element of your CO-STAR complements one another to create a coherent and credible case for your idea.
As you build and refine your CO-STAR Value proposition, we recommend you:
- Use Generative AI to tailor messaging to your target audience. With some carefully created sentences as a prompt, Generative AI can optimize your value proposition to resonate with the interests of a potential customer, investor, sponsor, or partner. You can even ask your AI to write your pitch in bullet points so you can cut and paste the content into a PowerPoint or Canva deck.
- Be open to new ideas. Generative AI often produces insights and alternatives that you would not have thought of on your own. Even some of the errors the AI makes may turn out to be helpful. They might provide a jumping-off spot for a more novel approach. Be open to new inputs and consider how they could fit into the development of your solution and pitch.
- Use Generative AI as a tool, not a replacement for your own creativity and research. Generative AI tools are powerful but are not a substitute for your own thinking, writing, and research. Be sure to add your own thoughts and verify the information the AI provides by conducting your own customer interviews and proof-of-concept experiments. If you come across data, interrogate the data, and try to identify the sources to ensure your value proposition is based on real market facts and accurate information, like manufacturing costs or existing court cases.
- Experiment with different AIs and prompts. Generative AI tools are still under development, and they are constantly learning. Experiment with different AIs and prompts to see what kind of information and imagery they can generate.
- Use with caution. In addition to accuracy issues, be aware of other potential risks like data privacy, security, bias, and intellectual property that you may encounter when utilizing generative AI.
With practice comes expertise. With each new idea and the iterations you complete, your mastery will grow. Your CO-STARs will experience a paradigm shift in speed as your prompt formulations become more targeted and better at extracting the intelligence you need out of generative AI. We encourage you to become an early adopter, to practice these methods, to use AI to elevate your creative potential and positively impact your work and the world.
