1. Progress first approach
By prioritising progress over chasing hard to define value, we unlock powerful levers and tools that boost sales success and ignite (systematic) innovation.
Value is hard to define, hard to chase, and our traditional view, despite being wildly successful in the past, has many blindspots. We need to re-imagine value.
The Progress Economy builds upon service-dominant logic – an evolved view of value – which reduces those blindspots.
We further switch to see the pursuit of progress as primary; value becomes secondary, emerging from making progress.
2. Progress as a state
Progress states capture essential details, insights, and waypoints of a seeker’s progress journey; essential understandings for improving innovation and sales.
Progress is more natural to define, understand, and work with than value.
One view of progress is as a state, comprising of three equally important elements:
We name several progress states:
- progress sought – the seeker’s more desirable state
- progress origin – where the seeker is starting from (and where a proposal offers to help from)
- progress offered – the state a proposition’s offers to help reach
- progress reached / potential – judgements of progress at points in time
Progress originally and sought evolve over time – driving the need to “innovate of die”.
3. Progress as a verb
Understanding a seeker tries to move from their individual progress origin to their progress sought through a series of resource integrations is essential for innovation and sales – what are they lacking? how can you help?
Progress is also verb – moving from one state to another.
Ideally a seeker progresses from their origin to their progress sought. In doing so, maximum value, for them, emerges.
We make progress in a series of resource integrations.
If we lack resource, we may engage supplementary resources offered by a progress helper to help us progress.
In that case, we might need to “compromise” our progress sought to head to the proposition’s progress offered instead.
4. Value = Progress Comparisons
Influencing progress comparisons (that seekers translate as value) is a lever for innovation and sales.
In a progress-first view, value becomes a set of progress comparisons, including:
- Can I reach my progress sought myself?
- Which proposition’s progress offered helps me get closest to my progress sought?
- Are the progress hurdles low enough for me to make an attempt?
- Have I made the progress I was expecting at key points on the attempt?
These comparison are predominantly made by the progress seeker, but in some cases a helper may also choose to make them (and perhaps refuse or withdraw resources). They are made continuously before, during and after using the proposition.
5. Emerged value needs recognising
Influencing the seeker’s value recognition frequency, and/or amounts of recognition at any one time, is a lever for innovation and sales.
Whilst value emerging from progress being made, a progress seeker needs to recognise that value for it to be meaningful to them – a process akin to revenue recognition in firms.
When they choose to recognise value affects some of their progress comparisons.
6. Goods allow service to be transported
By eliminating the outdated goods vs. services debate, we open up our perspective on potential solutions—unlocking a powerful lever for innovation and sales.
Let’s bid farewell to Levitt’s ‘marketing myopia’!
We see everything as a service – the application of skills and competence.
Goods allow us to freeze service provision, transport it to when and where needed, and unfreeze in an act of resource integration.
In The Progress Economy there is no difference between listening to your favourite band live or digitally freezing their performance, streaming it over the net and unfreezing when hitting play on your listening device.
They are two solutions to functional progress of being entertained. It is non-functional and contextual progress sought that guides which you’d pick.
7. Progress Hurdles
Reducing one or more of the six progress hurdles is a lever for innovation and sales
There is the fundamental progress hurdle to making progress: a lack of resource.
It is important to see a hurdle is not a barrier; a seeker may attempt progress even if lacking resource (some may even relish doing so).
Or they may engage a progress proposition – an offering of supplementary resources. However, propositions introduce 5 additional progress hurdles:
- Adoptability – Rogers’ adoption theory
- Resistance – the missing part of Roger’s theory?
- Lack of Confidence – in the proposition/provider (where branding comes in)
- Misalignment on Continuum – are you trying to enable when the seeker wants relieving?
- Equitable Exchange – does the seeker feel they need to expand too much effort in return (often indirectly) for your service?
8. Progress propositions
Creating new, or altering an existing proposition’s progress-making activities and/or progress resource mix is a lever for innovation
Progress propositions offer supplementary resources that enable progress where a progress seeker may have a lack of resource.
They consist of a proposed set of progress-making activities (better known as instructions, manuals, recipes, guided systems) and a progress resource mix) – some proposition specific combination of:
9. Progress proposition continuum
Sliding a proposition along the progress proposition continuum – in either direction – is a lever for innovation and sales
Propositions exist on a continuum between enabling and relieving a progress seeker.
Where a proposition sits indicates elements of non-functional progress it supports and informs the proposition resource mix.
10. Equitable exchange of service makes the world go round
Thinking in terms of equitable effort exchanges opens our eyes to innovative business models – subscription, subsidised, freemium, etc.
When we lack resource to progress, we may look for help (a service – the application of skills and competence for (my) benefit). A helper is incentivised to offer a service as they can get help for some progress they are looking for which they lack resources (remember, we’re all looking to make progress in everything).
We exchange service – let’s start with: I apply my skills to help you, you apply yours to help me. Ideally the level of effort in each exchange is the same. But that is perhaps hard to measure. It turns out the exchange just needs to be equitable, i.e. both parties are happy the exchange is fair rather than it necessarily being so. Additionally, service by one may be returned by several services by the other for it to be seen as equitable.
In practice, this exchange is often hidden by it being indirect; a common example being transitive exchange – I do something for you, you do something for another, they do something for someone else…eventually someone in the chain does something for me. The size and timing of such exchanges are mediated by service credits and signalled by price (size x number of exchanges). The most successful implementation of service credits at the moment is cash (which is increasingly looking like service credits as we go more and more digital).
Let’s progress together through discussion…