RESULT OBTAINED
Canonical method
Value analysis: what each function costs and what it delivers
What must be established
A useful analysis keeps its controls visible.
- 01
State each function by its purpose, a verb and an object, without naming the solution that delivers it.
- 02
Spread real costs over the functions, not over the components or services that carry them.
- 03
Separate the functions customers use from those they pay for without having asked for them.
Decision reference
Make the next choice more explicit.
DECISION SUPPORTED
Which functions of the offer deserve the resources they consume?
DELIVERABLE TO KEEP
A grid of functions carrying, for each one, its usefulness, its cost and a decision: lighten, strengthen, remove or create.
NEXT ELEMENT TO EXAMINE
Distinctive capabilitiesExplore →Describe the offer through its functions, not its components
A function is stated by its purpose alone: what the offer does for whoever uses it, independently of the solution chosen. A touchscreen is not a function, it is a solution; the function is to enter an order without a keyboard. The distinction is not a matter of vocabulary. As long as the offer is described through its components, nothing can be removed without removing the product itself, and the discussion stalls on technique. Once it is described through its functions, each one becomes debatable, comparable, and sometimes replaceable by a cheaper solution that renders the same service. Three families stand apart: main functions, which justify the purchase; secondary functions, which improve use without founding it; constraint functions, imposed by a regulation, an interface or an environment. The wording stays short, a verb and an object, and never names the means.
- Purpose, not solution
- Verb and object
- Main, secondary, constraint
- A debatable function
Relate every function to its cost and to its use
Costs are then spread over the functions rather than over the components that carry them. The exercise calls for an allocation rule written before the figures are examined, because one component, one team or one licence often serves several functions: without a rule fixed beforehand, everyone splits costs in favour of what they defend. Facing it, usefulness is measured with those who buy and those who use, who are not always the same people. Two gaps deserve attention. A costly function that few customers use is overquality: everyone pays for it, a handful benefit. A heavily used but underfunded function is an opportunity: putting resources there improves the offer where it shows. Value is therefore not a score but a ratio, between the ability to perform the function and what it consumes; it rises when satisfaction improves, or when cost recedes.
- Written allocation rule
- Usefulness from users
- Overquality paid by all
- Underfunded function
Close with a decision and a renunciation
An analysis that ends in a ranking has decided nothing. Every function receives a dated decision: lighten it by keeping the service for less, strengthen it, remove it, or create one that is missing. Three guardrails frame removal. A constraint function is not weighed like the others: dropping it exposes the organisation to a regulatory refusal or an incompatibility, whatever its cost. Dependencies are checked before deciding, because a function of little use in itself may condition a major one. Finally, a removal is judged on what it genuinely frees up, resources, lead time, complexity, and not on the apparent saving of a cost line that will reappear elsewhere. The renunciation is written with the decision, since it commits what the offer stops promising; tuning the product and the price comes afterwards, and belongs to the marketing mix.
- Lighten or remove
- Constraint function
- Dependencies between functions
- Dated decision
DECISION ASSET
Grid of functions, their usefulness and their cost
Every function of the offer is related to what it brings the customer and to what it consumes, before any decision.
Function
- Input
- Purpose, verb and object
- Control
- Purpose or solution?
- Output
- Stated function
Usefulness
- Input
- Reported use and importance
- Control
- Who actually asks for it?
- Output
- Rated usefulness
Cost
- Input
- Written allocation rule
- Control
- What does it consume?
- Output
- Cost per function
Decision
- Input
- Gap between use and cost
- Control
- Lighten, strengthen, remove?
- Output
- Dated decision
- AFNOR, NF EN 16271, functional expression of need (opens in a new tab)European standard defining a function by its purpose and framing the functional specification.
- AFNOR, NF EN 12973, value management (opens in a new tab)European standard setting value as the ratio between satisfaction of the need and the resources employed.
MOVE FROM ANALYSIS TO YOUR DECISION
Produce a testable decision mandate
MOVE FROM ANALYSIS TO YOUR DECISION
Produce a testable decision mandate
RETURN TO THE DECISION SYSTEM
See the canonical definition of marketing strategy→