A brilliant idea, clearly explained.
Value proposition coaching that helps researchers and founders move from technical description to clear, customer-centred language — the foundation for everything else that follows.
The articulation problem
Most researchers and early-stage founders can explain what they do brilliantly to colleagues in their field. Translating that expertise into language that lands immediately with a customer, investor, or programme manager from a different background is a different skill — and one that rarely gets taught.
Technical Overload
Leading with mechanisms and methodology rather than outcomes — describing how it works when the audience needs to know why it matters to them.
The Generic Trap
Falling back on broad language — "innovative", "scalable", "transformative" — that could apply to anything and distinguishes nothing.
The Missing Customer
Building the proposition around the technology rather than the specific person it helps and the specific problem it solves for them.
What the coaching does
Value proposition development coaching works with the participant to build a clear, specific answer to the foundational question: who do you want to talk to, and about what?
From there, the coaching develops the language that makes the answer usable — in conversations, on LinkedIn, in pitches, and in everyday introductions. The goal is not a polished positioning statement to be memorised and recited. It's a genuine understanding of the value being created, expressed naturally in language the target audience actually uses.
- Audience definition — who specifically the proposition is for, and what they care about
- Problem clarity — the specific problem being solved, in customer language not technical language
- Solution framing — how to describe the solution in terms of outcomes, not features or methods
- Competitive context — why this approach, rather than alternatives the customer already has
- The one-sentence version — a clear, memorable summary that works in any context
- Testing the proposition — how to use conversations and LinkedIn to refine the language through real responses
When it's most valuable
Value proposition coaching is most impactful at two moments in the innovation programme journey: at the start of the customer discovery phase — before participants begin conversations with potential customers — and when the proposition has been tested but the language hasn't yet crystallised.
It also pairs directly with the LinkedIn coaching: a clear value proposition is the foundation for a LinkedIn profile that works. Participants who complete the value proposition coaching first find the LinkedIn work significantly more straightforward.
Format
- Format: 1:1 coaching sessions (not group workshops — proposition work requires individual attention)
- Sessions: 1-2 × 60-minute sessions, typically a week apart
- Delivery: Video (Zoom or Teams)
- Output: Written value proposition summary, one-sentence version, and LinkedIn profile summary draft
- Coach: Linda Cheung
- Programme integration: Available as a standalone service or integrated into the programme schedule alongside LinkedIn group workshops
PhD Researcher ICURe Participant, University of BristolI thought I'd been explaining my value proposition clearly, but the language was too technical for the people I wanted to reach. One coaching session with Linda and I had language that people immediately understood. It unlocked everything else.
Let's talk about your situation.
Whether you're looking for firm-wide training or individual coaching, we'd love to hear from you.