2. Build your consumption chain

Use this Minesweeper feature to explore how your customers would interact with your new product.

You can easily build a value chain within Minesweeper software, accessed at www.aimclientcenter.com or www.blueprintingcenter.com > Minesweeper tab. Just click Step 2: Consumption Chain in the left panel and you’ll see a series of steps appear below the blue “Customer Outcome” sticky notes.

Initially these consumption chain steps will be filled with Select, Order, Pay, Receive and so on. It’s best to enter activities that are more descriptive and specific to your market segment customers. You can add more steps by clicking "+ Add Step" at the end of the chain. You can also reposition steps—by grabbing the red numbered area on the left—so you can get the sequence right.

What if you have multiple points in the value chain? In our Acme Composite Packaging simulation, you could create a separate consumption chain for box blank producers, e-retailers, shippers and end-consumers. Here’s a good practice: Link all these consumption chains together in one long chain. Just create an “open space” step in-between each and add an ALL-CAPS title step at the beginning of each to make the separation clear.

Keywords: consumption chain, blue sticky notes, add step, reposition step, value chain