Common-Value Web3 Messaging
Translate emerging technology into use cases, jobs, and everyday value
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 98%
Common-Value Web3 Messaging begins with the customer's job rather than the system's architecture. Identify the task, frustration, or desired outcome the product addresses, then express that value in familiar language. Replace protocol names and decentralization claims with a concrete use case, such as staying connected, selling unused goods, carrying a verifiable reputation, or communicating through a universal identity. Explain why the experience improves on the customer's current alternative and support the claim with a demonstration or evidence. Test the message with people outside the enthusiast community: if they cannot understand and recommend the product without repeating technical jargon, the positioning remains too infrastructure-focused. Technical explanation can follow, but common value must lead.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain after the hosts cite Nick Susie's argument that Web2 spread through familiar benefits rather than fascination with its underlying protocols.
Core principles
- 01Customers adopt outcomes rather than protocols
- 02A use case should be understandable without technical expertise
- 03Common value creates recommendations beyond an enthusiast community
- 04Technical detail should support rather than lead the message
- 05Jobs to be done provide the bridge from invention to adoption
How to run it
- 1
Name the job
State the practical task the customer is trying to complete or the progress they want to make. Keep the job independent of the proposed technology.
Pro tip Use a verb-led statement such as verify experience, sell an unused item, or contact a customer.
Watch out Do not start with decentralization, blockchains, tokens, or protocol names.
- 2
Define common value
Explain the outcome in language an ordinary customer already understands. Connect the benefit to time, money, access, trust, convenience, identity, or belonging.
Pro tip Describe what improves in the customer's life after adoption.
Watch out Terms familiar to enthusiasts may still alienate the intended market.
- 3
Attach a concrete use case
Show how a person uses the product to complete the job. Make the sequence and result visible rather than merely asserting that the technology is transformative.
Pro tip Use a short before-and-after scenario.
Watch out A broad category promise is not a use case.
- 4
Compare the alternative
Explain why the product improves on the customer's existing method. Focus on the consequential difference rather than every technical feature.
Pro tip Choose one or two advantages that matter most for the stated job.
Watch out Do not assume technical novelty automatically makes the experience better.
- 5
Test outsider comprehension
Present the message to people who are not Web3 specialists and ask them to explain the value back. Revise until they can do so without relying on jargon.
Pro tip Ask whether they would recommend it and what words they would use.
Watch out Approval from the existing enthusiast community does not prove mainstream clarity.
- 6
Layer in technical proof
After the practical value is clear, add only the architecture details needed to establish credibility, differentiation, or trust.
Pro tip Place technical explanations in expandable or secondary content.
Watch out Do not let the proof displace the customer outcome as the headline.
In the wild
Instead of advertising decentralized identity infrastructure, a product marketer says the service lets candidates carry verifiable proof of their real experience between applications. A demonstration shows an employer checking completed activities without relying solely on a self-written résumé.
→ Prospects understand the employment and trust benefit before learning how wallets provide it.
A marketplace avoids leading with HTTP, SSL, databases, or payment architecture. Its campaign shows people making money from possessions they would otherwise discard and demonstrates the listing process in a few simple actions.
→ The message communicates an everyday job and outcome rather than the machinery behind it.
Common mistakes
Leading with protocols
Customers rarely adopt a product merely because its underlying protocol is novel. Start with the result they can obtain.
Using enthusiasts as the only test audience
Insider comprehension can conceal jargon and assumptions that prevent broader adoption.
Claiming value without a use case
Abstract promises such as decentralization or ownership need a specific customer action and outcome to become meaningful.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for marketers positioning technically complex or emerging products for audiences outside the core developer community.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for technical documentation whose audience explicitly needs protocol-level implementation details.
From the transcript
“Web 3 needs to rethink its language and communications. Less tech, more common value. More use cases, more jobs to be done.”
“No, because Web3 needs to find use cases that have true value.”
“Where do you go to learn about the core jobs to be done that Web3 is solving?”
From the episode
How Web 3 Will Impact Your Marketing