Impossible-to-Possible Value Proposition
Use new incentives to make a previously impossible customer outcome possible.
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The Impossible-to-Possible Value Proposition asks a business to identify an outcome customers currently regard as unavailable, uneconomic, or contradictory, then use a new incentive structure to make it real. Instead of merely improving an existing product tenfold, the company changes the rules of the customer experience—for example, turning exercise or education from something customers pay for into something that pays them. The marketer begins with the customer-facing transformation rather than the enabling technology. The resulting proposition must be both differentiated and better, with incentives that produce useful behavior while remaining economically sustainable. Achieving that shift early can create a durable competitive advantage.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain through the Stepin example and the hosts' broader interpretation of Web3 incentive design.
Core principles
- 01The next competitive leap changes what customers believe is possible.
- 02Incentive innovation can matter more than technical novelty.
- 03A new value proposition should alter the customer experience visibly.
- 04Customers care about the changed outcome, not the underlying technology.
- 05A hard-to-copy incentive shift can create years of advantage.
How to run it
- 1
Find an accepted constraint
Identify a behavior, cost, or tradeoff customers assume cannot be reversed.
Pro tip Look for activities people avoid despite clear personal or social benefits.
- 2
Define the impossible outcome
Express the surprising new customer result in plain language, such as getting paid to exercise or learn.
Pro tip If the proposition needs a technical explanation, simplify it further.
Watch out Novel technology without a changed customer outcome does not qualify.
- 3
Reverse the incentive
Design a reward, ownership, or participation mechanism that makes the new outcome possible.
Pro tip Connect rewards to verified behavior rather than intention.
Watch out Unsustainable subsidies can mimic innovation temporarily.
- 4
Build around the experience
Make the changed incentive central to product usage instead of attaching it as a promotional afterthought.
- 5
Validate differentiation and sustainability
Test adoption, behavioral impact, retention, abuse resistance, and unit economics.
Pro tip Compare the proposition directly with the dominant incumbent experience.
Watch out A differentiated product is not better if its rewards attract only short-lived extraction.
In the wild
Stepin combines activity tracking with sneaker NFTs and token rewards tied to walking, jogging, or running within defined ranges. The proposition does not merely improve activity tracking; it introduces the previously unexpected possibility of earning money while exercising.
→ The incentive differentiates the product from established fitness trackers and can change exercise behavior.
An education product rewards users for completing lessons and demonstrating target behaviors. The reward changes education from a pure expense into an earning opportunity while helping the provider activate and retain users.
→ Learners gain an immediate incentive and the product gains a more compelling value proposition.
Common mistakes
Leading with the technology
Customers need to understand the new experience and outcome; blockchain or token mechanics are only enablers.
Settling for novelty
An unusual feature that does not produce a superior customer result is not a meaningful impossible-to-possible shift.
Ignoring incentive economics
A reward model that depends indefinitely on unsustainable issuance cannot create durable advantage.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and marketers exploring incentive-enabled products capable of disrupting an established category.
Not ideal for
Products whose economics cannot support incentives or whose users do not value the proposed behavioral change.
From the transcript
“the last version of the internet, your whole job was to make a product or value proposition 10 times better than it was before.”
“In the next generation of the internet, it is making something somebody thought was impossible possible.”
“Don't think about the technology. Think about the change in customer experience and that move from impossible to possible is that change.”
From the episode
Web 3, Customer Acquisition, and Value Props (Twittersode)