A Use Case is defined as a potential usage of a product or
service for a particular customer. It is or generally should be the first step
in assessing who your customers can be.
To define a Use Case, the following 3 ‘U’s need to be
defined:
Usage: This is
the first U and states the solution offered by the product or service. For
example, a use case for a crowd-funding platform can be ‘helping companies with
thin credit files raise money’.
User: This is the
second U and refers to the potential user of the product/service. In the
example above, a ‘startup’ can be the user.
Utility: This is the final U and measures the utility
of the solution offered to the user. A case which does not offer adequate
utility to a user constitutes a weak use case and should be disregarded. In the
above example, the utility of crowd-funding platforms is high for startups as
the latter find it very difficult to raise money from traditional investors and
in different geographies.
