Growing from data collected within a major EU research project in the aerospace domain, the paper proposes a candidate approach to assess the value of Product Service System design alternatives in a preliminary design phase. A framework composed of six main families of value criteria is proposed to support the product/service development team in evaluating the responsiveness and trade-off between alternative designs that target lifecycle commitment, withrespect to the impact on perceived values and stated needs and expectations. A visualization approach is also proposed to quickly communicate the value contribution of the design alternatives at the decision gate.