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There is a misunderstanding around segmentation where the focus becomes the customer (or prospect) when it should actually be the job a product / service does for them.
It is the Jobs to be Done that form the foundation of how to understand the market and not the demographic or psychographic profile. Segmentation creates understanding along a continuum that links purchasing behavior with the product you are building in a causal relationship.
When you ask the right questions, it's obvious to see what needs to be done.
Said Horace Dediu in a recent Critical Path# program:
Turning our focus back to “Jobs to be Done” theory, we look at how producers can exceed consumers and the role of the focus group from the “Jobs to be Done” viewpoint.
The two canonical examples of the Jobs to be Done thinking are 1) the hole to be drilled, which focuses the question not on the product, the drill bit, but on the task of getting a hole in the wall, and 2) the milkshake as a meal -- breakfast in the morning and as a child's reward in the afternoon, for example -- referenced by Clayton Christensen in his work.
Focusing on the business of selling drill bits, talking to suppliers of drill bits, asking customers who just purchased drill bits after doing some research about cutting holes in the wall will net information about the product, and not uncover lateral opportunities to innovate how to get a hole in the wall. This idea was put out in the 1970s.
The second study on how people were buying milkshakes at different times of the day, in addition to finding new use cases for mixing the milkshake differently has spun a series of innovations in product packaging and food assembly for different contexts. Researchers observed that in the morning people wanted something substantial and interesting for their commute in the car, and in the afternoon mothers were rewarding their children with a milkshake wanted a smaller cup.
This is market segmentation driven by context. Jobs to be Done is about reframing the question of what do people buy and what do people sell -- realizing that they are two different things and research needs to be conducted within the context of use, and not to confirm assumptions.
A couple of points on expectations on this part of the conversation:
- the importance of contextual inquiry -- inquire in the context of use
- the value of finding the sweet spot by being sensitive to what the customer wants to do
We examine “Jobs to be Done” as an essential core of the product process. Where does this kind of thinking belong in an organization? Should we be redefining what being “the best” means?
Dediu says that while in the past sales groups would talk to customers and elicit this kind of information in a more intimate relationship setting, today's sales forces have been so modularized and cast into clearly defined roles that the intelligence that came through them has all but disappeared.
Today the role of the Jobs to be Done analysis is performed by design, which is really to understand what it is that people want.
Jony Ive and Steve Jobs had an intuition. The way they describe the decisions around what products to build they call it iterations of thousands of ideas, a conversation. What they do is figure out the unmet need and the ways in which you can make your products better.
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Apple elevated design in the organization. In the case of Steve Jobs, design was part of his office. This product role is so important that you put it at the top of the organization and this is typically done either in smaller companies or at Apple.
It could also be the role of marketing. Today marketing is equated with either sales or promotion. However, marketing should be also about understanding the market by collecting information, developing and pricing products appropriately, positioning, etc.
I actually laughed out loud when Dediu talked about people criticizing a company's ads and saying their marketers should be fired. It is indeed the persons responsible for bad creative that should be fired.
Contextual inquiry is a wonderful research tool, beacuse it allows you to truly make sense of how someone does what they do while you observe them doing it. Though this kind of research is more expensive, it can be done by asking the right questions vs. the easy questions in large sample surveys - e.g., n=200.
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The second part of the show is about organizing what to do next with products around what customers are willing to buy and how it relates to disruption. Dediu's theory is that the Jobs to be Done mechanism comes into play here.
Product improvements need to relate to the expectations of the market. Best is defined by the customer's ability to absorb what is delivered -- and to find it useful. This is the concept of “good enough.” When done properly, product should be about what customers are willing to buy.
Instead of looking at 20 or 40 megapixel differences, for example, you should be thinking about rationing features, scaling back to the point that makes the product easy to use. Discover what your customers can make use of and build to that degree.
We can all learn to think like that, to become Renaissance persons like Steve Jobs and Jony Ive.
Dediu closes with a discussion# about the “Jobs to be Done” on a light note about social media and how it might relate to the seven deadly sins. This was all in good fun to highlight the specific culture of each network.
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- LinkedIn - greed
- Facebook/Pinterest - envy (this reminds me of Betabrands envy pants#)
- YouTube/Twitter - wrath
- Kickstarter/Reddit - sloth
- Pinterest - gluttony
- Snapchat - lust
- Twitter - pride
It is half-joking, yet the comparison kind of ties back to the Jobs to be Done by each social network, with little overlap, actually.
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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effect on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here.