How to Increase your Product’s Success Rate using JTBD framework
Recently I came across a paragraph which managed to put into words what I have been thinking for years:
“The problem with personas is that they encourage people to take that data, fill in the holes and even embellish them with made up data. Another problem with personas is that they are not auditable. They are not attached to real customers, so the validity and usefulness of each persona can be debated by anyone; even more severe, they cannot be defended.” (source)
While reading this validation of my suspicion something clicked, and to me it was even more obvious that the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework is one of the most underestimated and valuable frameworks out there.
For those who are not familiar with Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) it is basically the notion that users want to accomplish something (job), and for that they hire a product or a service to do it. The old “people don’t want a 1/4inch drill, they want a 1/4 inch hole”. Really what it does is nothing new, despite the new name. It is basically to take the normal user story As a [type of user], I want [some action], so that [outcome], and ask “why?” a couple of times.
It allows us to potentially uncover a first or second level of insights very fast, which is infinitely more useful than asking “what is the Airbnb of toothbrushes?” (and I really don’t want to think about that!).
For example, a Milkshake could be a job that people hire to keep the feeling of being full during a long drive. In this regards, water or juice (an obvious competitor) is not the real competitor, since it can be drunk in a few minutes. If you’re trying to improve a milkshake in these conditions, instead of making it tastier, even easier to drink, or colder, which would be the obvious thing to do, maybe it should be made more viscous, and slower to drink, keeping the sensation of full stomach for some hours.
This has profound implications in product development: your product is not competing with just others in your industry, but with different things that people can hire to get the same job done.
Suddenly Netflix’s competitor is not simply Hulu etc, but a glass of wine, a videogame or a hot immersion bath.
While reading about Google’s Micromoments I come to realize their vision is not so different, albeit focused on mobile
I-Want-to-Know Moments
I-Want-to-Go Moments
I-Want-to-Do Moments
I-Want-to-Buy Moments
Basically their approach is about people’s needs but with a small twist: they focus on the time that people spend and what they want to do during that time.
In this age of abundance of information and activities, culminating in “multitasking”, what’s even most relevant for me is: what and why they chose NOT DO TO in that time slot, and instead are doing X?
Uncovering real user’s needs in a deeper level is most important, not only for product development but I feel, for advertising as well. “[…] indeed,1 in 3 smartphone users has purchased from a company or brand other than the one they intended to because of information provided in the moment they needed it”. In an age when most consumers are not brand-committed, and of limited mobile screen real-estate, knowing not just what they need and target obvious content to attach ads to is not enough.
For example if I want to advertise Baby Monitors I could attach it to the same keywords, or obvious to websites about baby cradles, pacifiers, babies clothes which are full with my competitor’s ads. but, instead of just thinking about the obvious “what’s the related content to include our advertising in?” we could frame the question as “What are users really trying to accomplish in the time in which they could (potentially) be exposed to our ad? ” Time such as :
- “Searching about buying a Volvo or Honda family car” (because now that we have a baby, we want the baby to be safer) or,
- “Checking websites/videos about babies’ car seats“
These could be important content/video/ad keyword to attach ads to, because the real need (or job they’re trying to get done), is Feeling Safer, and for that they’re hiring a product — safe family car or baby seat, but while in this mindset they could also be nudged into hiring Baby Monitors to help them to reach the same goal in a different situation.
In short:
1. Drop Personas: they are not trustable or defendable
2. Think about which jobs users want (why why why).
3. Develop products (or ads) targeting those real hidden needs for increased success.