Digging to the roots of customer needs.
A core step of the Jobs to be Done framework.
Buying a product is the final step of an incremental process, rooted in one single moment — the first thought.
Euro Cup 2016 in France — I’m getting ready to watch a game. I comfortably sit on the couch and turn the TV on. After a couple of minutes, I say to myself “this screen actually sucks! The match looked much better yesterday on my friends’ screen”
In that situation, it is super unlikely that I go straight to the store, get a new TV, bring it back home and watch the end of the game on it. It is much more likely that it’s gonna take weeks or months before I actually get this new screen. But today, I had this first thought, in a specific context and the process that will bring me to the TV store sooner or later has started.
The rest of the story will then depend on a succession of events that will push me either forward to the buying moment or backward (example: My wife agreeing on this need will accelerate the process. vs. An unexpected house expense will slow it down).
The Jobs to be Done framework #JTBD describes the 5 major stages of this process:
- First Thought (This TV sucks, I may get another one.)
- Passive looking (hey buddy, your TV is cool. Do you like it? Mine is old, I am thinking about getting a new one…)
- Active looking (let’s take some time and check what the latest TV on market can do…)
- Deciding (I am gonna have it, it is all about Sony XX or Samsung YY…)
- and finally Buying.
Today, most of our methods are really good at understanding the last mile of a customer process; from step 3 (active looking) to step 5 (buying). We basically need an active signal that people are looking for a change to trigger our tools and analytics.
We end up spending a lot of time tracking the last drop that spilled the cup, and miss the very first ones that may have contributed much more in filling it.
By going back to the First Thought we get to the root of the customer expectation. How did that need emerge, why and in which context? The first thought moment is the beginning of the multiple events that will push and pull the customer through his decision process, that will build his expectations and bring him to the final choice of choosing which product to buy. Getting the full picture of that process, from the very beginning, is a fantastic opportunity to be one step in front of the competition.
The better we understand early needs, the more likely we’ll be first at solving it.
