[Pt 2] Selling ‘Jobs to be Done’: Who’s the Customer?
This is a 5 part series on understanding the different flavors of JTBD and how to decide which is most appropriate to help you meet your innovation goals.
The Jobs to be Done theory — that “customers want to make progress in their lives and they hire products to help them get that job done” — can revolutionize a company. Rather than focusing on how to compete in a feature war against other competitors based on ‘industry standards’, you have the ability to break away as a result of unique customer insights.
But great potential can lead to great confusion.
Customer insights can ripple across an organization, and be interpreted differently by different parties. That’s why understanding the context and circumstance that leads to JTBD research is so important.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve talked about JTBD with three prospects. Each came to me already thinking JTBD could solve a problem in their business.
But each had a different problem to be solved; a different Job to be Done.
Each wanted to learn about their customers’ Jobs, but held a different vision of the progress they were trying to make.
- Change how sales and marketing communicate value to our prospects so we can close more deals faster (Digital Marketing Manager)
- Improve the product for our customers so they will churn less (UX Director)
- Cultivate a shared understanding of our customer across the organization so we are more effective in creating and selling products (CEO)
- Identify adjacent areas where our customers are dissatisfied to introduce new products to our portfolio so we can improve our ARPU and stickiness (Intrapreneur)
Not only did each of these customers have a different view of the progress they were trying to make, each one had a different target object he planned to act on. Sales and marketing will change. The product will change. The entire organization will change. Our product portfolio will change.
Remember, Jobs to be Done is just a theory about how any why customers and ‘hire’ products into their lives. Even as you learn about and accept the theory, how it’s applied to your organization to meet your specific goals will be unique to you.
If you’re part of a team eager to bring Jobs to be Done into your organization, great! You can (hopefully) see how understanding your customers’ progress and struggles can transform your business, and what target objects you have to work with.
If you’re a consultant, things may be a little less clear for you. You’re staring down the eye of a powerful weapon, and not sure yet how you want to use it. That’s ok, too. Just be aware that you’re going to be much more successful if you take the time to figure out where you want to shoot it before you pull the trigger with a client :-)
Now we have much more information about the customer, his desired progress, and the target object he plans to act on. Soon we can start digging into his struggles and identify a way to move him forward. But first, we need to Define the ‘Job’ in Jobs to be Done [Pt 3].
Learned something? Click the 👏 to say “thanks!” and help others find this article.
Andrea Hill is the principal consultant at Frameplay. Frameplay is an innovation consultancy that helps companies become more customer-focused and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Learn more at frameplay.co
