We hebben alles gezien.

Bedrijven lanceren nieuwe versies, geven updates vrij en voegen zelfs waardevolle nieuwe functies toe aan hun producten, allemaal om de gebruiker meer redenen te geven om loyaal en "verslaafd" te blijven aan het product.

Het eindresultaat?

Gebruikers willen graag het nieuwe, bijgewerkte product in handen krijgen. Denk aan de iPhone.

Hoewel deze "strategie" al miljoenen jaren voor bedrijven werkt, zien velen het punt over het hoofd dat geen enkele gebruiker besluit iets te "kopen", hoe klein de kosten ook zijn. Bedrijven missen de causaliteit van het aankoopbesluit. En dat is wanneer producten falen.

Jason Fried, CEO van Basecamp, legt uit:

" Er moet eerst iets met je gebeuren. Je hebt veel dingen aan de hand in je leven en je wordt niet gewoon wakker en zegt: "Ik ga dit nieuwe ding vandaag kopen." Misschien denk je dat, maar wat er echt gebeurt, is dat je aankopen een soort van een antwoord op een vraag die je jezelf hebt gesteld, en het is echt waardevol om die vraag te beantwoorden en in die situaties te komen. '

JTBD Radio
JASON FRIED ON USING JTBD AT BASECAMP

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Om uw producten te laten slagen, moet u niet alleen de juiste vragen stellen (dingen die ze leuk vonden en dingen die ze niet deden), maar u moet ook dieper graven en de oorzaken en redenen begrijpen waarom een ​​gebruiker uw product begon te gebruiken in de eerste plaats. Met andere woorden, wat motiveerde hun aankoopbeslissing?

Voor het productgerichte bedrijf helpen deze vragen de emotionele behoeften van de gebruiker achter zijn rationele beslissingen te onthullen.  

In een notendop,  

That’s the premise for the ‘Jobs To Be Done Framework.’

Why is the  ‘Jobs To Be Done’ Theory Significant for Product Teams?

Companies today have ample data about their customers to build hypotheses and show correlations, allowing them to build patterns and better their product offerings. However, these correlations lack something extremely significant.

According to Harvard Business Review:

“After decades of watching great companies fail, we’ve come to the conclusion that the focus on correlation—and on knowing more and more about customers—is taking firms in the wrong direction. What they really need to home in on is the progress that the customer is trying to make in a given circumstance—what the customer hopes to accomplish."

When it comes to product teams, the ‘Jobs To Be Done’ theory is significant for four key reasons:

#1 Lets Product Team Provide a Central Solution for Users

Why do consumers prefer food shopping at large supermarkets as opposed to smaller specialty stores? The answer is simple: people do not want to make multiple stops. They literally want “one-stop shopping," which correlates to your users wanting one ‘pit-stop’ or ‘product’ to maximize their efficiency. In this case, a grocery supermarket being THE product.

By applying this theory while developing a product, companies can build a central solution for their users while providing the maximum value.

#2 Helps Teams Create Features That Enable Users to Get More Jobs Done

As with nature, companies must evolve or perish. They need to introduce features and upgrades to keep the user hooked on to their product. The JBD theory explains products like Nespresso or a Swiss knife: they provide value by getting more  “jobs" done from a single product, while also catering to the users’ “emotional responses."

#3 Makes Product Teams See From A User’s Eye

Product teams often follow a pre-set roadmap. This can make them overlook seeing things from a user’s perspective, losing opportunities for valuable innovation.

A good example of this is Kindle, which helped solve the problem of screen fatigue by introducing the backlit screen. This showed real understanding and innovation from a user’s point-of-view! Comparable e-readers are more focused on features such as the built-in dictionaries, but they can’t compete with the  Kindle’s emphasis on the user experience.

#4 Build a Profitable and Longer Product Shelf Life

The truth is that most products become obsolete as users continue to find new ones that “help" them get jobs done faster. By building products that focus on JBD, companies can achieve a longer shelf-life for their products – users will continue to use the products they have as long as they keep getting the results that they want.  

This continued Jobs Done satisfaction will, in turn, influence the user’s positive outlook on your company and your product, they will happily pay to use it.

How To Apply JBD Theory To Products – Asking The Right Questions

Jobs To Be Done is a great theory that allows you to read your users’ minds and apply that knowledge to build products that last. By understanding how your product helps improve your users’ lives, you can better evaluate your funnel and influence users to constantly “hire" your product.

In the words of Matt Hodges, Director of Marketing at Intercom:

“Once you understand the job, understanding how to improve your product becomes much more obvious"

Matt Hodges on Marketing the Job to be Done – V2

To effectively apply this theory to your product you need to first understand what jobs your users are hiring your product for. The answer to this will help you identify the cracks and build a superior product flow at all levels. Intercom split its product offering into 4 distinct categories, each helping a user with unique ‘Jobs-to-be-done,’ and 5Xed their growth!

Here are some types questions that will help you unearth your customer’s intentions:

What are the right questions?

• Ask questions that encourage users to discuss  the point of purchase

Questions about when and how users made a purchase can reveal a lot about their state of mind at the time. If you can recreate their purchase experience you can understand the emotional and rational reasons behind it.

• Ask questions that make them recall their first thoughts

Questions that encourage users to recall their first thoughts about the product can help you uncover the problems that they wanted to solve with this product. This will help you build hidden use-cases, uncover the triggers, and discover the ways people solve problems using your product.

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• Decode the consideration phase

What leads someone to make a purchase? You might never forget that great pair of shoes that you loved so much, but do you remember deciding to buy them? Understanding this decision-making requires an insight into the user at the time of the purchase. You might think that there’s a straight line from a user having a requirement to the purchase of your product, but that’s not the full picture. Between these two points – requirement and purchase – lies a consideration phase.

“A consideration set is a prioritized understanding of the purchase options someone weighs before making a purchase decision."

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Asking questions that lead to unearthing more about a user’s consideration will help you evaluate how they explore the market, what makes them decide, and what made them choose your product over others.

• Ask questions that dig into the emotions

Ask questions that dig into the emotional state of the user at the time they were purchasing your product. For example, was the user worried or uncertain, or were there other roadblocks that could have prevented a purchase?

The answers to these types of questions can help you pinpoint their anxieties and motivations when making that purchase, enabling you to build a better onboarding and activation process for them.

Implementing a ‘Jobs To Be Done’ theory may be challenging, but it isn’t impossible. Ask leading questions to learn about your users: their insecurities, anxieties, and prejudices. But what’s more important is to have a balanced attitude while evaluating their answers, because that’s the best way to build a great product!

Have you used this theory? How has it helped you in shaping your product? Share your experiences in the comments below.