Hi again to the latest issue of INFUZED. After a few weeks of leaning towards company-building themes, this one is on product.

Inspiration

“People don’t simply buy products or services, they “hire” them to make progress in specific circumstances.” To me, this realization by Clayton Christensen is one of the most important frameworks to have a successful product or service. Every single product or service needs to help the customer to get from where she is today to where she wants to go.  If your potential customer doesn’t “get” how your offering propels them from A to B there is little to no chance they will buy your product.

Clayton Christensen coined it the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework. You can apply it to various dimensions of your product lifecycle. From inventing a new product for a job that so far is not being done for other people all the way to marketing your product to potential customers by telling them the story of how your product or service gets them from A to B. 

First of all though, you need to get specific what job your product is getting done. Today’s challenge helps you do that with a technique I learned from Sunita Mohanty who shared her take on the JTBD framework with First Round Review. A valuable read, by the way, if you feel like going deeper on this is what you need right now.

Challenge

What job is your product or service getting done? 

Draft a Jobs-To-Be-Done Statement for one specific product or service you offer (or are currently developing).

When I….. (what’s the situation your customer is in?)

But….. (what’s the problem they encounter?)

Help me….. (what’s the job that you need to do for them?)

So I….. (what’s their new situation after you’ve helped?)

Let’s make a quick example to put the technique into action. 

Gorillas, the delivery start-up that reached unicorn status within 9 months of its founding, might have used such a statement:

When I am working from home and suddenly I’m out of groceries,

But I really can’t leave this Zoom meeting right now,

Help me refill my fridge in a convenient and quick manner,

So I can fully focus on the projects I’m working on instead of going shopping again.

As you can see, it’s not about what the company does, but what job they do for the customer.

If this is helpful for you, feel free to share your JBTD statement. Or share this with someone you think could benefit from the approach. 

As always, I love reading your feedback and hope this helps you build a better tomorrow! 

Have a great week! 

David