I’m currently reading Clayton Christensen excellent new book “Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice” in which he explains his ‘Jobs to be Done’ strategy.
The basis of the theory is: Customers don’t buy products or services; they pull them into their lives to make progress.
Which means that you should ask yourself: What job did the customer hire your product to do?
What looks like a trivial distinction on the surface unveils a much deeper truth at play: We typically focus all too much on the customer itself (who’s she is, what she does, where she is located…) instead of figuring out why she is using (or not) our product to solve which challenge.
Figuring out which job your customer hired your product to do can be difficult: Is Starbucks in the business of selling coffee, a place to connect with others, a place to work or maybe a place where people escape from their busy lives for a few minutes? Arguably all of these points might be true — but figuring out what the different facets are and then catering specifically to these “jobs” is an incredibly powerful way to unlock the success of your product.
So ask yourself: What job did your customer hire your product to do? Then design specifically for this job.