How to Create Differentiated Products that Win
The reason most companies fail to develop differentiated products and services is not because they lack creativity or ideas.
It’s because they lack focus. They lack clarity about where the market is under-served, where the big opportunities lie.
The key to creating differentiated growth strategies and products lies in first understanding what your target customers are trying to accomplish – and where, when, and why they still struggle.
Unfortunately, there’s a web of misbeliefs about innovation that hold many companies back from even trying to innovate, let alone learn how to execute it as a repeatable business process. Some of the most pervasive misbeliefs include:
- Customers cannot tell us what they want.
- Innovation is inherently messy, risky, and expensive.
- Innovation begins with a good idea.
- Innovation and creativity are essentially the same thing.
- We need more creative people to succeed at innovation.
Yes, there is nuance concerning the veracity of some of these misbeliefs. By consuming these misbeliefs without understanding the nuances, leaders are unwittingly incurring high opportunity costs because they shy away from innovation, or they experience high failure rates when they try to innovate. Nobody wants that. Innovation should never be a guessing game.
Companies that learn how to identify and prioritize their target customers’ unmet needs before generating ideas, however, can avoid these traps because they know where to focus and what to do to create differentiated value.
If you’re thinking, “It’s not that simple” – you’re right. Conducting JTBD interviews is a skill that, like any skill, takes time, study, and practice to master, let alone additional unique JTBD services such:
- Design and deploy surveys to a representative sample of the target market to have customers rate each need for its importance and their satisfaction
- Identify and rank opportunities (unmet needs)
- Segment the market according to what customers are trying to accomplish – not demographics
- Conduct competitive analysis based on the satisfaction of true needs – not feature comparisons
- Evaluate the opportunities and selecting those to pursue, and determine how to pursue them
- Facilitate focused brain-storming sessions to address the selected opportunities
If you’re trying to conduct your own JTBD interviews, in addition to knowing what inputs to obtain from customers, how to get them, and how to use them, you must master two interviewing skills:
1) How to probe (ask follow up questions) until you arrive at the true need at an actionable level for your company. We all have been socialized to accept vague terms – this must be overcome.
2) How to create an emotional connection and psychological safety with the interviewee. A chief problem with sales people attempting to conduct JTBD interviews is, not only that the purpose and process is very different from sales but that many customers are highly skeptical about the intent of the interviewer. Consequently, they will not be candid because it might be used against them.
Additionally, JTBD is most effective at uncovering customer needs in complex functional markets, not in highly emotional, social, or sensual (related to the five senses) markets. The “super power” of JTBD is to deconstruct any functional job – such as “Take a blood sample” – into the steps that customers must execute to successfully complete the job, and their criteria for success when navigating each step. This make it possible to create a Customer Needs Blueprint™ to guide idea generation and development.
Yet, despite these significant challenges, companies that simply master the basics by understanding the JTBD framework and key concepts can get traction and generate breakthrough products and services.
If you’re in the Central Ohio area, come join me on 2/19 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm at Innovate New Albany for a TIGER Talk I’ll be giving, “Unlock the Secret of Making Products Customers Will Love.” This session is all about creating differentiated offerings that win in the market by understanding the basics.
I’ll be debunking the top myths and showing you how “Lean JTBD” (i.e., the mindset and key concepts) can help you win with differentiated products and services.
Learn more and REGISTER at the first link in the comments.
Get priority access and help us co-create this new offering together at the second link in the comments.
Join me on 2/19 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm at Innovate New Albany for “Unlock the Secret of Making Products Customers Will Love.” This session is about creating differentiated offerings that win in the market by delivering unique value.
I’ll be debunking the top misbeliefs and introducing you to Lean JTBD (i.e., the mindset and key concepts of Jobs-to-Be-Done) to help you start uncovering your customers hidden unmet needs and begin shaping differentiated products and services immediately.
Learn more and REGISTER HERE.
Get priority access and help us build this new offering HERE.
