Most companies think they have only two options when trying to win at new products:

1. Get to market quickly with an imperfect offering, or
2. Get to market slowly with a “perfect” offering

In fact, there’s a third option that is usually best:
3. Get to market quickly with a better differentiated offering

This is done by discovering the target customers’ unmet needs with the Jobs-to-Be-Done framework so you know:

1. The main “job” your target customers are trying to get done
2. The steps they have to go through to successfully execute the main job and the criteria they use to measure success
3. Which criteria are unmet (“unmet criteria” are important unsatisfied needs and your opportunities for innovation and growth)
4. Where hidden segments of opportunity lie, i.e., segments that are unknown to competitors
5. Other related jobs they’re trying to get done in the same circumstance (these are potential new market opportunities)
6. Emotional and social jobs they’re trying to get done (these are essential for effective messaging and positioning)

Obtaining this information gives you the insights you need to:

1. Identify and rank the biggest opportunities in your market
2. Determine which opportunities are most attractive to pursue and which to avoid
3. Generate only good ideas in the sense that ideas are only generated to address big validated unmet needs that are attractive for your firm to pursue given its relative strengths
4. Guide development
5. Reduce iterations
6. Get to market faster
7. Introduce a differentiated offering from the outset

Conceptually, it’s pretty simple: reveal needs, create value, drive growth.

But you must know what type of customer inputs to obtain, how to get them, and how to use them.

We can help.