Stop Guessing: Ask Better Questions

Validating a market can mean two very different things: validating demand or validating your solution. Most companies confuse the two—and that’s why they miss the mark.

Validating demand starts with understanding that true customer needs are separate and distinct from products and services. Theodore Levitt said it best: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole.” It’s a quote you’ve probably heard. But the real power is in what it implies: customers don’t want your solution. They want an outcome.

This is the foundational insight of the Jobs-to-Be-Done innovation approach: people ‘hire’ products and services to get their jobs done. If you want game-changing insights, don’t start by asking for feature requests or MVP feedback. Start by asking three simple questions:
1. Who is your target customer?
2. What job are they trying to get done?
3. Where do they struggle with their current solution?

A skilled JTBD interviewer doesn’t require a prototype or an MVP. With the right questions, you can uncover a complete, product-agnostic view of customer needs—ranked and prioritized. We call it a Customer Needs Blueprint™. It gives you clarity and focus before you build anything.

Customers Can Tell Us What They Want
The myth that “customers can’t tell us what they want” has stuck around because we keep asking the wrong question. Henry Ford famously said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” And he was right—because he asked the wrong question.

If you ask people what product they want, they’ll imagine what product or service they want based on what’s familiar. But if you ask them what they’re trying to accomplish, you’ll get something far more useful.

If Ford had asked, “What are you trying to accomplish with your horse?” He would’ve heard things like:
• Travel from A to B
• Transport goods
• Plow a field
• Enjoy outdoor recreation

Then if he asked, “What makes traveling from A to B frustrating or difficult?” he would’ve heard people’s criteria for success such as:
• Minimize the time it take to reach the destination
• Minimize the likelihood of getting wet
• Minimize the likelihood of getting robbed

Notice how the job (Travel from A to B) and the criteria for success (Minimize the time it takes…) for that job are separate. That’s what gives you clarity before you design. When you decouple customer needs from products, you’re free to identify the right opportunity—and pursue it with focus.

The Bottom Line
If you want insight that leads to innovation, stop asking people what they want (to buy). Start asking what they’re trying to get done—and where current solutions fall short.

The potentially game-changing insights are there. They’re only “unarticulated” because no one asked the right questions