There was a time when I thought it was really hard to come up with business ideas. I used to sit in the pub with a group of entrepreneurial friends, and we would all chip in with different ideas for a business to run together.
Most of them were awful, and at the time I thought the challenge was coming up with the ideas.
Now, having run two businesses for the past 9 years, I see the world differently. Coming up with ideas is the easy part. Sifting the good ideas from the bad is where the challenge lies.
Developing an "idea filter"
To start with, we were focused on solving problems we faced. Our ideas were about solving problems we faced at work, or even one that was a quicker way to order food and drink to our table (we did spend too long in that pub…).
Over time, I learned techniques like the Strategyzer Value Proposition Canvas – idea canvasses that help you think in terms of a customer and the struggle they’re facing.
It helps you flesh out ideas, but not to filter the good from the bad. If you have misleading information about the pains and gains your customer’s seek, you’ll end up solving non-problems or building features the customer doesn’t need and won’t use.
What I needed was a filter – a way to spot good ideas before wasting time on bad ones.
The filter I use today is called “Jobs-to-Be-Done” – and it is about seeing the world through the eyes of your customers, understanding what they really want, and then using this insight to ruthlessly cut out ideas that customers won’t pay for, to leave behind only the elements of value that will delight your best customers.
Using Jobs-to-Be-Done research to filter Product ideas
Here’s how this works:
- First, we find a group of people that have already paid money to solve the problem we are investigating – if no one is spending money to fix the problem today, it’s a non-problem
- Next, we interview them to learn what caused them to buy the thing they bought – and whether it solved their problem or not
- Last, after interviewing 12-15 people, we analyse these insights and group these people into 3-5 groups of demand
You can think of each group like a team of people on the same quest to solve their problem – for example, losing weight:
- Quest One might be a group of people that are joining a gym or signing up to a fitness program
- Quest Two could be the dieters – looking for ways to eat less, or eat more healthily
- Quest Three could include people that are buying weight-loss jabs or other pills and potions
By understanding the motivations behind each group, we can work out what they value (and what they do not). For example:
- Quest One (fitness) might have the time and energy to invest in an exercise program, whereas;
- Quest Three (weight-loss jabs) may lack the time and energy needed to hit the gym, but have the money available to invest in a medical solution
Hopefully you can see that the ideas you’d use to create a product for one group will be vastly different from the ideas to solve the same problem for another group.
How you can apply this in your business
If you don’t do it already, start interviewing your customers to understand their story – what was going on in their life before they said “Today’s the day I buy this product”?
We use in-depth customer interviews – often called switch interviews – to understand the real story behind the purchase.
- What pushed them to realise they had a problem to solve in the first place (e.g. for me – not fitting into my old work suit meant I’d gained more weight than I realised)
- Which solutions did they consider, and which features pulled them to select the product they finally chose?
- Before they pulled the trigger and made the purchase, did they have any anxieties or doubts about whether they should buy the product? (e.g. if it was Quest Three – people on weight-loss jabs might ask “Can I really inject myself?” or “Is this worth the money?”)
- What habit did they have to overcome to buy your product? (e.g. If it’s Quest One – going to the gym – I might have to give up time with my friends or family, or give up a few hours of sleep so I can do the workouts)
- Remember – your competitors are not just other products, you’re also competing against “the status quo” of the customer’s life
By understanding and unpacking the stories of your customers (as they learned about and bought your product), you’ll quickly see the difference between good ideas (switching the weight-loss job to a weight-loss pill) and bad ideas (bundling a gym membership with the jabs).
Wrapping up
Your team has no problem creating new Product ideas. Where they need help, and the voice of real customers, is in deciding which ideas are winners and which ideas should be shelved or dropped entirely.
Jobs-to-Be-Done research is the best method I know of to help you filter these ideas and focus your attention on creating value for your customers, so they’ll share that value with your business.
Get in touch if you need help to learn or implement this approach in practice.