BoSUSA18 | Claire Suellentrop | Get Out Of The Echo Chamber: How To Use JTBD To Perfect Your Product's Messaging
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BoSUSA18 | Claire Suellentrop | Get Out Of The Echo Chamber: How To Use JTBD To Perfect Your Product's Messaging
- 1. Get Out of the Echo Chamber Make More Money from your Messaging with Jobs To Be Done Claire Suellentrop / Business of Software 2018
- 17. You know, our product has some really powerful features...
- 18. You know, our product has some really powerful features... Oooh, “powerful” is good.
- 19. You know, our product has some really powerful features... POWERFUL. I love it. Oooh, “powerful” is good.
- 21. Save time. Save money. Do [________] the easy way. [________] that doesn’t suck. 21 If your website looks like this...
- 23. Jobs To Be Done @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018
- 24. “Jobs To Be Done is the theory that people buy and use a product because they want to make themselves better in particular ways.” @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018
- 26. An event / situation triggers a “struggle”
- 27. An event / situation triggers a “struggle” Person seeks solution to their struggle
- 28. An event / situation triggers a “struggle” Person seeks solution to their struggle Solution found, struggle resolved
- 29. An event / situation triggers a “struggle” Person seeks solution to their struggle Solution found, struggle resolved Life is better
- 30. An event / situation triggers a “struggle” Person seeks solution to their struggle Solution found, struggle resolved Life is better What your messaging should speak to
- 31. “Job story” When _____, help me _____, so I can _____. How your product solves your customer’s struggle @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018
- 32. So I can...Person seeks solution to their struggle Help me... Solution found, struggle resolved When... An event / situation triggers a “struggle” Life is better
- 33. @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018 My struggle with YNAB When my partner and I have to front large expenses and rely on reimbursements...
- 34. @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018 My struggle with YNAB When my partner and I have to front large expenses and rely on reimbursements... Give me the flexibility to separate those expenses from the rest of our spending...
- 35. My struggle with YNAB When my partner and I have to front large expenses and rely on reimbursements... Give me the flexibility to separate those expenses from the rest of our spending... So I can feel confident next month’s budget is accurate, and we’re not accidentally draining our bank account. @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018
- 44. 200% Increase in conversions from homepage → pricing page
- 45. How do I figure out the “job” my product does for my customers? 1. Customer surveys 2. Customer interviews @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018
- 46. @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018 bit.ly/bos-2018 I made you templates for both...
- 47. Customer surveys 1. Choose a survey platform 2. Build the survey — use survey questions from bit.ly/bos-2018 3. Identify 1-200 of your most high-value customers 4. Email them with link to survey* 5. Let results roll in — aim for at least 25-50 * Hold back about 40 customers @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018
- 48. Customer interviews 1. Email remaining 40 high-value customers 2. Invite them to a 30-minute interview, include link to schedule 3. Aim to hold at least 10 4. Run the calls — use interview questions from bit.ly/bos-2018 5. Record all calls 6. Upload each one to Rev.com to get transcripts @ClaireSuellen #BoS2018
- 49. An event / situation triggers a “struggle” Person seeks solution to their struggle Solution found, struggle resolved Life is better
- 50. You’ll start seeing patterns in survey replies... When _____, help me _____, so I can _____.
- 51. And your interviews will provide extra context...
- 56. bit.ly/bos-2018 Get your survey template, interview questions, analysis worksheet:
Editor's Notes
- **Friendly greeting** Today, I’m going to talk about improving the way you position your product -- in other words, the way you describe to prospects, how your product is better than all the other options out there. **Early days: you can get by with MEH positioning -- Ankur / Teachable** **Explain format of talk: IDEA / EXAMPLE / IDEA / EXAMPLE / TACTICS + checklist and resources at the end** I’d like to start this talk...with a question to you.
- **We use YNAB** **Anyone here the year Jesse Mecham spoke?** **Hardcore user** **Reduces room for human error → reduces stress** **It was great! UNTIL IT WASN’T** **This is where we get into the weeds**
- In the new version of YNAB, you can no longer choose to keep pushing your debt forward in a certain category each month. So let’s say Stephen spent $100 on a hotel room for a conference. Now, YNAB automatically subtracts that $100 from the amount of money we’re allowed to live on in the following month. **Jesse -- feature change bringing me down**
- Let’s say Stephen and I have $10,000 to live on next month. After Stephen spent that $100 on a hotel room, then YNAB would no longer let us track that purchase separately from the $10,000 we’re planning to live on next month. Instead, it would say nope, sorry, you now have only $9,900 to live on next month. Well, that just doesn’t work for us #1, we lose the ability to clearly see how much money Stephen should be reimbursed for every quarter. #2, if we DO want to keep using YNAB and making it work for us, we basically have to game the system. We’ve had to come up with all kinds of weird workarounds in order to track Stephen’s work purchases separately, which REINTRODUCES a huge chance of us making errors, and unknowingly throwing off the accuracy
- **Acknowledge we’re deep in the weeds** **You may be wondering why I took you on this journey through my personal finances** **Every month, we are SO STRESSED OUT because we can no longer trust that our budget matches the amount of money we really have** **And STRESS is a powerful emotion. It’s an emotion that motivates people...to shop for a new solution** **Jesse -- feature change bringing me down**
- **Describe YNAB homepage** While that’s a bit generic, it’s not an inherently bad headline...but remember, I’m looking for something different from this product. So here’s what I found when I hit up Google:
- Well, no, I’ve already taken pretty good control of my finances. I just need the software to work for me, and not the other way around.
- **“Take control of your finances.” WHAT THE HELL?** **Remember the zebra slide -- making your product indistinct from competitors** Here I am, in severe pain, looking for a solution to that pain...but none of the solutions out there speak to me. **SWITCHING COSTS** **The bad news: this is probably happening to you.** The good news: it’s completely possible to fix this -- you can actually figure out, at this super detailed level, how your customers are struggling, and improve your positioning so it speaks to your prospect in a more specific way.
- You’re not distinct. You’ve made yourself sound like just like all your competitors, and so prospects have no way of knowing that YOU are any better than whatever else is on the market. To stand out from the crowd and really capture your prospects’ attention, you need to get much more specific -- you’ve got to understand the nitty-gritty details of what your prospects are struggling with right now, and how they’re trying to make their lives better as they shop for a solution. **10x more important if A) crowded market / B) cost of switching is high -- elaborate** **If you DON’T...just another zebra** Let’s use an actual software example to bring this to life…
- I can just about guarantee that you are losing money. Now, I’m sure your customers do want to save time, or maybe money, or maybe both. And I’m absolutely sure they want software that’s both powerful and easy to use. So, these aren’t bad ATTRIBUTES of your product at all. But I want to show you an experiment I ran, to demonstrate why using phrases in your positioning like “save time” and “save money” are actually losing you money.
- To do so, we need to talk about a behavioral theory called Jobs To Be Done. **show of hands**
- **credit alan** So let’s unpack this idea of customers having “Jobs” they’re trying to get “Done.”
- I’m going along with my regular life, and everything is normal….
- ...then something happens. An event or situation occurs that causes me to feel a struggle.
- ...at some point, that struggle becomes so unbearable, I begin looking for ways to solve it.
- ...eventually, I find a solution, and now, my life is better because that struggle is no longer present.
- ...So I can now go about my life again, but at this “better” or improved level. **Handy little framework called a ‘job story’ to help you describe what YOUR user is going through.**
- ...So I can now go about my life again, but at this “better” or improved level. **Handy little framework called a ‘job story’ to help you describe what YOUR user is going through.**
- **Your USER’s job story: [WHEN _______ / HELP ME ______ / SO I CAN ________].** **HELP ME can change so the grammar works correctly** Basically, the “job” your product does is that middle thing in the job story. You solve the struggle for me. Here’s a more visual way of looking at this “job story” concept:
- **continue to keep the struggle out of your customers’ lives, they’ll keep hiring it indefinitely ** **If not...they they will fire your product and find a new solution to replace it.** With YNAB’s feature update, a very specific struggle has been introduced into my life, which you could define like this:
- My struggle is so painful that I would jump at the chance to fire YNAB and hire something else in its place. The only reason I haven’t...
- ...is that no competing software has indicated in their positioning that they can really solve my struggle -- they all sound just like the software I’m already using. ** Difficulty of feature decisions // technical debt // edge case ** **Let’s say I’m not an edge case // Google search // top results**
- ...was Reddit. Apparently, YNAB has an insanely engaged community of users. There’s an entire subreddit dedicated to their product! And what people are saying in that subreddit is REALLY telling. Look at this:
- **295 upvotes on a post all about YNAB alternatives.**
- This person does indicate that they’re trying to make a switch. And look at the language they use to describe their struggle: my finances have been a mess because I can’t grasp the new software.
- This person gets even more specific about their YNAB struggles. **one-time payment model** ** the new features SOMETIMES INTERFERE with my usage of the product!**
- **Poster lists exact reasons** **ACCIDENTALLY STEALING FROM THE FUTURE.** **imagine that you own a product that directly competes with YNAB.** **How much more effective → homepage / targeted landing pages** As it turns out, the answer is...pretty effective. **A colleague and dear friend of mine…**
- Here’s what they started with. Sounds pretty similar to all those examples I showed earlier, right?
- **Notice how specifically they speak to my / Reddit’s struggle** The only way to FULLY CUSTOMIZE the way you manage your money. Yes. Customization -- flexibility to manage spending in the way that works for MY LIFE. That is what I really need!
- Generated a 200% increase in conversions. **Mention purpose of homepage → drive people to a more specific page of site** THAT is the power of knowing what “job” your prospects are trying to hire a new product for, and proving in your product positioning that YOU can do that “job” for them. **Now what? About to get SUPER TACTICAL**
- How do you find that information, so you can leverage it? You talk to your customers :) And I’m going to break down the nitty gritty details of exactly how to do that right now. I recommend doing this by sending surveys, and holding 1:1 interviews. **WHY BOTH**
- **templates I use for both surveys and interviews.** **If your company is young / not many customers yet → hard to gather this information → not enough volume to spot trends // wrong type of users (f&f)** **Userlist.io** **Early days: you get a pass → you can get to $20-30k MRR with just okay positioning** But this is GROWTH. Everyone here should have the customer base you need to do this work.
- **Pick a survey platform** **Keep the survey short** **Identify 1-200 ‘high-value’ customers → what that means** **Email those people -- hold back 40 -- we’ll talk about those 40 in a second** **Let results roll in, min 25-50**
- While those survey results roll in, you’ll reach out to those remaining 40 people you held back, and ask them to get on a 30-minute call. **why 40 → aim for at least 10** **not looking for opinion / feedback → instead of ‘why,’ ask ‘what’** What did their life look like before your product? What happened that was so painful, they began seeking something new? What were they looking for? When they found you, what happened that convinced them you were the right choice? What finally motivated them to take out their credit card? **record calls / upload to rev**
- So, after you’ve sent out your survey and held your calls…you’ll have a TON of qualitative data to sort through. you should start seeing some patterns in each step of the journey your customers took to find you.
- So in your survey replies, start looking for patterns that would help you fill in that “job story” template. WHEN did your customers start struggling? WHAT did they want a new solution to help them do? WHAT can they do, now that they have your product, that they couldn’t before?
- Then you’ll have your interview transcripts, which will give you MUCH deeper context (like my YNAB struggles) Now, collecting data just to HAVE it is useless, right? The next step is actually pulling out the key information, and making it easy to act on.
- I like to do this with a document called the “Voice of Customer” doc -- it’s just a Google doc with some super-simple tables in it. **In each table, I write down the most common responses I hear from customers. **copy & paste customers’ words VERBATIM **instead of having to come up with positioning all by myself, when I’m trying to describe the struggle my product solves, or the benefits we provide, I can just borrow the words my customers use.
- Now, I know we’ve covered a LOT of ground in the past 30 minutes -- so to quickly recap: When you describe your product in very vague terms -- like “save time,” or “powerful features,” you make product sound indistinct from other solutions. When that happens, prospects have no way of knowing how YOU are better. To REALLY capture your prospect’s attention, you need to understand… what happened in your customers’ lives that caused them to struggle and what “job” they’re now hiring your product to “do” for them. To LEARN those details, you need to actually go and talk to your customers. You’ve probably heard that before -- but the survey template, interview questions, and “voice of customer” doc I’m sharing today will make “talking to your customers” much less of an abstract concept, and much more of a doable task.
- And that brings us to the end! I love discussing this topic, and we can talk more about it anytime on Twitter -- here’s the user handle you can use to find me. In the meantime, let’s go to questions.