User research & business questions — A solving problem framework

To build great products, ask the right questions.

Always on the hunt for pertinent questions to ask, in order to bring out the opportunities and leads to be developed to design the best possible product, I came across the book “Competing against luck” written by Clayton M Christensen. Very interesting to read, also for CEOs seeking for product market fit. I share here the questions and passages that I retained to inspire me in my future projects.

What progress is that person trying to achieve?

What are the functional, social, and emotional dimensions of the desired progress?

For example, a job that occurs in a lot of people’s lives: “I want to have a smile that will make a great first impression in my work and personal life”; or a struggle many managers might relate to: “I want the sales force I manage to be better equipped to succeed in their job so that the churn in staff goes down.”

What are the circumstances of the struggle?

Who, when, where, while doing what?

“I see a dentist twice a year and do all the right things to keep my teeth clean, but they never look white enough to me” or “It seems like every week, another one of my guys is giving notice because he’s burned out and I’m spending half my time recruiting and training new people.”

What obstacles are getting in the way of the person making that progress?

For example, “I’ve tried a couple of whitening toothpastes and they don’t really work — they’re just a rip-off” or “I’ve tried everything I can think of to motivate my sales staff: bonus programs for them, offsite bonding days, I’ve bought them a variety of training tools. And they still can’t tell me what’s going wrong.”

Are consumers making do with imperfect solutions through some kind of compensating behavior?

Are they buying and using a product that imperfectly performs the job? Are they cobbling together a workaround solution involving multiple products? Are they doing nothing to solve their dilemma at all?

For example, “I’ve bought one of those expensive home whitening kits, but you have to wear this awful mouth guard overnight and it kind of burns my teeth . . .” or “I have to spend time making sales calls myself — and I don’t have time for that!”

How would they define what “quality” means for a better solution, and what tradeoffs are they willing to make?

For example, “I want the whitening performance of a professional dental treatment, without the cost and inconvenience” or “There are tons of ‘products’ and services I can purchase. But none of them actually help me do the job.”

Questions for Leaders —

• Do you understand the real reason why your customers choose your products or services? Or why they choose something else instead?
• How do your products or services help your customers to make progress in their lives? In which circumstances are they trying to make that progress? What are the functional, emotional, and social dimensions of this progress?
• What is competing with your products and services to address these jobs? Are there competitors outside of those included in the traditional view of your industry?
• What jobs are your customers hiring your products and services to get done? Are there segments with distinct jobs that you are inadequately serving with a one-size-fits-none solution? Are your products — or competitors’ — overshooting what customers are actually willing to pay for?
• What experiences do customers seek in order to make progress — and what obstacles must be removed for them to be successful?
• What does your understanding of your customers’ Jobs to Be Done reveal about the real competition you are facing?

More questions —

• What are the experiences customers seek in order to make progress?
• What obstacles must be removed?
• What are the social, emotional, and functional dimensions?

“In my experience, negative jobs are often the best innovation opportunities.”

• What are the important, unsatisfied jobs in your own life, and in the lives of those closest to you? Flesh out the circumstances of these jobs, and the functional, emotional, and social dimensions of the progress you are trying to make — what innovation opportunities do these suggest?
• If you are a consumer of your own company’s products, what jobs do you use them to get done? Where do you see them falling short of perfectly nailing your jobs, and why?
• Who is not consuming your products today? How do their jobs differ from those of your current customers? What’s getting in the way of these nonconsumers using your products to solve their jobs?
• Go into the field and observe customers using your products. In what circumstances do they use them? What are the functional, emotional, and social dimensions of the progress they are trying to make? Are they using them in unexpected ways? If so, what does this reveal about the nature of their jobs?

“Because a job has a richness and complexity to it, your solution must, too.”

• What are the most critical details that must be included in the job spec for your target job? Do you understand the obstacles that get in customers’ way? Do your current solutions address all these details?
• What are the experiences of purchase and use that your customers currently have? How well do these align with the requirements of their complete job spec? Where are there opportunities to improve them?

“What Gets Measured Gets Done”

• How does your organization ensure that the customer’s job guides all critical decisions related to product development, marketing, and customer service?
• Do the different functions that are part of your customer’s experience (for example, your product, service, marketing, sales, after-sale service) all support nailing your customer’s job in a coordinated, integrated way, or are they in conflict?
• What new processes could you define to ensure more integrated delivery of the experiences required by your customers’ jobs?
• What elements of the end-to-end experience are most critical to perfectly solving your customer’s job? What metrics could you define to track performance against these elements?

Hear What Your Customers Don’t Say —

• What they hire
• What they fire