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"Jobs-to-be-done" to make your users badass


Remember Kathy Sierra's concept of a "badass users"? A user doesn't care about your product, user cares about his context. He doesn't want to be better at using your product. He wants to be better at what he's doing. A user of a digital camera doesn't want to be the best at using this particular camera. He wants to make stunning pictures.

Understanding user context

When you think about building a new product or improving the existing one, you first need to understand the context of your users. What are the true goals of your users? What do they want to achieve? Those are the main questions. Secondary questions might be about environment, social or economic aspects. One of the best ways to discover the user context is "Jobs-to-be-done" framework.

Why do you buy a product?

"Jobs-to-be-done" is a framework developed by Clayton Christensen to help product people to understand the real motivation behind their customer's behavior.
If you to break "Jobs-to-be-done" to the very basic form, it is like asking the old good five why's. You need to observe your users behavior and then ask them why they do what they do? Continue asking why until you go to the bottom line of their motivation.

Unexpected competition

When you apply "Jobs-to-be-done" framework, an amazing thing could happen - you can discover unexpected competitors. Like the drill producers suddenly discovered that their customers
"don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole."
As a result drill producers are not only in competition with each other. They also compete with the blue collar services and even a friendly neighbor or a brother-in-law with a drill. Knowing your non-direct competitors is paramount to construct a compelling marketing message. It also helps to position your product and differentiate it from the competition.

Badass makes the job done in style

You win with your product when your users say: "Hey, I kick ass at this job!"
It's when your users feel better about themselves using your product. They make the job done, and they feel better, smarter, quicker in the process. Like when you feel yourself a badass designer when you use "Canva." Or think you can actually spell English when using "Grammarly."

Powerful combo

User context is your everything! Problems and solutions, both come from context. Using "Jobs-to-be-done" framework you can discover the motivation behind user behavior. This treasure of information you can use to create a product that would make users feel themselves real badass. And that's how you win as a product.

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