When Coffee and Kale Compete: Become great at making products people will buy

Your goal regarding this part of the system should be to understand why customers are searching for and buying a solution now instead of a month ago. How did customers find and choose (hire) a solution for their desire to change? What were their hiring criteria? What trade-offs are they willing to make—that is, what are they willing to give up, and

Progress defines value; contrast reveals value. See how easily you can answer this question: “Which food do you most prefer: steak or pizza?” Many people find this difficult to answer. An easier question might be, “When do you prefer steak, and when do you prefer pizza?”[20]

Instead of attaching value to what products are, value should attach to what products do for customers.

A Job to be Done is the process a consumer goes through whenever she aims to transform her existing life-situation into a preferred one, but cannot because there are constraints that stop her.

A Job to be Done is the process a consumer goes through whenever she aims to transform her existing life-situation into a preferred one, but cannot because there are constraints that stop her.

Reduce anxiety-in-choice with trials, refunds, and discounts. “Buy one, get one free!” “Lifetime guarantee!” “Free shipping!” “Thirty-day refund!” These are probably the most obvious and widely practiced techniques of managing cost/value expectation. We’re all familiar with them and have heard enough about discounts in Anthony’s case study on theat

Keep in mind that a Job to be Done describes the “better me.” It answers the question, “How are you better since you started using [product]?”and “Now that you have this product, what can you do now that you couldn’t do before?”

Customers can tell you of their struggles, how they expect life to be better, and how they interact with the products they use. But they cannot tell you what to do about it.

Think of your business as delivering a combination of products that work together to forward the system of progress.