How to Create Differentiated Products that Win

The reason most companies fail to develop differentiated products and services is not because they lack creativity or ideas.

It's because they lack focus. They lack clarity about where the market is under-served, where the big opportunities lie.

The key to success is to first understand what your target customers are trying to accomplish, where, when, and why they still struggle. However, there are persistent myths about innovation that hold companies back from even attempting to innovate, such as:

• Customers cannot tell us what they want.?
• Innovation is inherently messy, risky, and expensive.
• Innovation begins with a good idea.
• Innovation and creativity are essentially the same thing.
• We need more creative people to succeed at innovation.?

These myths derail?innovation,?lead companies to make things people don’t want, and waste billions of dollars every year.?But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Companies that learn how to identify and prioritize their target customers’ unmet needs before generating ideas can dramatically increase their success rates because they know where to focus and what to do to create differentiated value.

If you're thinking, "It's not that simple" - you're right. Conducting JTBD interviews is a skill that, like any skill, takes time, study, and practice to master (let alone additional unique JTBD services such as designing and deploying surveys to a representative sample of the target market to have customers rate each need for its importance and their satisfaction, identifying and ranking opportunities (unmet needs), segmenting markets according to what customers are trying to accomplish - not demographics, conducting competitive analysis based on satisfaction of true needs - not feature comparisons, evaluating the opportunities and selecting those to pursue and how to pursue them, and facilitating focused brain-storming sessions to address the selected opportunities).

If you're trying to conduct your own JTBD interviews, in addition to knowing what inputs to obtain from customers, how to get them, and how to use them, you must master two interviewing skills:

1) How to probe (ask follow up questions) until you arrive at the true need at an actionable level for your company. We all have been socialized to accept vague terms - this must be overcome.

2) How to create an emotional connection and psychological safety with the interviewee. A chief problem with sales people attempting to conduct JTBD interviews is, not only that the purpose and process is very different from sales but that many customers are highly skeptical about the intent of the interviewer. Consequently, they will not be candid because it might be used against them.

Additionally, JTBD is most effective at uncovering customer needs in complex functional markets, not in highly emotional, social, or sensual (related to the five senses) markets. The "super power" of JTBD is to deconstruct any functional job - such as "Take a blood sample" - into the steps that customers must execute to successful complete the job, and their criteria for success navigating each step.

Yet, despite these significant challenges, companies that simply master the basics by understanding the JTBD framework and key concepts can get traction and generate breakthrough products and services.

If you're in the Central Ohio area, come join me on 2/19 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm at Innovate New Albany for a TIGER Talk I'll be giving, “Unlock the Secret of Making Products Customers Will Love.” This session is all about creating differentiated offerings that win in the market by understanding the basics.

I’ll be debunking the top myths and showing you how “Lean JTBD” (i.e., the mindset and key concepts) can help you win with differentiated products and services.?

Learn more and REGISTER at the first link in the comments.

Get priority access and help us co-create this new offering together at the second link in the comments.

#innovationmanagement #jobtobedone #differentiation

Neil Collins