Why is it important for product managers to understand their customer's ideal outcome/JTBD?

Understanding your users is critical to building a product that will effectively solve their problems, and they will be excited to use. The JTBD framework is effective because it encourages product managers to focus on problems, not solutions. You can read more about how we use this framework at GitLab here: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/jobs-to-be-done/

Understanding the customer's ideal outcome and the "Jobs to Be Done" (JTBD) framework is crucial for product managers because it directly influences the effectiveness and success of the products they develop. Amongst various other things, here are my top reasons on why we do this as PMs

• Customer-Centric Design: It ensures that products are developed to meet specific, real-world needs of customers, enhancing relevance and user satisfaction.

• Improved Product Fit: Products aligned with JTBD are more likely to achieve market fit, as they address both functional and emotional customer needs. Crucial for start ups.

• Enhanced Innovation: Knowing the JTBD helps identify gaps in market offerings, driving innovation and the development of distinctive features or new products. Crucial for remaining leaders in the industry

Whether you are using CUJs or JTBDS or PRDs the entire purpose of these artifacts is for product leaders to better understand the goals of the end user with tools in the market. Ultimately, without a targeted understanding you will end up building something that won't add value or won't be purchased by your target market - which is the worst case scenario.

Customers don’t care about your solution — they care about their problems.

Dave McClure's most famous quote is essential to build products people will actually use.

I hate to bash other PMs and their products, but I couldn't help but laugh when I first heard about Juicero. In 2016, Juicero launched a wi-fi enabled juicer. At $700 it was nearly the cost of an iPhone. What was the game changing solution that Juicero offered? You would buy proprietary juice packets from Juicero and the Juciero would crush the packet and you'd get juice! Not a terrible idea, after all who doesn't like freshly squeezed juice.

Eventually the company went bankrupt when a journalist discovered that you could just squeeze the juice packet using your hands, making the $700 device completely redundant.

Why did Juicero fail and what does it tell us about focusing on the customer's ideal outcome or Job-to-be-Done ("JTBD")?

Juicero's key failure, and a common one amongst many products, is that it did not identify the JTBD it was solving for. Instead, the founders built, arguably, a very cool piece of tech - the $700 juicer - and decided that customer's would want it.

The JTBD's of a customer using a juicer, could include:

• Increasing fruit and vegetable intake

• Living a healthier lifestyle

• Prepare specific juice recipes

The Juicero certainly addressed these JTBD's, but at 10x the cost why would someone buy it over an ordinary juicer that equally performed the same functions.

The founders believed that by adding wi-fi and other tech they were making the Keurig of the juicing world. What they failed to realize that their solution did not address or uniquely solve the customer's problem - thereby falling into the trap called out by Dave McClure.

What could Juicero have done differently?

I'm not an expert on food tech, but there are techniques Juicero could have used to build a product that their customers actually wanted.

First, the company should have looked at what problems existing juicers created and how a new product could address those. For example, standard juicers are noisy, inefficient at extracting the pulp, and notoriously difficult to clean. Interestingly, Juicero actually solved these issues - just not with the Juciero device. The bags that came with the Juicero actually allowed customers to make juice without the noise and cleaning that comes with standard juicers.

Second, when build features (e.g. wi-fi integration), always consider what problem is it solving. While wi-fi in other home appliances have become common, there is typically a reason to have it. For example, you may want to be informed when your laundry is done. There is no reason to have wi-fi on a juicer as you will always be physically present.

Lastly, make sure you have a target customer for your product. Very few people have the disposable income to spend $700 on a juicer. Those that do, are likely willing to pay for freshly squeezed juice from a store.