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For first-time founders, the next time you're brainstorming that next big feature or pivoting your product, ask yourself: What job is my customer hiring this product to do? The answer could be the key to your startup's success. 💡
One of the most powerful frameworks that can guide early startups is Clayton Christensen's "Jobs To Be Done" framework, highlighted in his book Competing Against Luck.
This approach is a game-changer, especially for first-time founders, as it shifts the focus from what features we think are valuable to what our customers are actually hiring our product to do.
Take the example of TurboTax. Initially, they were adding endless features, trying to cover every possible scenario, but when they dug into the core job that customers were "hiring" TurboTax for, they found it wasn't about the bells and whistles. People wanted one thing: a simple, accurate way to file their taxes. By refocusing on this primary job and streamlining the product accordingly, TurboTax not only improved user satisfaction but also saw a significant increase in revenue.
#Startups#ProductManagement#JobsToBeDone#Innovation#Entrepreneurship
Yeah. So in the First Time Founders series, we talked quite a bit about Clayton Christensen's Jobs to Be Done framework and his Competing Against Luck book. So I don't know, Eric, can you mind sharing a little bit about what resonates with you there and how you've seen that play out? Sure. So the jobs to be done framework when it was shared with us by a wonderful designer we worked with Kristen. Was an unlock in that it helped us understand not just the value that we're providing the customer, that the startup we're working with is providing the customer, but what that customer is hiring them to do. And so the classic example from Clayton Christensen's competing against Luck is TurboTax. As they worked with TurboTax, TurboTax was just endlessly throwing features at the wall. You know, we're going to add so you can put your second rental home in or you're like extra options that you got on that trust and 99% of people. When they asked what job they were hiring TurboTax to do is to make filling out their taxes easier and accurate and that was all most people cared about. So when they refocused TurboTax to make it more streamlined and easier to handle that 90% case and pushed the stuff that was advanced features into other products and deeper into the menus, the entire product got better for everyone and their revenue went like that. And that framework figuring out what people are hiring. Your product for is a great way to understand where you should be focusing your time and your features.
Tanooki Labs - Technical Co-founders for hire. Web & Mobile dev, product and design.
4moHat tip to Kristen Smith who initially tuned us on to the JTBD framework and used it beautifully in our work together. :)