Table of Contents

Overview

The playbook is designed to guide UX and CX designers through a data-driven approach to customer journey analysis, grounded in Jobs Theory and loosely based on Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI). The focus is on mapping the journeys customers are faced with during the lifecycle of product ownership and the specific ways they measure success. Success is measured through performance metrics that describe the experience of a customer each step of the way; given the current solution, channel, or touchpoint. There are various forms these metrics can take.

Part 1: Limitations of Traditional Approaches

Traditional customer journey analysis often falls short because it tends to focus on the product or service rather than the customer's job-to-be-done. It may also rely on assumptions and fail to uncover all customer needs, especially those that are unmet or unarticulated.

Product-Centric Focus

Traditional methods of product development and journey analysis often prioritize the product or service features over the customer's actual needs and jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) due to several reasons:

1. Feature-Focused Development: Traditional methods tend to emphasize the product's features, benefits, and specifications, which can overshadow the actual needs of the customer. This approach is driven by the assumption that more features and functionalities will inherently lead to a better product and, consequently, a more satisfied customer.
2. Company-Centric Perspective: Companies often operate from an inside-out perspective, focusing on their capabilities and the products they can create rather than starting with the customer's needs and working backward to develop solutions that address those needs.
3. Market Competition: There is a tendency to engage in a feature war with competitors, adding new features to match or outdo the competition rather than focusing on what the customer actually needs or the job they are trying to get done.
4. Lack of Deep Customer Understanding: Traditional methods may not delve deeply enough into understanding the customer's context, the specific job they are hiring the product to do, and the desired outcomes they are seeking. This can result in products that are misaligned with the customer's actual needs.
5. Innovation Metrics: Success metrics in traditional product development often revolve around the product itself, such as the number of features, technical sophistication, or adherence to specifications, rather than customer satisfaction or the fulfillment of the customer's job-to-be-done.
6. Silos and Departmental Goals: Organizational structures can create silos where departments are more focused on their specific goals, such as engineering excellence or feature completion, rather than a holistic view of the customer experience.

The JTBD framework challenges these traditional approaches by shifting the focus to the customer's perspective. It emphasizes understanding the customer's job-to-be-done. This framework helps companies to innovate and develop products based on the specific needs and goals of their customers, rather than on the product's features or the company's capabilities. By adopting the JTBD framework, companies can create products and services that customers truly need and value, leading to better customer satisfaction and business outcomes.

A product-centric approach, while it can lead to the creation of high-quality products and strong brand positioning, has several potential drawbacks that can lead to misalignment with customer expectations and missed opportunities for innovation.

<aside> <img src="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/b06d51a3-1fb4-4a23-a932-3021ed667a7c/12b1d74f-cf2b-4bbe-8961-a4d25218c95a/misaligned.png" alt="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/b06d51a3-1fb4-4a23-a932-3021ed667a7c/12b1d74f-cf2b-4bbe-8961-a4d25218c95a/misaligned.png" width="40px" /> Misalignment with Customer Expectations

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1. Overemphasis on Features: A product-centric approach may lead to an overemphasis on product features rather than addressing the actual needs and expectations of customers. This can result in products that are feature-rich but fail to solve the core problems or fulfill the jobs that customers are trying to accomplish.
2. Inflexibility: Companies with a product-centric mindset may become inflexible, sticking to their product roadmap without considering changing customer needs or market dynamics. This rigidity can lead to products that are out of sync with what customers currently expect or need.
3. Poor Customer Understanding: Product-centric strategies may not invest sufficiently in understanding the customer, which can lead to a misalignment between the product offered and the customer's actual desires or pain points.

<aside> <img src="/icons/cloud-no_blue.svg" alt="/icons/cloud-no_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Missed Opportunities for Innovation

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1. Narrow Focus: By concentrating on the product itself, companies may miss opportunities to innovate in areas that could significantly enhance the customer experience, such as service, support, or user interface design.
2. Ignoring the Ecosystem: A product-centric approach might ignore the broader ecosystem in which the product operates, including complementary services, community, and the overall customer journey. This can lead to missed opportunities for holistic solutions that could drive innovation.
3. Resistance to Change: A product-centric approach can create resistance to change within an organization, as it may prioritize maintaining the status quo of the product over exploring new ideas or responding to new market trends.
4. Limited View of Value Creation: Product-centric companies may focus on the value created by the product itself rather than the value perceived by the customer, which can limit the scope of innovation to product features rather than customer outcomes.

While a product-centric approach can lead to the creation of high-quality products, it can also result in a misalignment with customer expectations and missed opportunities for innovation. Therefore, it's crucial for businesses to balance their focus on product development with a deep understanding of their customers' needs and the broader market context.

Assumption-Based Insights

Comparing and contrasting the reliance on ideas and assumptions with a customer needs focus, as seen through the lens of Jobs to be Done (JTBD) and its variant, Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI), reveals fundamental differences in approach and potential outcomes for product development and innovation.

<aside> 💡 Reliance on Ideas and Assumptions

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The reliance on ideas and assumptions in business and product development is a common practice. This approach often stems from internal beliefs about what the market needs or what would make a product successful, without substantial evidence to back these beliefs. Assumptions can be based on past experiences, market trends, or even personal biases. While this method can sometimes lead to successful innovations, it is fraught with risks:

• Risk of Misalignment: Ideas and assumptions may not accurately reflect the real needs or desires of customers, leading to products that fail to resonate with the target audience.
• Lack of Customer Insight: Decisions made on assumptions often lack deep insights into customer behaviors, preferences, and pain points, resulting in missed opportunities for truly innovative solutions.
• Inefficiency and Waste: Resources may be allocated to developing features or products that do not address any significant customer need, leading to wasted effort and investment.

<aside> 🔍 Customer Needs Focus through JTBD

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The JTBD framework offers a more structured and customer-centric approach to innovation. This methodology focuses on understanding the specific "jobs" customers are trying to get done in their lives and the outcomes they are seeking to achieve. Unlike the assumption-based approach, JTBD is rooted in empirical customer insights:

• Empirical Understanding of Needs: JTBD emphasizes the importance of understanding the underlying needs and motivations of customers, moving beyond superficial desires or assumptions.
• Outcome-Driven: ODI, as a variant of JTBD, focuses on the outcomes customers desire from completing their jobs. This approach (and especially evolutionary improvements to it) ensures that innovation efforts are aligned with delivering value that customers recognize and are willing to pay for.
• Reduced Risk of Failure: By grounding product development in verified customer needs and desired outcomes, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of developing products that fail to meet market demands.

<aside> 🔑 Key Differences

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• Foundation: The assumption-based approach is often grounded in internal beliefs and biases, whereas JTBD is rooted in empirical customer insights and the outcomes they seek.
• Focus: Assumptions focus on what businesses believe customers want, while JTBD concentrates on understanding and addressing the underlying jobs and outcomes customers aim to achieve.
• Risk: Relying on assumptions carries a higher risk of misalignment with customer needs, whereas JTBD offers a more predictable path to creating value for customers, thereby reducing the risk of innovation failure.

Risks associated with assumption-based insights are numerous and can significantly impact the success of a product or service. These risks often stem from a lack of understanding or misinterpretation of customer needs and frustrations, leading to the development of features that do not address real customer goals or solve their problems.

<aside> <img src="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/b06d51a3-1fb4-4a23-a932-3021ed667a7c/18dca887-a469-4de4-8977-2c1a186d49f0/risk.png" alt="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/b06d51a3-1fb4-4a23-a932-3021ed667a7c/18dca887-a469-4de4-8977-2c1a186d49f0/risk.png" width="40px" /> Risks of Assumption-Based Insights

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1. Misalignment with Customer Needs: Assumption-based insights can lead to a misalignment between the product or service and the actual needs of the customer. This misalignment can result in the development of features that do not address the real frustrations or goals of the customer, leading to a product that fails to resonate with the target audience.
2. Inefficiency and Waste: Assumption-based insights can lead to inefficiencies and waste in the development process. This can occur when resources are allocated to developing features that do not address any significant customer need, leading to wasted effort and investment.
3. Risk of Failure: Assumption-based insights can increase the risk of product failure. This is because assumptions may not accurately reflect the real needs or desires of customers, leading to products that do not meet market demands.
4. Lack of Empathy: Assumption-based insights can lead to a lack of empathy for the customer. This can occur when the focus is on shipping new features rather than solving customer problems, resulting in products and services that do not address the real frustrations or goals of the customer.

<aside> <img src="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/b06d51a3-1fb4-4a23-a932-3021ed667a7c/b09ddaa3-e133-4720-a751-8962fb90a360/frustrated.png" alt="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/b06d51a3-1fb4-4a23-a932-3021ed667a7c/b09ddaa3-e133-4720-a751-8962fb90a360/frustrated.png" width="40px" /> Addressing Real Customer Frustrations

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To mitigate these risks, it is crucial to focus on real customer frustrations and goals. This can be achieved by:

1. Understanding Customer Needs: Understanding the specific "jobs" customers are trying to get done and the outcomes they are seeking to achieve can help to ensure that product development efforts are aligned with customer needs.
2. Focusing on User Goals: Shifting the focus from shipping new features to solving customer problems can help to ensure that the products and services developed are valuable to the customer.
3. Incorporating Structured Customer Feedback: Incorporating feedback from customers can help to identify and address their frustrations before they become significant issues. This proactive, data-led approach can help to build lasting relationships with customers and improve the overall customer experience.
4. Embracing User Frustrations as Opportunities for Growth: Embracing user frustrations as opportunities for growth and improvement can help to enhance the user experience, build customer loyalty, and ultimately achieve success. It’s important to understand the distinction between pain points (tied to features) and frustrations related to getting a job done.

While assumption-based insights can sometimes lead to successful innovations, they are fraught with risks and can often result in the development of features that do not address real customer frustrations or goals. On the other hand, focusing on real customer needs and frustrations, as prescribed by JTBD, can lead to more successful and customer-centric product development efforts.

Static and Linear Analysis

Traditional customer journey maps often depict the customer experience as a static and linear progression from one stage to the next, such as from awareness to consideration to purchase. However, this approach has several limitations in capturing the true nature of customer behavior, which is dynamic and complex.

<aside> <img src="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/b06d51a3-1fb4-4a23-a932-3021ed667a7c/6c657ea3-fa8b-4691-b889-6c18a9d1adcc/linear-regression.png" alt="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/b06d51a3-1fb4-4a23-a932-3021ed667a7c/6c657ea3-fa8b-4691-b889-6c18a9d1adcc/linear-regression.png" width="40px" /> Static and Linear Nature of Traditional Journey Maps

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Traditional customer journey maps are criticized for their static nature, meaning they are often created as snapshots in time and do not account for changes in customer behavior or market conditions over time. They are also linear, suggesting that customers move through a set sequence of stages in a predictable fashion. This can lead to several issues:

• Oversimplification: These maps may oversimplify the customer experience, failing to reflect the varied and unpredictable behaviors of real customers.
• Inflexibility: Because they are static, traditional maps do not adapt well to changes in customer preferences or behaviors that occur due to new technologies, market trends, or other factors.
• Inaccuracy: Relying on a linear progression does not accurately represent the way modern consumers interact with brands, as they often move back and forth between stages, skip steps, or engage with multiple channels simultaneously.

Evolving and Complex Customer Behaviors

In contrast to the static and linear models, customer behaviors today are evolving and complex, influenced by a multitude of factors including technology, access to information, and personal preferences. Customers may:

• Engage Across Multiple Channels: Customers often use various devices and platforms, which can lead to non-linear paths to purchase.
• Change Behaviors Over Time: Preferences and behaviors are not fixed and can change rapidly, necessitating continuous updates to journey maps.
• Have Unique Journeys: Each customer may have a unique journey that does not fit into a standardized path, requiring more nuanced mapping approaches.

The static and linear nature of traditional customer journey maps fails to capture the evolving and complex behaviors of customers because it does not account for the non-linear, multi-channel, and dynamic ways in which customers interact with brands today. To be effective, journey maps need to be updated regularly and designed to reflect the actual behaviors and feedback of diverse customer segments. This requires a shift from static, linear models to more flexible, dynamic, and data-driven approaches that can adapt to the changing landscape of customer interactions.

Part 2: Advantages of the New Approach

The new approach, based on Jobs to be Done, shifts the focus from products / services features to the jobs customers need to get done and the measures they use to evaluate their success. This approach is more customer-centric and allows for the identification of under- and overserved needs, leading to more targeted and effective innovations: business models, products, and ultimately customer journeys.

Customer-Centric Innovation

…emphasizes understanding and addressing the fundamental needs and motivations that drive customer behavior, focusing on the jobs customers are trying to accomplish

Understanding and addressing the fundamental needs and motivations that drive customer behavior is at the heart of any successful customer experience strategy. By focusing on the jobs that customers are trying to accomplish, businesses can move beyond superficial features and benefits to tap into the deeper value that customers seek. This approach aligns product development and service delivery with the actual goals of the customer, ensuring that every innovation is not just a shot in the dark but a targeted effort to fulfill real customer needs. Here are key points that support this approach:

• Identifies Real Customer Goals: By concentrating on the jobs customers need to complete, companies can identify the actual goals and challenges customers face, rather than making assumptions based on market trends or competitor actions.
• Drives Meaningful Innovation: Innovation becomes more meaningful when it is directed at enabling customers to accomplish their jobs more effectively and efficiently.
• Enhances Customer Satisfaction: Products and services designed with the customer's job in mind are more likely to increase satisfaction, as they are inherently more relevant to the customer's needs.
• Facilitates Clear Communication: Marketing messages become clearer when they are focused on how a product or service helps the customer get a job done, rather than on features or specifications.
• Improves Customer Retention: Customers are more likely to remain loyal to a brand that consistently helps them achieve their goals with less effort and more success.
• Supports Value Proposition Design: The value proposition of a product or service becomes more compelling when it is directly tied to the successful completion of a customer's job.
• Encourages Cross-Functional Collaboration: A focus on the customer's job encourages collaboration across different functions within an organization, as it aligns all departments towards a common understanding of customer needs.
• Reduces Waste in Product Development: Resources are allocated more efficiently when the development process is centered around creating solutions for well-defined customer jobs.
• Creates Competitive Differentiation: By addressing the underlying jobs that customers are trying to get done, companies can differentiate their offerings from those of competitors who may be focused solely on product features.

Shifts the innovation process from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach, ensuring solutions align precisely with what customers want, thereby reducing guesswork in ideation and increasing the likelihood of success

Innovation in business has traditionally been product-centric, focusing on developing new features and technologies with the assumption that these will meet customer needs. However, this approach often leads to a disconnect between what companies offer and what customers actually want. The shift to a customer-centric approach in innovation aims to bridge this gap by placing the customer's needs and desires at the forefront of the innovation process. This strategic pivot ensures that solutions are not only aligned with customer expectations but are also more likely to be successful in the market. Here are key points to support this shift:

• Begins with Customer Understanding: A customer-centric approach starts with a deep understanding of the customer's needs which informs all subsequent innovation efforts.
• Reduces Risk of Innovation: By focusing on what customers truly want, businesses can reduce the risk associated with developing new products and services, as they are more likely to resonate with the target audience.
• Improves Market Fit: Solutions developed from a customer-centric perspective are more likely to have a better fit in the market, as they are designed to address specific customer problems or desires.
• Increases Customer Loyalty: When customers feel that their needs are being met, they are more likely to develop loyalty to a brand, leading to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth. However, their needs will always tie-back to the relevant Job-to-be-Done.
• Facilitates Co-Creation: Engaging customers in the innovation process can lead to co-creation, where customers contribute ideas and feedback that can lead to more innovative and successful outcomes.
• Enhances Competitive Advantage: A customer-centric approach can differentiate a company from competitors who may still be using a product-centric approach, providing a unique selling proposition.
• Drives Long-Term Success: Focusing on customer needs helps ensure long-term business success, as it aligns product development with evolving market demands and customer expectations.
• Encourages Agile Adaptation: A customer-centric innovation strategy requires businesses to be agile and adaptable, ready to respond to changing customer needs and market conditions.
• Informs Data-Driven Decisions: Leveraging customer data and insights ensures that decisions made during the innovation process are informed and evidence-based, leading to better outcomes.
• Promotes Organizational Alignment: When the entire organization adopts a customer-centric mindset, it ensures that all departments are aligned in their efforts to serve the customer's interests.

Part 3: Step-by-Step Guide to the New Approach

Purpose

This playbook is meant to be a companion to my Customer Journey 2.0 Toolkit. You can find that toolkit for FREE here.

Copyright

This Playbook is covered under creative commons….

Data Driven Journeys: The Playbook © 2024 by Michael A. Boysen is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0