Finding important problems to solve and effective ways to achieve that aim.

Here are a few things I learned for week 1 of my Co. Lab journey as a software developer includes:

Finding important problems

• How to identify valuable customer problems.

• How to use Job to be done (JTBD).

How to identify valuable customer problems.

One of the things that help find valuable customer problems is to think about what is called Age Old Jobs, New Solutions.

The Age Old Job, New Solutions implies that things that people want to do never change but the way they do it actually changes very frequently.

Context(Age Old Job, New Solutions): there are many problems to be solved but there are different ways to solve them. i.e. For instance, we have so many applications doing actually the same thing but the way some applications solve the problem is different from the way other applications solve that same problem.

Picking a problem

1. Don't get too attached to your solution/idea.
2. Don't depend highly on only your own vision.
3. Define your users/customers clearly (i.e clearly think about who your user or customer should be).
4. Talk to your customers.
   • Understand underlying motivation and context.
   • Understand barriers and struggles.
   • Understand what there are currently doing.

Jobs to be Done (JTBD)

This is an approach used in determining who your user will be and what are their motivation and hopes for that particular job.

Job: is an occurrence of an unfulfilled need or wants in response to a trigger meaning that there are certain things that push users to want to make use of something.

There are 3 cases someone should look into when finding a problem in solving a user problem and thinking through it.

• Functional
• Emotional
• Circumstantial

Functional: What can be the most functional use of this solution that will want users to be interested to use the application? (i.e why are we solving this problem.)

Emotional: What are the social and personal means this problem solves when people use it? (i.e what impact does it have on individuals).

Circumstantial: What can occur that will make the user want to use the particular problem I am trying to solve? (i.e situation that will warrant the user to use it.)

Getting Started with JTBD

1. Identify a customer.
2. Decide on a research strategy planning.
3. Learn about their problem.
4. Collect some insights.
5. focus on one JOB

Why you should use JTDB to find important problems

• To understand what causes people to hire(i.e use) a particular product.
• To understand what people want in a specific market.
• To improve the focus on solving the most important problems.
• To create a compelling customer experience.

Jobs Vs Features

Jobs

• The underlying JTBD is fertile.
• There are neutral solutions you create (clear thought solutions)
• They reveal themselves within the constraint.

Features

• Features are addressed by jobs.
• Features need to constantly evolve over time.
• Features create constraints for the users.

Job and Features (case: Uber application):

• Transiting users from one place to another (Jobs: Functional): implement a google map to leverage the accessibility of how to navigate the journey (Features).
• Easy access to transportation (Jobs: emotional): implement the creation of profiles of different uber drivers in order for users to have information about the person coming to pick them up. That way it makes it easy for what kind of transit they want to board and information about it (Features).
• Hastening to meet up at a particular meeting(Jobs: Circumstantial): In such case (uber) implement a problem to help solve the issue to be able to allow users to order a ride at the comfort of their house and pick them up instead of queueing to join the bus (Features).

Approach to use when asking user(customers) questions.

Use this approach called The Mom Test Rules to get information from the user about a particular problem you are trying to solve in that you will get some good answers.

• Talk about their life for that particular problem instead of your idea about the problem.
• Ask about specifics in the past instead of generics or opinions about the future.
• Avoid compliments and dig deeper.
• Talk less and listen more.

Effective Research Plan for the problem you want to solve.

To do some research plan. There are stages to follow which include:

1. Objective: What is the purpose of the research?
2. Questions: What questions are you hoping to find answers to with the research?
3. Method: What research approach(es) will be used during the process?
4. Process: The logistics of the research process (timeline, budget, etc).

Conclusion

RECAP

• Focus on the things that don't change but only on the way that is done that changes.
• Identify the outcome your customers want from using a product.
• Jobs over Features.

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See you in my next blog article. Take care!!!