How to apply the Jobs-to-be-done methodology to web design An common methodology in user-centered web design is the a combination of Personas and user stories. A Persona is basically a fictional user archetype. A model that is created from data. Data that should have been gathered by talking to real people. A Persona typically tries to represent the characteristics you need to know about the “typical” user of a web design. All in order for you to make real and informed design decisions. Personas works well in a situation where the user-base can easily be segmented into different types of users with different needs. Knowing the exact details about a user is somewhat useless if you don’t know what they actually want to do. Many web design solutions are better defined by the job they do rather than the customers they serve. In this article we will show an alternative to Personas and user stories. The Jobs-to-be-done methodology helps you focus on the job that the user wants done rather than who and how. Let’s analyse this format a bit more;
Lessons Learned Useful Value Proposition Examples (and How to Create a Good One) 292inShareinShare Value proposition is the #1 thing that determines whether people will bother reading more about your product or hit the back button. It’s also the main thing you need to test – if you get it right, it will be a huge boost. The less known your company is, the better value proposition you need. What exactly is a value proposition? A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. In a nutshell, value proposition is a clear statement that explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation (relevancy),delivers specific benefits (quantified value),tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition (unique differentiation). You have to present your value proposition as the first thing the visitors see on your home page, but should be visible in all major entry points of the site. It’s for people to read and understand Value proposition is something real humans are supposed to understand. Use the right language
Technique 1 - Jobs to be Done | The Innovator's Toolkit Highlight the human need you're trying to fulfill. A job to be done (JTBD) is a revolutionary concept that guides you toward innovation and helps you move beyond the norm of only improving current solutions. A JTBD is not a product, service, or a specific solution; it's the higher purpose for which customers buy products, services, and solutions. For instance, most people would say they buy a lawnmower to "cut the grass," and this is true. But if a lawnmower company examines the higher purpose of cutting the grass, say, "keep the grass low and beautiful at all times," then it might forgo some efforts to make better lawnmowers in lieu of developing a genetically engineered grass seed that never needs to be cut. This is the power of the JTBD concept and technique: It helps the innovator understand that customers don't buy products and services; they hire various solutions at various times to get a wide array of jobs done. Background Jobs to be Done Breakdown Let’s develop an example. Steps
Lean Analytics Lean Analytics is the latest addition to the Lean Series. The book has been a year in the making, and authors Ben Yoskovitz and Alistair Croll—themselves successful founders with several exits under their belts—spent much of that time speaking with founders, investors, and analysts to understand a really basic, but seldom-asked, question: What's normal? As it turns out, normal is a hard question. Normal depends on what kind of business you're in, and what stage of that business you're at. If you're working on the Sticky Engine of Growth, you're focused on very different metrics from those that you care about in the Viral Engine of Growth. Start with metrics in mind To help with this, the book looks at dozens of metrics—such as churn, customer lifetime value, viral coefficient, acquisition cost, uptime, and engagement—and suggests where that metric should be before you can move on to the next stage of your business. Not all SaaS companies are the same, of course. Many Mores
6 Persuasion Tricks To Get What You Want It doesn’t matter if you’re working on landing a new job or promotionor trying to get your bosses to sign off a new idea, being persuasive goes a long way in getting things done. It’s a more nuanced quality than just being authoritative or demanding. The ability to win over others to see your way of thinking and support you includes a number of personal, presentation and perceptive aspects. “Persuasion is all about making a deeper connection with someone, even if it’s momentary or a highly superficial trust. The next time you need to rally the troops and get them to support your idea or effort, keep these key actions in mind. 1. Knowing your subject cold and presenting your case succinctly help people stay focused on what you have to say and feel more confident in your opinion, says Bill McGowan, founder of Clarity Media Group, a New York City-based media training firm, and author of Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time Every Time . 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Achieve Product-Market Fit with our Brand-New Value Proposition Designer Canvas I’m a big fan of the Lean Startup movement and love the underlying principle of testing, learning, and pivoting by experimenting with the most basic product prototypes imaginable - so-called Minimal Viable Products (MVP) – during the search for product-market fit. It helps companies avoid building stuff that customers don’t want. Yet, there is no underlying conceptual tool that accompanies this process. There is no practical tool that helps business people map, think through, discuss, test, and pivot their company’s value proposition in relationship to their customers’ needs. So I came up with the Value Proposition Designer Canvas together with Yves Pigneur and Alan Smith. The Value Proposition Designer Canvas is like a plug-in tool to the Business Model Canvas. The Canvas with its 9 building blocks focuses on the big picture. In this post I’ll explain the conceptual tool. The Value Proposition Designer Canvas Achieving Fit Customer Jobs Ask yourself: Customer Pains Customer Gains
Vanity Metrics vs. Actionable Metrics – Guest Post by Eric Ries Vanity metrics: good for feeling awesome, bad for action. (photo source: UK Guardian) This is a guest post by serial entrepreneur Eric Ries. He was most recently co-founder and CTO of IMVU, which has more than 20 million registered users and generates $1,000,000+ in revenue per month. How do you get to $1,000,000 per month in sales? Here is just one business-changing example, taken from the outstanding “How IMVU Learned its way to $10M a year” on Venture Hacks… IMVU learned its way to product/market fit. Enter Eric Ries… Vanity Metrics vs. The only metrics that entrepreneurs should invest energy in collecting are those that help them make decisions. When you hear companies doing PR about the billions of messages sent using their product, or the total GDP of their economy, think vanity metrics. Now consider the case of an Actionable Metric. Unfortunately, most analytics packages are configured by default to provide mostly reports on vanity metrics. 1. 2. 3. 4. Conclusion and Challenge 1.
How To Put 'The Business Model Canvas' To Good Use - Tuts+ Business Article The book "Business Model Generation" should ring a bell for freelancers and many entrepreneurs. It explores the possibilities of using a 'Business Model Canvas.' This is a model that you use to define the components of your business. It offers an interactive way to look at your current business model and improve your results. It's a way to keep moving forward with an iterative business plan. In today's article, we'll explore what the "Business Model Canvas" is, then learn how you can use it to create a new business or improve your current one. Tutorial Assets Either you work digitally or physically. PDF of "The Business Model Canvas".Software to edit the canvas, Photoshop for example.Sticky notes.Markers. Tip: If you collaborate with other people in your business, it's suggested to print The Business Model Canvas and work together on your model. 1. Step 1 - Basics The "Business Model Canvas" has 9 components (or building blocks). Step 2 - Print and Fiddle The concept is simple. 2. 3. 4. 5.
What people really want – Nikkel Blaase – Medium Jobs, not users Creating remarkable products does not come from understanding typical customers. Products must serve core needs, not what people say they want. We should think less about archetypal customers and more about the jobs people want to get done. Customers’ behavior must be observed rather than inquired. »Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers« — Seth Godin Creating Personas is a misleading concept. »Focus on the job, not the customer« — Des Traynor The core job of a product is to help customers achieve progress.