What Customers Want

“In the outcome-driven paradigm the focus is not on the customer, it is on the job: the job is the unit of analysis. When companies focus on helping the customer get a job done faster, more conveniently, and less expensively than before, they are more likely to create products and services that the customer wants. Only after a company chooses to focus on the job, not the customer, are they capable of reliably creating customer value.”

Key takeaway

You can actually provide a better experience for the customer by focusing on the job they are trying to get done

“When captured correctly, desired outcomes tend to remain stable over time, differentiating them from other types of stated customer requirements. People who were cleaning their teeth back in the 1950s, for example, wanted to minimize the time it took to remove food from hard-to-reach places and minimize the likelihood of gum irritation—just as they do today and will in the future.”

Key takeaway

Desired outcomes should remain stable which is why you can build products and design businesses around them

“Before opportunities can be addressed, they must be discovered, and before they are discovered, they must be defined. In the outcome-driven paradigm, an opportunity is defined as an outcome, job, or constraint that is important and unsatisfied given the products and services that are available today.”

Key takeaway

It is much easier to discover something when you know what you are looking for

“Using the opportunity score as the segmentation variable forces the creation of segments that represent unique opportunities. From a development and marketing perspective this is nirvana, as this market insight is just what is needed to make effective targeting, positioning, messaging, and other product and marketing decisions.”

Key takeaway

By clustering people by needs you have a target market, not only that but you know exactly what to build for them and how to message it