Conduct a scan
To understand your customer needs, you can complete a scan.
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WHAT IT INVOLVES: Conducting a scan helps you to understand the full range of your customers' needs (or Jobs to be Done), and in turn focuses your efforts on the most important customer needs within the scope of your mission.
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WHY: You can only fully understand your customers JTBD by actually engaging with customers! Otherwise you risk making assumptions about what you think are their most important needs (you might be wrong!).
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HOW: Step 1: Define who your most important customers are
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Step 2: Work to understand their jobs to be done
Existing sources of information:​​
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You might already know some of their jobs to be done because of feedback you've received previously. ​​
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Evidence of your customers being frustrated with something often points to really clear jobs to be done (e.g. if you get lots of phone calls needing help with a certain thing, then obviously the current solution isn't getting the job done! What is that job and how can you solve it better?)​
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Do you have existing data that tells you what some clear JTBD or opportunities might be?​​
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Gathering new information:​​
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Talk to your customers to try to uncover their needs and understand any frustrations they have with the current situation/processes, or gaps they feel exist. These will point you to jobs they have to get done that they currently can't - which are great opportunities for innovation. ​​
Top Tip
Remember to ask 'why' something is frustrating or 'why' something might be a better option as this will help you spot the true JTBD. ​For example, when understanding kids Starlight TV JTBD we had lots of kids say they wanted more quizzes. When we asked 'why?', some said because they like having something special to do with their siblings, others said because they like winning prizes. These are two different JTBD solved by the same solution: the quiz!