Better Versions of Themselves: Unifying UX and Product with the Job Story

Disclaimer

I am still learning how to apply some of this material.

There will be lots of Product discussion.

This presentation is a prototype / alpha release.

You are all part of an experiment!

Hi, I’m Adam :-)

What I Do• Business Strategy

• Product Management

• CTO

• Lean Startup / Lean UX

• “Horizon 2” Innovation and Execution *

• Enterprise & Solution Architecture

• Offshore Development, Remote Teams

* See Steve Blank — Innovation at 50x

Note: I’m no UX expert, but I’m not an amateur either :-)

First code written on a Commodore Vic 20,

age 5.

Developed an app to help me learn French vocab, using machine learning

techniques

Studies completed: Bachelor Degrees in

Commerce, Computer Science, English Literature,

Psychology.

Decided it was time to get a job!

Also ran Webtiger, my own boutique dev agency.

(2000-2007)

Built a range of solutions including handheld stocktake

systems and POS, a TVC control system for a regional television station, and several startups’

backend systems.

Senior Engineer contracting on enterprise

projects within companies such as: Centrebet, Telstra, Queensland Health

2000-07

Turned around a floundering $3M project for

American Express

Role was Team Leader and Application Architect (at TNS Payments)

Key success tools:

UX, Customer Engagement and Agile processes.

Promoted to Engineering Manager at

TNS Payments

Responsible for all professional services customer

projects.

$40M program of work ~30 staff

Standardised Agile PM toolset across 90 engineers.

Championed the creation of DevOps and Continuous

Delivery initiatives across the wider business.

Went looking for more strategic-level business challenges than pure engineering roles could offer.

Finished first part of MBA. Flirted with management consulting…

…and decided startups are more fun.

Invented a groundbreaking realtime sales tool for Financial Advisors,

that reduced cycle time from first call to Statement of Advice by 80%.

Ultimately, learned some hard lessons about dodgy business owners, and the importance of valuing my own time &

expertise.

1979 1986 1992-98

1999

2007 2008 2010 2012-16

CTO, Product Owner & Strategist at CPDone

Helped transform their early prototype into enterprise-grade software trusted by customers

like NAB, Yellow Brick Road, Finance Brokers Association of Australia and

LJ Hooker Home Loans.

Created new V2.0 Product Architecture and managed development with tight budget

constraints.

Set up Manila operations centre (20 staff).

Prototyped design-thinking SDLC.

Role has now migrated to channel partner solutions architect, and

product management coach.

Lead Developer and Dev Manager for the

first 24/7 cable tv stations on the Internet.

Managed 15+ staff.

Standing ovations from Microsoft.

Unfortunately, our capital raise in mid 2000 proved rather

unsuccessful.

1999

Co-founder, CTO

Warm Up

Think of something you purchased recently.

Why did you buy it?

Consider:

• Your physical location when you bought it?

• The time of day?

• What else you were doing at the time?

• What else might you have bought instead? Why didn’t you?

• Do you normally buy something different?

• What were you hoping to get from buying it?

I recently bought some breakfast in a nice Melbourne café:

• It was raining at the time, and the café was downstairs from me. I’d tried their coffee before, and I like it better than the coffee at the other café downstairs.

• I’m bootstrapping a startup at the moment, so I don’t buy breakfast every day, to keep costs down.

• … but I’d been sleeping on the floor, and although otherwise pretty comfortable, I really needed to get out of the apartment and feel like I had some control over my surroundings, and feel like I had some space to think about the previous few days’ work, so I could work out next steps.

• I was a bit sick of looking at my co-founder, and I knew there would be a pretty waitress to chat to while I placed my order :)

… so what I was hoping to get from breakfast was a sense of myself as feeling more confident, more in control, and having nice things!

A little later in the week, I bought some wine, cheese and tapas, and tickets to listen to a Jazz band.

The Job I was hiring for that night was basically the same as the one I hired the café to do previously.

I spent about 10x that evening compared to the previous morning. I enjoyed myself more, and I woke up feeling really pumped about the day ahead.

For me, it’s much easier to hire the evening I want in Melbourne. I’ve grown accustomed to finding breakfast talent easier to come by in Brisbane, so out of habit, I opted for that first.

What better version of yourself are you buying tonight?

Agenda

1. Some Background — how I discovered #JTBD

2. Some Tools • JTBD Forces Diagram • Value Proposition Canvas • Job Stories

3. Organising for Action • Vision, Strategy, Goals, Priorities • Stories from the Trenches

4. Reconciling Product with UX and Service Design • Un-sucking the Touchpoint • Job Story -> Wireframe

How I Discovered #JTBD

“As a CEO, I want to see stuff on a dashboard, so that I can say my product has a cool dashboard, and besides, all my

mates have cool dashboards…”

https://jtbd.info/replacing-the-user-story-with-the-job-story-af7cdee10c27

Yes Boss. But why??

Job Story

https://jtbd.info/replacing-the-user-story-with-the-job-story-af7cdee10c27

source: http://talksport.com/ruud-van-nistelrooy

“Job Stories are great because they make you think about motivation and context

and de-emphasize any particular implementation.

Often, because people are so focused on the who and how,

they totally miss the why.

When you start to understand the why, your mind is then open to think of

creative and original ways to solve the problem.”

— Alan Klementhttps://jtbd.info/replacing-the-user-story-with-the-job-story-af7cdee10c27

http://alanklement.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/5-tips-for-writing-job-story.html

http://alanklement.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/5-tips-for-writing-job-story.html

“The most important thing a product manager does is decide where their

product stops and someone else's product takes over.

If it does too much it will clash with existing workflow or software.

If too little, not worth the cost of installation.”

http://alanklement.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/5-tips-for-writing-job-story.html http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/un-sucking-the-touchpoint/

Having a Vision is Important! (more on that later)

JTBD Forces Diagram

“For someone to switch from an existing product to a new product, the progress-making forces have to be stronger

than the progress-hindering forces.”http://jobstobedone.org/radio/unpacking-the-progress-making-forces-diagram/

Confused?

I was.

Key idea: the “Switch” (when the light bulb flips on)

Light flips on when there is more “motivating force” pulling them towards your product than there is pushing them away from it.

Towards: 1. Magnetism (pull): esp. being able to imagine themself

using your product, so it feels personally relevant. (“Consumption in the Mind”)

2. Push (impetus of a situation/context); eg. time-sensitivity

Away From: 1. Habit/Inertia (what they do already, or normally buy instead) 2. Anxiety (what gets in the way of changing their behaviour)

Easy, right?

What are you going to be able to do that you couldn’t do before?

What makes the product magnetic?

Key question: What does it do for you? (not “What does it do?”)

“That laptop bag looks great” “Why?”

“I bought it because I want to

look more professional on this trip.”

Pull

AnxietyWhat is holding them back from flipping?

(Think motivations!)

Selling Removalist services, but they have 20 years of crap under the house.

Offer a de-cluttering, &/or Packing Service as value-adds to the sale.

Selling web hosting, but they don’t want to choose their domain name right away.

Let them complete the setup process, and choose a name later

Selling shoes online, but knowing if you’ll get the right size is hard.

Rock-solid returns policy

• Increasing Pull might just increase Anxiety (want but can’t have) • Increasing Push might help (eg. limited time offer) • Reduce Anxiety by making it easier to say “yes” (eg. discounted price)

examples borrowed from http://jobstobedone.org/radio/unpacking-the-progress-making-forces-diagram/

It’s not enough that an iPad is sleek and shiny.

If I can’t imagine it as a part of living my life, and see myself doing jobs with it that I need an iPad to get done,

then there just isn’t enough Pull.

Maybe an iPad seems like it’s just a big iPhone, and I already have one of those.

No experience with an iPad => Hard to simulate having it => no Switch.

“Consumption in the Mind”

Give me an experience! • Trial it over the weekend (good) • Play with it in the Apple Store (less good)

Alleviate my anxiety… • Money-back guarantee

How to overcome?

What about your immediate context impels you to hire for this job?

“I’m going on a business trip in a month, and I need to look good. My laptop bag is all beaten up, and doesn’t match my nice new suit.

So I need to find something within 30 days.”

“I have to show ASIC that I’ve done 30 hours a year of CPD, and my license renewal is due in a week. I’ve done 20 hours, but I don’t have

time to attend any PD days this week.”

“If I buy before the end of the financial year, Adam said he’d give me a 30% discount, so long as I pay annually.”

Push

HabitWhat do they usually hire to do this job (or part of it)?

“If (your product) does too much, it will clash with existing workflow or software. If too little, (it’s) not worth the cost

of installation.”http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/un-sucking-the-touchpoint/

What is comfortable about their existing situation?

Maybe they already have a great solution, and there’s just no push to move from it. There isn’t even any anxiety

because they don’t even think about it.

Value Proposition Canvas

"Listen to some music" (Task)

"Help me relax and enjoy flying late at night with my favourite Thievery Corporation album.”

(Job)

Tasks are not Jobs.

Job Stories

Context: When someone approaches a bank for a home loan and fills out an application…

Motivation: The applicant wants to know if the application is accepted or not… The banker wants to make sure that the application is filled out correctly… The bank wants to check if the applicant has acceptable credit history…

Expected Outcome: So that a home loan is quickly given to a low risk person, which the bank feels confident it will profit from.

alanklement.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/5-tips-for-writing-job-story.html

Stories might have more than one character.

Why you care :-)

“The Customer is the Product”Marketing 101 taught me that you’re supposed to find a need in the market, then work out a way to deliver it.

Somehow, Marketing in the Real World seems to be more about how to sell stuff to people who don’t necessarily need/want it.

Buyer’s remorse is not a sustainable sales outcome.

Developing empathy with the buyer helps us understand how to design solutions that fit better and better. Especially if we can develop some uniqueness about the offering that is delightful. It’s hard to design for delight without first developing empathy.

Then Marketing becomes a re-iteration of the Job Story.

And the Support Team understanding the context and motivations behind the purchase decision helps them to be less mechanical, and more empathetic when providing assistance.

Organising for Action

(aka “AB’s struggle last week”)

Vision “Who do we want to be when we grow up?”

Strategy(s) “How should we execute to achieve our Vision?”

Goals “How will we measure the effectiveness of our Strategies?”

Priorities “What value should we build towards achieving our goals?”

— from Bruce McCarthy’s Curing Shiny Object Syndromehttp://www.slideshare.net/ProductCampBoston/curing-shiny-object-syndrome-setting-goals-priorities-for-success-bruce-mccarthy-productcamp-boston-2015

Vision “The #1 source of B2B contact information.”

Strategy(s) “Leverage crowd-sourcing to develop the largest and most-accurate B2B contact database.”

Goals “Fulfill more demand by growing the database by X%.” “Create competitive barriers by raising accuracy by Y%.”

Priorities [insert special sauce here]

(Also tells you what you are NOT doing!)

http://www.slideshare.net/ProductCampBoston/curing-shiny-object-syndrome-setting-goals-priorities-for-success-bruce-mccarthy-productcamp-boston-2015

“I already know this market well. I’ve been talking to people about this for the last 10 years.”

“We have a prototype already (just no sales).”

“If we just put all these COTS plugins together, we have a product we can sell!”

“We don’t want to turn down business.”

Temptations of a Founder

We started with…

“Let’s map the space of World Positive Ventures!”

We should build…

• a Wordpress network of websites, • with everybody’s profile listed in a

single directory, • and the ability for them to

connect and collaborate with each otherusing BuddyPress,

• and they should be able to do eCommerce, • and we should give them automated marketing and CRM capabilities, • and everybody should have a website, which lets them publish content into

various online magazines, • and… • and… • … !

Then we asked ourselves: What Jobs might customers hire Icologi to do?

Now, our whiteboard says…

Icologi will become the #1 global community

facilitating the optimal flow

of World Positive Capital.

Vis

ion

… through:

Migrating existing communities,Crowdsourcing profile data,

Enabling crowdfunding driven through our community, to help ventures raise capital, and

Becoming a trusted source of high-quality information.

WORK IN PROGRESS!

Stra

tegi

es

We realised that some important jobs that we’ve identified don’t have a

COTS solution.

Our value will be created by growing a large Icologi Community membership base.

We can grow by targeting the temporary communities

formed during conference events, and get hired to make it

easier for them to continue conversations after the events are concluded,

across a wider community.

Since we need to custom build some features on top of what we can buy off the shelf,

we decided to learn about and promote our crowdfunding features

— by crowdfunding their development :-)

Context When a World Positive Venture goes looking for capital…

Motivations …the CEO wants to access funds from a Community who can provide valuable advice and other intangible forms of capital, the Funders want to establish that the Venture has a good reputation and credibility within the Community,

and the Funders want to feel confident that the Venture’s team is capable of executing…

Expected Outcome … so that funds are quickly invested in a Venture that are most likely to succeed in their mission, and the Funders believe they are investing in a Venture that is really going to make a positive impact in the world.

High Level Job Story

Context When a World Positive Venture goes looking for capital…

Motivations … the CEO wants to know if a VC agrees to fund them,

the CEO wants to access funds from a VC who can provide valuable advice and other intangible forms of capital, the VC wants to make sure that the Venture is a good fit for their portfolio, and

the VC wants to ensure that the Venture’s team is capable of executing…

Expected Outcome … so that funds are quickly invested in a Venture that are most likely to succeed in their mission, and the VC believes that they have selected an appropriate risk profile to add to their existing portfolio.

High Level Job Story

WORK IN PROGRESS!

Getting hired to solve the red ones isn’t a part

of our vision.

Green ones were common across

interviewees.

UX Perspectives

"A touchpoint is a point of interaction involving a specific human need in a specific time and place…

…a moment in time.

I want to design to support that moment in time.

More specifically, a touchpoint is meeting that need through delivering on the company’s value proposition

in that time and place.”

— Chris Risdon, Adaptive Path

Un-sucking the Touchpoint

- http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/un-sucking-the-touchpoint/

“Historically, touchpoints have been defined in three types:

• static: such as packaging or an advertisement • interactive: a website or a kiosk; and • human: such as a sales rep.

But as a designer, this didn’t tell me much … from a human-centered view. It wasn’t very actionable. Being a point of contact with a brand wasn’t enough.”

http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/there-is-no-spoon-the-construct-of-channels/

“When I’m in Melbourne for work (to a CBD), and I want to get away to Mornington Peninsula, and I feel time pressure to maximise the weekend, I’d like to be able to go downstairs and drive a car right away, so that I can avoid wasting time travelling to and dealing with a rental car office.”

“When I have a lot of places to go in one day, I’d like a more cost-effective way than Uber or full day car-hire to be able to get around. I just don’t have the time to wait for public transport, so I’d like to have access to a car for about 6 hours. It would be great if I could drive one away from somewhere near me right now.

Job Stories

http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/there-is-no-spoon-the-construct-of-channels/

“When I’m in Melbourne for work (to a CBD), and I want to get away to Mornington Peninsula, and I feel time pressure to maximise the weekend, I’d like to be able to go downstairs and drive a car right away, so that I can avoid wasting time travelling to and dealing with a rental car office.”

“When I have a lot of places to go in one day, I’d like a more cost-effective way than Uber or full day car-hire to be able to get around. I just don’t have the time to wait for public transport, so I’d like to have access to a car for about 6 hours. It would be great if I could drive one away from somewhere near me right now.

Job Stories

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!”

A channel isn’t the point of interaction.

A channel is the means by which a point of interaction —a moment —

is enabled or constrained.

A touchpoint often gets conflated with channel (or platform, or medium).

Often referred to, for example, as

the “phone touchpoint” or the “web touchpoint.”

But a touchpoint is not a channel, and a channel is not a touchpoint.

We construct them as a way to define those opportunities or constraints around a particular

moment—a touchpoint.

If you think of the mobile phone as a channel, you are now afforded opportunities, and presented with

constraints, in how you and your customer or user interact.

— Chris Risdon http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/there-is-no-spoon-the-construct-of-channels/

A customer getting their rental car.

A single touchpoint, but a concert of channels!

Job Story -> Wireframe

When car salespeople and their customers interact with each other via the product...

...customers want to feel like they can trust the organization, process, and the salesperson.

Salespeople are going to want to be confident their process makes their customers feel comfortable...

...so clients will feel safe entering their financial information into a process.

Job Story

https://www.intercom.com/books/jobs-to-be-done

Wir

efra

me

https://www.intercom.com/books/jobs-to-be-done

Use

r Te

stin

g

Test for Job Story (with real customers) • “How did you feel when you…” • “What was your impression of Joey (the salesman)?”

Test for Job Story (with the salespeople) • “How did your customer react to the software?” • “Did they have any problems entering their financial info?” • “What impression do you feel they took away from the call?”

http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/exploratorium-mapping-the-experience-of-experiments/

Exp

erie

nce

Map

http://adaptivepath.org/ideas/exploratorium-mapping-the-experience-of-experiments/

Exp

erie

nce

Map

Jobs?

Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek - Uncovering the Jobs to Be Done

Clayton Christensen — Understanding the Job (the Milkshake story)

Further References:

JTBD Radio — Unpacking the Progress-Making Forces Diagram

Bruce McCarthy — Curing Shiny Object Syndrome

Steve Blank — How to Build a Startup (great material on BMC and Value Prop Canvas)

Adaptive Path — Experience Mapping

Alan Klement — Designing Features Using Job Stories (Intercom Blog)

Get in Touch!

adam@adambreen.com

@adambreen