Growth Levers and How to Find Them

by Matthew Lerner

The better we understand the customer’s mindset at the earlier stages, the better our chances to find locksmith moments and seize those opportunities. To understand their mindset, you need to answer 12 questions.

Triggers: What situations make them aware of this struggle? What triggers them to start looking? Where are they, literally? Who are they with? What are they trying to do? What’s suddenly changed or happened?

Pain: What makes the situation bad? What’s wrong with the current situation before they find your product? What exactly do they hope to achieve?

Social & emotional aspects: Why is this challenge so important to them? Even in B2B, most purchase decisions are based on emotions and social considerations (what we think people will think of us). So, we need specific language describing their feelings around wh...

Workarounds: How are they doing this now? Are they using a workaround? An obsolete product? How is that current solution coming up short? This helps us position against it and an...

Outcome: What are these people hoping to achieve? How exactly do they think about and describe that goal? (Not your product, their goal.) This helps us build the right product and write better landing pages, ads, outreach emails, and sales scripts.

Social & emotional aspects: Why is this outcome so important to them? Who do they need to impress? Who are they afraid to disappoint?

Alternative solutions: What do they think they are looking for since they don’t know your product or maybe even your category? What alternatives did they try? And how did those options come up short? We may want to po...

Locksmith moments: Where do they look for solutions? This helps us find our best channels (e.g., good search terms, pa...

Anxieties: What worries do your prospects have? They’ll bring a set of specific questions that you’ll need to answer. They won’t be vague like “trust” or “quality”; they’ll be ultra-specific, like “do they have many gluten-free options?”

Inertia: What’s holding them back? Even after they decide, prospects may need to overcome additional barriers before they can buy and adopt your solution. These might include getting approvals, learning a new skill or adopting a new process, or migrating data from another system. I think of these non-financial costs as a hidden competitor. We need to understand and address each one.

Stakeholders: Who else is involved in this project? Who else is impacted by this decision? Someone like their finance manager in B2B or their children, friends, or spouse in B2C. (Pleas...

Aha moment: What do they need to see in your product to flip them from curious prospect into loyal advocate? What early experience will push your product from a chore to a habit? We’ll want to front-load those experiences as much as poss...

Notice: these aren’t questions about your ...

we instead hire them to help us make progress in a particular situation—the

progress is the goal

We don’t buy things at random; we buy specific items in specific situations to achieve specific goals.

Every team success we’ve seen results from insights gained through Bob’s interview process.

key

Your aim in running a JTBD interview is to imagine the whole customer journey playing out in your mind as if you’re watching a documentary. You’ll try to visualize your customers’ experience in enough detail that you can imagine going through that experience yourself.

As the story unfolds, you’ll look for gaps and inconsistencies because they’ll help you uncover the most valuable information. You’ll use that information ...

Try to find people who recently bought your product.

If your product hasn’t launched yet, find somebody who bought another product or service that helps them achieve the same goal.

interview in pairs.

The primary interviewer asks most of the questions, and the secondary interviewer listens carefully and interrupts to clarify things the primary interviewer might miss.

Humans tend to think visually and remember events in chronological order. So, Bob’s process takes people back to the beginning of their journey and walks them through the events sequentially.

Opening spiel: Bob starts each interview by explaining the approach to the interviewee: “Imagine I’m filming a documentary about your purchase journey. This may seem weird, but I’m going to ask you about all sorts of little details, and I’d like you to just talk me through the whole process as best you can remember. There are no right or wrong answers. We’d just love to hear your story.”

Identify their desired outcome:

Start by asking them to describe the moment they m...

Then ask, “When you bought our product, do you remember what you were hoping it would enable you to do?” and “Why was doing that so important to you?” This question brings their attention away from your product, back to their original goal and struggle.

Take them back to the first thought: Once you’ve established their goal, ask, “Do you remember when you first realized you needed to do [their stated goal]?”

try to understand what changed that suddenly made this goal so important.

Walk through their journey: Prompt them to continue the story.

Meanwhile, the second interviewer should listen and watch for two things: emotional cues and ambiguous language.

Emotional cues: When something hits a nerve—a smile or wince, some hesitation—point it out gently and ask them to elaborate on their feelings.

By acknowledging their feelings, you create space for them to explore and share.

Ambiguous language: When the customer says something that has many potential meanings, politely ask them to clarify.

For example, if they say something is “better” or “convenient,” “good value for money,” “professional,” or “all-in-one,” ask ...

Note: customers come in expecting to talk about your product, but you want to get them thinking about their lives before your product.

Describe when you first thought of buying something like this? Describe the situation to me? Where were you, who were you with, what were you wearing, etc. (Help them visualize the exact moment) What were you trying to do?

What was the struggle, what was wrong that motivated them to make a change? How exactly did they describe the struggle? What was happening at that moment to push this struggle to the front of their mind? Was anyone else involved or affected by this situation? Were they considering anyone else’s opinions?

If you notice an emotional reaction, positive or negative, point it out and...

When they get to the part of the story when they’re researching solutions, these questions can uncover what they thought they were looking for, what options they considered, and how they evaluated each one.

What options did you consider at first? What did you Google? Who did you speak to? Where did you look? What did you try first? (Run through each thing they tried, each alternative solution.) For each product or feature they mentioned, ask “What does it allow you to do/achieve?”

Remember, lists of products or features are not helpful to us. We need to understand the need behind the feature. Listen for alternative solutions. What categories of products or services did they consider? Which options were most or least appealing, and why? How exactly did they describe the desired outcome?

Describe the buying process to me; help me understand each step.

Again, what changed?

Again, listen for emotions, particularly anxieties. If part of the story makes them uncomfortable, ask them to elaborate.

In B2B situations, start by interviewing the “champion” who pushed the organization to buy your offering rather than the approver, budget manager, or other stakeholders. And use these questions to understand the broader organizational context, stakeholders, political forces, approvals, etc.

How is this project viewed inside the organization? How did this project affect your business?

Who cared about the outcomes of this project? What did success look like? What did you need from your supplier? How else could you have achieved the same outcome?