When Coffee and Kale Compete: Become great at making products people will buy

by Alan Klement

I think the biggest thing that Jobs [JTBD] encourages people to do, which I’m a big fan of, is to stop spying on customers and start talking with customers. I feel that way especially with software because we have the analytics and the geeks who are building the software; they’re all about tracking and logging and all these data…I always give the analogy of being a retail shop owner and hiding in the back room and trying to learn from your customers by watching the closed-circuit television. You could watch [customers] come in, walk around your store, pick up things, put them down, try things on…or you could just walk out and ask them, “Hey, what brought you in here today? What are you looking for? What other places did you try in the past?” Talking to customers about their motivations is where you’re going to learn the most.

Hell yeah