"Strategic thinking." Sounds grand, doesn't it? The kind of thing we want our leaders to be, not just order-takers. But here’s the secret: it’s not some magical, inborn talent. It’s a skill, plain and simple, and skills can be mastered with appropriate focus. Like learning to ride a bike, or in our world, learning to truly ship something that matters.

Think about it. We pour endless hours into planning, into "strategy". Yet we either fail to articulate it or drive awareness and alignment. What often passes for strategy is just a "guiding policy" or maybe a "diagnosis," frequently missing the crucial "coherent actions" that actually make it real. It's the "pie-in-the-sky" without the map to the ground.

But here’s the thing about you, the high-agency individual: You don't blame the environment. You adopt the strategic mindset and work to improve it, from the bottom up. Even when the strategy handed to you feels, well, a bit incoherent.

So, where do you start?

First, step out of the "delivery mentality." I know, it sounds counter-intuitive. You identify resources, hire, unblock your team. All vital. But perfectly building the wrong features – features your customers don't care about – won't move the needle for your business. It's about building the right products, not just building them right.

Quality and robustness are crucial, yes, but only if the software solves customer needs and helps the business. Don't just talk about story points; ask, "So what?". What's the benefit?. And who decides what’s "right"? It’s not just the product manager’s job. That’s "arcane" thinking. Engineering is a crucial partner, and you deserve a seat at that table. Fight for it, if you don't have it.

Second, learn your product domain. I’ve been there. So busy with the tactical firefighting and hiring that I wasn’t [...]

Alright, let's pick up where we left off. In the first part of our discussion on Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD), we unpacked what JTBD truly means – that customers "hire" products to make progress in their lives, moving from one situation to a better one. We also explored the "demand generators": the Push from dissatisfaction with the status quo and the Pull from the new solution's perceived ability to transform their lives. Now, in this second and final part, we’ll confront the forces that reduce demand, broaden our understanding of competition, and see how Systems Thinking is crucial for applying JTBD effectively.

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Hired, But Not Utilized: Understanding Demand Reducers and the System

Even when customers feel a strong "push" for change and see a compelling "pull" from a new solution, there are powerful, often unseen, forces working against product adoption. These are the demand reducers: Inertia and Anxiety. For product people, understanding and mitigating these forces is just as important as generating demand, because these forces are "competitors themselves as any product produced by a competing business".

Inertia is, quite simply, the tendency to do nothing or remain unchanged. It's the comfort of the status quo, the ingrained habits that make switching difficult. This manifests in two ways:

• Habits-in-choice refers to the switching costs – the effort, time, or perceived risk involved in moving from an old solution to a new one. If you want customers to switch, you must understand their fears and proactively offer solutions, like data migration tools, to minimize perceived risk. Your first impression is crucial here.
• Habits-in-use occurs even after a purchase. Customers might revert to old behaviors or combine your product with other "compensatory behaviors". Tracking product usage metrics and staying close to the customer is essential to identify what might limit your [...]

Alright, let's dive into the core of truly understanding what makes products successful. This will be the first of two posts on Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD). In this part, we'll lay the groundwork for what JTBD is and explore the forces that generate demand for a product. In the second part, we'll delve into the forces that reduce demand, how to understand broader competition, and the critical role of systems thinking in applying JTBD effectively.

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Why Your Product Needs to Get Hired: Understanding Jobs-to-be-Done

We hear a lot about being "customer-centric" these days, almost to the point where it becomes a buzzword, losing its real meaning in elevator pitches and executive presentations. But how deeply do we really understand our customers? Are we just building what they say they want, or are we uncovering their true motivations and underlying needs? As product people, our success hinges on grasping these often non-obvious patterns in customer intent and behavior.

Too often, we get excited about how "feature-rich" our product is. We measure our progress in story points or the number of features shipped, proudly announcing how much we've accomplished. But as the sources repeatedly ask, "So what?". If the software isn't solving customer needs or helping the business, all that "busy work" is, frankly, a moot point. The goal isn't just to "ship" but to "ship what matters".

Think about the old adage: "Customers don't want a quarter-inch drill bit; they want a quarter-inch hole". That's a good start, but it doesn't go far enough. As Seth Godin points out, they don't just want the hole; they want the shelf that goes on the wall, and more profoundly, they want the feeling of an uncluttered space, the satisfaction of accomplishment, or the peace of mind that comes from a tidy home. People don't [...]