June 2016 Summaries

At Intercom, the company is constantly re-evaluating its process for building great products that people find valuable and useful. They emphasize research, hiring experts with direct experience and ensuring everyone on the product team talks directly to customers. Initially, they used personas but found them limited in driving breakthrough ideas or fresh thinking about a problem. Instead, they applied the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework, which focuses on motivations and outcomes rather than attributes. They moved away from personas and towards Job Stories, a concise format that captures situations, motivations, and outcomes, ensuring research-driven design teams understand their problems well enough to capture them in an actionable summary. This approach has proven valuable for building products that meet customer needs and drives focus throughout projects.

Successful teams are built on smart onboarding practices that save time and money by providing new hires with the necessary support to get up to speed quickly. A well-designed onboarding process breaks down complex information into digestible blocks, balances teaching and independent learning, and fosters a culture of open communication and feedback. By investing in onboarding, companies can reduce turnover, improve employee success, and create a positive work environment that encourages growth and development. Onboarding is an ongoing process that requires continuous evaluation and improvement to ensure it remains relevant and effective for new hires and existing employees alike.

The traditional three-tiered pricing model for SaaS products is flawed, as it assumes a linear relationship between price and value, when in reality the value each customer gets from using the product varies greatly along a spectrum. This approach can lead to customers falling into predetermined buckets with limited access to features, creating an artificial difference between what they get and how much they pay. To price well, companies should focus on capturing the unique value their customers receive across different usage patterns, rather than following industry standards. By doing so, businesses can create a pricing structure that incentivizes desired behaviors and ultimately leads to increased customer satisfaction.

The text discusses how Jobs-to-be-Done research can be applied to software design, unlike its traditional application in physical product development. It highlights the importance of extracting the first thought behind a purchase decision, which can be multidimensional and influenced by various factors such as business goals, emotional triggers, and attachment to current solutions. The four forces - progress (push, pull, habit, anxiety) - are also discussed, with software purchases often driven by business goals rather than personal ones. Building a consideration set involves understanding the time period during which a person or company is looking at possible solutions, while creating a timeline of events helps uncover multiple timelines and decision-makers involved in software purchases. The text emphasizes that Jobs-to-be-Done research can be adapted to suit the needs of software companies, providing a framework for innovation and support for existing products.

The key takeaway is that prioritizing low-effort, low-impact work can be detrimental to a company's long-term success, as it can lead to a lack of strategic focus and a team that achieves nothing. This type of work, often referred to as "snacking," may feel rewarding in the short term but can ultimately hinder growth and progress. To avoid this trap, companies should strive to prioritize high-effort, high-impact work that aligns with their overall strategy, rather than getting caught up in low-hanging fruit or quick fixes. By doing so, teams can stay focused on what truly matters and achieve meaningful results.

Smart Campaigns, a new solution from Intercom, aims to simplify marketing automation by adapting message order based on customer behavior. Unlike traditional tools that try to guess customer pathways and require complex decision trees, Smart Campaigns uses an intelligent approach inspired by Google Maps, allowing marketers to create tailored messages without getting lost in complexity. By automating the process of sending relevant messages at the right time, Smart Campaigns reduces the burden of marketing automation, enabling businesses to focus on communicating with customers effectively.