Chapter 4: The Job and the Alternatives

Let’s go back to the example I used during my interview with Seth: internet providers. As he pointed out, you can’t expect to create an internet company just like the others and then try to market it differently. That’s being different for the sake of it.

People don’t care about that. When folks are buying stuff, they’re not actively seeking out differences between them. Instead, they’re focused on reaching a job within the specific context they find themselves in.

In the case of our new internet company, people don’t wake up thinking, “Let’s find a company that offers high-speed broadband differently today!” So there’s no point in shouting about how unique we are. It doesn’t matter if what we came up with is objectively different if customers don’t care about that difference.

The Problem: Being Different for the Sake of It Is a Fool’s Errand

In slightly other words, being different for the sake of being different is a fool’s errand. Instead, you must find a way to make that difference meaningful to your segment—a compelling reason to be picked that’s been overlooked by alternatives. This is where you may find new market space, and this is how you can win as an underdog.

In the case of the internet company, we would first identify issues that people truly care about but aren’t being addressed well. Then we would either position an existing product or create something new that solves these problems effectively and in a way that’s in demand.

The Solution: Find Ignored Struggles

To make a meaningful difference for a specific group of people so they pick you, the key is to identify struggles your segment really wants to solve but that alternatives don’t solve well or just ignore completely.

I call them ignored struggles. They are the super-frustrating problems that prevent a certain group of people from getting a job done, which the competition isn’t solving well.

By finding these, you offer something meaningful to your audience, giving them a reason to choose you over others. This is crucial because the odds are against you—you’re not really supposed to win. You must control what you can and leave nothing to chance.

Example:

• Take the example of the organic shampoo for Latinas. The founders, experienced beauty industry executives, noticed there were no household hair care brands designed specifically for Latinas and their curly hair—pelo rizado—that was very difficult to control.

• How difficult? See for yourself with those real quotes from the customer interviews:

“My hair is like lo mein noodles; there are times when I go outside and I look like a witch.”

“Never in my life was I able to weigh my hair down enough and control the frizz.”

“I was bullied as a child for ugly hair. My mom did not take the time to fix it. And now I want long hair and it takes two hours. I am waiting for a miracle because I would love to have bouncy curls.”

“Here in Miami we suffer with the heat and humidity. I have complicated hair: frizzy hair on top but not on the bottom. And then, one side is OK but the other side is terrible.”

Can you feel their immense frustration? The vivid, almost visceral, language they’re using? This perfectly illustrates an ignored struggle; a super-frustrating problem that existing solutions don’t cater to. And it’s easy to imagine how developing a solution to actually solve this “lo mein noodles” hair would be appealing for Latinas.

To get to the ignored struggles, we first need to know the exact goal the people in our segment want to reach (the job). This helps us find what’s stopping them from achieving it. And then we need to look at the other options to see which ones aren’t working well for them (the alternatives).

The Job

The job is about your segment’s goals, not your own. It forces you to stop looking at your belly button and start looking at your people’s belly buttons.

The job is also a critical ingredient in decision-making. Without it, your segment could be “in pain” without doing anything about it. As Job to be Done theorist Alan Klement explains, “Imagine you’re in a raft, lost in the middle of the ocean. It’s an uncomfortable situation, but unless you make a choice on a direction to go or some way to get yourself out of it, you’ll just continue floating aimlessly.”

In other words, your hair can be frizzy and out of control, but it’s only becoming top-of-mind when you know you’re going out this weekend. Unless you have a direction to go, you won’t bother sorting it out. For this reason, we first need to find the job, which is the goal that people want to achieve so they know which direction they want to go.

There are three ground rules to give you the best chance to extract juicy insights about our job.

First, the job you pick must be specific enough to be within your control (or whatever area of focus is picked in Chapter 1). That’s important because you do not want to promise the moon or find problems that you cannot do anything about. Also, a job that’s too narrow might make you miss valuable ignored struggles that are part of the bigger picture.

For example, in 2017 I was hired by Hotjar, a web analytics company, to lead its content marketing. I later transitioned to a product marketing role to refine the company’s positioning and help the business … well, stand the f*ck out. One of the first decisions we made was to describe the main job as “understand user behavior” instead of “increase online conversions.” Why? Because increasing conversions was outside our direct control. Hotjar simply helped customers understand user activity on their websites. It was up to these customers to use those insights to improve user experience and potentially boost conversion rates.

Second, when defining the job, resist the urge to mention specific solutions, technologies, or tools. That’s because solutions come and go, but the job is forever, since humans’ core desires are not going to change anytime soon. This means it becomes your raison d’être: the reference point guiding all your efforts. For instance, humans have always wanted to connect with loved ones (the job), but a few thousand years ago, we were sending love letters on clay tablets—not in the form of disappearing digital messages.

And finally, phrase the job using the customer’s language, starting with an action verb (like “stand the f*ck out” or “plan family vacation”). That’s because the job is an active process, and verbs imply action and intent. And also, using the words the people in your segment use ensures you keep your eyes on their belly buttons instead of yours.

The Alternatives

Knowing what alternatives your customers have in mind is crucial. It helps us figure out if a particular struggle is being ignored and reveals our meaningful difference in the market.

There’s one thing to remember when finding out what you really compete against: open your chakras and look beyond your immediate industry. You want to think broadly about the different ways people might get the job done.

Roger the Rooster looking beyond his immediate industry.

Remember the Latinas struggling to control their hair? They didn’t just try other shampoos (the direct competition). They also mentioned going through a “two-hour hair care routine with rollers and a blowdry,” and “going to a Dominican salon because no one else in NYC knows how to treat my hair,” and just “trying all shampoos that seem natural.” Notice how those other options go beyond the shampoo industry to touch on indirect competition and makeshift solutions.