Hello, and welcome to the bottom-up skills podcast. I might pass since I'm the CEO of quality tents. And today we are talking about what is the problem that our users have some more out there in the world of product management, whether we're creating a first-time product or make any existing problem, our product better.

We have to ask ourselves, what is the problem? Our users face now. The interesting thing here is this can change over time. And in terms of first-generation products, I see a lot of people guessing what problem they're solving. So do not underestimate the need to ask this question, not only in product creation, but to continuously remind yourself, test and learn what problem you're really solving.

Because too often, I see people guessing. And if you're guessing the problem you're [00:01:00] solving well, if you think about it, everything else that comes downstream of the problem, I, the solution, the product features, the service, everything will be built on, I guess, and chances are, that's not going to be a great product.

So let's visit this question. What really is the problem that our users face and how do we. How do we frame that? Like what's the checklist? Well, the good news is that Eric Reese and the lean startup team created a really powerful, yet simple tool called the value proposition canvas. And I can't tell you how useful this is.

I've used it a lot of different times. And what it essentially does is it weighs up two things. What is our customer? And what is our proposition so differently? What we do is we get into some real details that help us frame problem solution. Now, if we think about the world of the [00:02:00] customer, they experienced pains when they're trying to get things done in life.

And they're also looking for some gains as well. So these pains and gains are all part of the jobs. To be done. And if you can frame the jobs that your customer is trying to get done, the pains that they experienced and the gains they're looking for, then you've really done a great job of framing the world of a customer.

Now what's really interesting here is that, you know, this idea of a value proposition canvas, it's not a fixed object. In fact, it should be changing. Uh, all the time, it should be very iterative. So it's a bit like your lean hypothesis that we mentioned in an earlier episode of this series, where we talk about the fact that as you test and learn, whether it's your hypothesis, your value prop, canvas, or your business canvas, these things [00:03:00] should be updating all of the time.

So. We're talking a lot about pains and gains in the jobs to be done of our customer. Let's just take an example. Um, so Airbnb, um, what are the pains people experience? Well, if, if you think about it, people are not sure if the, if the. Property, um, that they're going to be a guessing, they're not sure of the quality of it.

Will they be sharing a space for strangers? I mean, stranger danger is a huge problem for Airbnb. And then there's safety concerns. Those are the pains that you experience now. What are the gains that your customer is looking for? If they're trying to, you know, Rent an Airbnb. Well, it's probably a bit cheaper than a hotel.

Meet some interesting people, get local experience. Something's a bit more flexible than a hotel, something that fits them better. So they've got lots of options. Those are the, some of the gains that [00:04:00] they're looking for. And. What you could do is frame those against the, these main jobs to be done, which is hassle-free and safe booking of accommodation.

When you're on a holiday, a cheap accommodation, or if you are a host making additional money by renting out one of your rooms. So this is what you actually put on your canvas. And this is a really good snapshot of. The challenges and the mission that your customers aren't. So let's, let's remind ourselves of what it is jobs to be done.

And those tend to be the bigger themes of the user. And then as the customer goes to achieve those jobs, to complete those jobs, they bump into all these blockers and barriers. Sometimes they might be very practical or they might be. Uh, sort of emotional sort of like, um, you know, stranger danger, for example, for, for Airbnb.

[00:05:00] So then the last thing is the gains, and these are sort of the benefits or the reasons why people are doing this job. And in the case of Airbnb, it's like have a great, authentic local experience, meet some interesting people and lots of other reasons as well. But this is really good because when you play in this world, you're going to find that, um, this will change and grow.

And some of these. Well actually emerge as the big value drivers for your customer. So it could be primarily, there is one job to be done, and there's just only a couple of really key pains and gains. And if you capture all of those and by capture, I mean, you do interviews. You do surveys, you actually do some research into emerging needs of users, consumers, market trends, industry trends.

Like [00:06:00] we're not guessing here, like this, this stuff really has to be validated by all sorts of forms of research. Then you've got like the perfect snapshot of the problems that you'll use a faces or their needs analysis is to which it is sometimes called as well. Now this that I've described to you is the customer side of the proposition.

What we're going to do in the next shows. We're going to talk about the other side. Of this, which is really the proposition that comes from you as a product manager, as a product creator, a builder, a designer, we're going to get into how you answer that Cole, but what's really important here is that you accurately map.

These pains, gains and jobs to be done. I, I deeply call upon you not to guess these go out test and learn what are the problems that their users really face. And for example, if you're going to do a [00:07:00] survey minimum, a hundred people, if you're going to do user interviews, a minimum of 10 people, that's the bare minimum.

You need to have some certainty. Because your sample size has been significant enough. If you want to put things beyond that, then, you know, interview, you know, 30, 40, 50 people. And the patterns will become very clear on what they need. Likewise, if you do a survey, once you get up to 500 or a thousand, I mean, that that's great for like a national.

Product, if you're going to launch it and then you'll have this map of what customers need. And importantly, because you've put the hard work into that, the next step will be to map the other side, the proposition. And if you put equal work into that, then what you will get is what we call the problem solution fit.

That means you have. The problem that the customer faces in the solution that you propose and what we call this is a value [00:08:00] proposition canvas. Now, if you are interested in learning about the value proposition canvas, um, you should definitely check out our lean master class it's totally free. And you can find that at bottom-up dot IO.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the bottom up skills podcast. That's a wrap.