Meeting customer needs
A difficult economic climate and disruptive competition mean that many organisations including libraries will benefit from a fresh look at their services. At the heart of this is getting a better understanding of customer needs. We provide some creative approaches to help understand the user experience and customer needs in order to redefine or create new products and services.
User interviews
The ‘jobs’-to-be done’ (JTBD) methodology has a good track record in the business world and we have used it effectively in Higher Education, the NHS and the public sector more generally. The underlying assumption is that users (staff, students, researchers etc) ‘hire’ (not always with money but rather in terms of time and effort) products and services to get jobs done. This approach is practical and very focussed on looking at the world from a user’s/customer’s perspective.
- What is the problem that needs to be solved? What is the ‘job’ that needs to be done?
- Who needs to solve the problem
- What are the particular circumstances (i.e. I’m on the train with a smart phone)?
- How does the user judge that the job has been successfully completed? These are *measurable* outcomes
- What are the barriers-‘pain point’ that need to be overcome
These are then analysed in more depth and various solutions ‘tested’ to see how well they contribute to ‘solving’ the job-to-be-done. The ‘grammar’ of JTBD also aligns well with Agile development approaches to enable new solutions to be developed quickly.
We found the [Jobs-To-Be-Done] workshops really helpful from two perspectives. First it helped to have an innovative new way to look at the issues and problems and secondly it gave us some clear outputs which we can use to develop our services. Diane Devine. Robert Gordon University
Value propositions
‘Value propositions’ (VPs) are the key elements at the heart of any service offering. We work with organisations to indentify and analyse their key VPs, the benefits they bring/problems they solve, how they are achieved and why they are unique or distinctive.
Answering these kinds of questions enables the organisation to be clear about the scope of the ‘offer’ to users and the organisation as a whole.
Ken’s approach and methodologies were clear and the associated workshops engaging and enjoyable. We found the work on value propositions especially useful in helping to clearly articulate what is important especially in terms of making a business case for funding. (Cambridge University archival management system). Dr Suzanne Paul. Keeper of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cambridge University Library