Show notes
Product Discovery for Engineers (and CTOs)
Invest your engineering resources better by truly understanding the core problem your product needs to solve with this CTO podcast featuring Bob Moesta, co-architect of the Jobs to be Done Theory, who has developed and launched over 3500 products.
As an engineer-turned-product-guru, Bob’s explanation of Product Discovery will delight your nerd brain 🧠 (complete with references to set theory, push-pull forces, and the problem space) while being super practical 🔧about the challenges CTOs are dealing with (like scope creep and trade offs).
Listen to find out:
- Why “Build and They Will Come” is a Myth 🫣
- SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market) vs. TAM
- Why engineers should be involved in product discovery 🧐
- Customer Interviews: Who to Ask and What to Ask
- Hypothesis Building Research vs Hypothesis Proving Research
- Why tradeoffs should be influenced by the opinions of those who already bought 🫠 (and not engineers who ran out of time)
Listen here
BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Pentalog, WorkGenius and Sipgate
About Bob Moesta:
BOB MOESTA is a teacher, builder, entrepreneur, and co-founder at The Re-Wired Group, a design firm in Detroit, Michigan. Bob has developed & launched over 3,500 products and sold everything from design services, software, and houses to consumer electronics, and investment services. He’s an adjunct lecturer at Kellogg School at Northwestern University and the author of Choosing College, Demand Side Sales 101, and Learning to Build.
QUOTES:
"Well, if you think about it, 70% of our life cycle costs are fixed in the first 10% of how we develop and set up a new platform.
And yet we spend all the money usually on the backend. And we don't spend that time upfront thinking.
And so the more we can spend that time upfront thinking about the right things in the boundaries and understanding kind of the limitations, we then will actually have a better understanding of what to build and what to know."
##Timestamps## (Approx)
(00:00) Introduction
(05:18) Who is Bob Moesta
(07:09) Bob Moesta's Journey in Learning How to Build
(08:23) Understanding the Customer's Perspective
(08:55) 'Build it and They Will Come' Myth
(09:20) Specific Problems People Have
(09:54) Limits of Personas in Product Design
(10:31) Understanding the Buying Process
(11:10) Struggling Moment Insights
(11:36) Interrogation Methods in Customer Understanding
(13:12) Impulse Buying Discussion
(13:31) Context and Outcome in Purchases
(15:59) Trade-offs Customers Make
(16:11) Espresso Machine Case Study
(17:27) Forces in Purchase Decisions
(21:19) Total Addressable Market's Role
(21:48) Serviceable Addressable Market Importance
(24:34) Hypothesis-Building Research
(25:34) 4 Forces Helping Change
(26:26) Speaking to Past Buyers
(27:03) AIDA's Place in Sales
(28:03) Jobs to be Done Building Blocks
(29:14) Applying Jobs to be Done
(29:46) Mormon Church Case Study
(30:05) CrossFit as Religion's 'Competitor'
(31:09) Getting Started with JTBD
(31:16) Top Innovators' Skills
(31:51) How People Buy
(32:15) Questions for Recent Customers
(32:44) Cross Functional Interviews
(33:26) Understanding Requirements
(33:45) Quantitative vs Qualitative Data
(33:57) Choosing the Right Variables
(34:44) Prototyping with Qualitative Data
(35:12) Iterative Framework Application
(36:26) Cross-Functional Collaboration
(36:34) Interview Conductors
(37:07) Aligning Language and Understanding
(37:37) Engineer’s Blindspot
(41:20) Innovation Process
(42:30) Personas vs. Jobs
(43:15) Bitchin' or Switching? Struggle and Workarounds
(44:00) Progress Customers Try to Make
(44:32) Identifying What Doesn't Matter
(45:55) Observation Muscle
(46:38) Time Machine
(49:32) Advice to Younger Self
About our sponsors
Your project deserves an exceptional team, and your teams deserve the best support! Pentalog is a software company part of Globant, global leader in digital transformation and AI. As a key partner in digital innovation for major international brands such as Google, Disney, Fifa, Adidas, Tripadvisor, Santander or Nissan, the company brings over 20 years of technology expertise into industry transformation and customer experience reinvention through 40 specialized studios, 52 production centers, and 29,000 carefully evaluated experts. Pentalog also invests heavily in continuous education for tech leaders by building tools such as the CTO assessment, decision-making matrices and maturity models, and various resources exploring a tech leader’s role and challenges. To learn more, visit the Resources for Tech Leaders page on the Pentalog website.
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