Hiring a Milkshake

I was thirteen years old and in front of my physics homework. When the right solution was far from my immediate reach, I turned to the excuse that the problem was a difficult one. My father quickly took the wind out of my sails by saying that I either understand the concept and then every question is simple or I don't and everything is difficult. Obviously, it was time to really understand the underlying concept.

So what does this have to do with strategy?
Do you really understand what job your product serves (and potentially can serve) or are you focusing on the customers you know and what features they want? Are you solving for the real challenge or is that too difficult?

Having worked in a number of technology companies, it seems that most overlooked approach is figuring out what the company's target audience actually needs to get done and how it can best be done.
Customers "hiring" a product to get a job done is thus the reality. Your product is merely being hired to assist the bigger purpose of getting a specific job done and you better understand what this job is.


So where is the milkshake here?
One of the best articles I have seen on this topic is "What Customers Want from Your Products" by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen and it describes a fascinating example about selling milkshakes. You can also see him talking to it here.

Enjoy.