Frustration - Not All Customer Pain is Equal
The problems your customers face as a part of their job come in two levels of intensity… inconveniences and frustrations. If another word for “problem” is “opportunity”, then focusing on a big and frustrating problem is a potentially big opportunity. And when customers express frustration, they are implicitly telling you where they would appreciate and value your help the most. Help them here, and you will be their hero.
What is Frustration
We have all been there. You have an important meeting to get to, and you are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for as far as you can see. You are going to be VERY late and there is nothing you can do about it… ARGHHH!
Wouldn’t it be great if a company provided you with an affordable solution that instantly made all that traffic disappear, or better yet, teleported you to your meeting? How would you feel about that solution and the company that provided it? I’m guessing that they would be your hero, and they would likely be very successful. I would love to be this company.
I like to define frustration in an actionable way that breaks it into two parts. People are frustrated when they have something very important to them that they are trying to accomplish, but there is something that they perceive as out of their control which is stopping them. In the example above, it is about getting to an important meeting on-time, which is made impossible by the overwhelming traffic.
Why Does It Matter
We have all heard, “another way to look at a problem is as an opportunity”. Well the bigger the problem, then the bigger the opportunity. And I say this because I like to use the lens of quality over quantity here. What problems do people feel the strongest (most emotional) about, vs what problems do the most people experience.
You have a much better chance of creating a loved product for the former vs the latter. Like I pointed out above, solve a frustration for people, and they will love you for it. Solve an inconvenience for a lot of people, and a lot of people may appreciate your solution, but will they love it? Now the ideal situation is to have a frustration that affects a lot of people, but this is not always the case. So when I must, I will always prioritize quality over quantity.
Frustrating and Inconvenient Are Different
Not all customer pain is equal. I like to categorize as either a frustration or an inconvenience. I realize that the level of pain a customer experiences lies on a gradient, but for our purposes, it is ok to partition in this simple way. But why is this distinction important?
When we expend a lot of time, energy and resources creating a solution, we want a big positive reaction to it. Positive both qualitatively (expressed love for it) and quantitatively (explosive adoption, high unit sales, etc.). To get that big positive reaction to the solution, it needs to solve a big customer pain (frustration). This is because, the magnitude of the reaction to your solution is limited by the magnitude of the pain your solution addresses. Effectively solve a big problem, get a big positive reaction. Effectively solve a small problem (inconvenience), only get a small positive reaction.
It can be difficult, but be honest with yourself when categorizing a customer pain as either a frustration or inconvenience. I have found that when we are heavily invested in an idea/solution, and we are asked if it solves a frustration, many people will reflexively insist that it does (vs just an inconvenience). I find it helpful to step back from the solution for a moment to ask myself, “Does the customer get agitated and maybe even raise their voice when talking about this pain point? Might they use colorful language?”. If the answer is yes, then this is likely a frustration.
Uncovering Frustrations
When uncovering opportunities in the form of customer frustrations, you can go about it in two general ways… proactively and opportunistically.
The proactive way is to reach out and do formal customer interviews. I describe how I approach customer interviews/conversations in this blog post. The key to this approach is to not limit the conversation to your company or product. But to instead encourage the customer to speak about their needs, frustrations and aspirations. It is for you to later do the heaving-lifting of connecting their priorities to your solution in a genuine way.
The opportunistic way is to tune into moments of agitation. Looking for opportunity in frustration has been a big part of my approach to product for a very long time. And over the years, I have developed a “frustration radar”. Whenever a person’s agitation level rises as they talk about something, I instantly start listening very intensely. I want to clearly understand things like: what are they trying to accomplish, its importance, what barriers exist, how insurmountable, who is involved, etc.. This is all in an effort to truly understand the frustration and to equip myself to understand what the solution needs to provide.
Top-of-Mind (ToM) frustrations are gold! This is a problem that is very important to the customer which they instantly react to. You don’t have to spend 5 slides in your deck to convince them of your solution’s relevance. They immediately get it. Start with this, and they will be hanging on every word that follows in your product demonstration. I will be doing a later post on my “story arc” for product demonstrations. I always try to start with something like, “Doesn’t it suck when [insert ToM frustration here]?”. The audience is fully engaged from that first sentence on.
Transform Frustration Into Empowerment
Once you have identified a relevant frustration to focus on, your general goal is to design a solution that overcomes the customer’s feeling of frustration and helplessness, and provides feelings of being fully capable and competent.
I mentioned that I like to define frustration in an actionable way by breaking it down into two parts. The first part being centered on the important goal that someone wants to achieve. The second part being about barriers being perceived as out of one’s control. The better and deeper you can understand each of these, the better equipped you will be to create a compelling solution for your customer.
You and your team can then look at each of these two parts (goals and barriers) separately. For example, has this type of goal been achieved by other approaches, or in a different domain? What are approaches that can overcome these identified barriers? Different than overcoming, are there ways to entirely avoid these barriers? These suggestions and others can be thought of as prompts in your ideation and brainstorming processes.
Your Customer’s Frustrations
So what are your customer’s frustrations? Even better, can you identify any frustrations that are ToM? Discuss with your teammates, but more importantly, ask your customers what frustrates them the most. Sharing and getting team alignment on these frustrations will provide an actionable clarity that will help you build solutions your customers will love.
