In the case of our customer discovery process, we want to understand the biggest pain points within a given experience, but we also want to know where those pain points sit relative to others. In the last article, I talked about the concept of negative reinforcers and how the process of “taking away” a negative stimulus can often lead to …

In the last article, I shared a session I had during a customer discovery interview where I explained a common scenario that arises when teams have the wrong idea about a customer job, and I demonstrated one way of changing course. In that particular case, we went from learning about the problem to sketching out a solution within about 40 …

While my tone in the last article may have made me sound pessimistic, I can assure you I’m not. In fact, my position is the exact opposite. There is a huge opportunity here in Australia for the right organisation. Remember, more than 85 percent of businesses in this country are classified as service entities—and I would wager that the majority …

Last week I introduced what I would consider to be a first-pass approach to framing up an early hypothesis and then talked about how to pull together a simple structure before heading outside to talk to real people. Before we jump into this week’s article, I wanted to take a minute to mention something about the way I am approaching …

Welcome back to our Customer Discovery series. This is a series written for executives, business owners, and transformation practitioners who are interested in improving their chances of discovering new markets or discovering new products for new markets that customers will actually buy. The focus this week is on outlining the approach, asking you to make some guesses, and hopefully getting …

Mike IarossiMike is the Founder and General Manager of Redshift Consulting, Founder of Praetorian Code, and Board Member to the International Business TRIZ Association. He holds a Masters in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UMD) and a Bachelors in Psychology and Education (UCSB). He is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (UTS); Certified Practitioner of Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ);  …

I’m always asked how we’re able to gain rapport with people so quickly when we’re performing customer discovery. Well…it’s a bit of an art and a bit of a science. I have a Bachelor’s in psychology, and while I was studying pro-social behaviour I developed a shortcut for building non-verbal rapport. I call it PEST Control. PEST is the acronym …

I had a fantastic chat a few weeks ago with author and Theory of Constraints consultant Gordon Dunbar. We were comparing notes on recent trends here in Australia. One of the topics that came up was this strategy of elevation to the supersystem, where, in an effort to cut costs, companies push more and more responsibility for service support onto …