Once you’ve identified the job that your product should solve, you can apply your insights to optimize your marketing funnel.

We recommend the "Psych Framework" from growth expert Darius Contractor.

Think of it as a gamified measurement of customer's emotional energy levels as they go through your marketing funnel (Darius uses it for landing page optimization, but we think it applies across the funnel).

• 0 Psych = "f*** this"
• 50 Psych = neutral
• 100 Psych = "I'm in love"

Assuming they hit the site with 50 points of Psych, every positive experience adds to their Psych (nice design, strong social proof, clear and compelling headline), and every negative experience (confusing UX or asking them to do something) subtracts from it.

Here's an image Darius made to illustrate it:

Obviously you want to build up their Psych high enough before you deplete it by asking them to do things like entering email, card info, address, add a profile image, etc.

Applying the Psych Framework is easiest for companies with a customer journey map. Looking at the customer’s timeline and your research, consider:

• What barriers exist when users try to learn about your product?
• How long does it take for users to go through the signup/purchase process?
• How long does it take for users to get their job done after hiring your product?
• Where might users become the most excited or frustrated in their journey? Why?

Here’s how that might look in practice—once again, we’ll use Shopify as an example.

Not all psych elements are in your control, like when people encounter a problem for the first time in the exploring phase. Some elements are also inherent to the problem or the market, like if there’s a large number of competitors for people to pick from.

Despite this, the psych framework is great for identifying elements that are within your control, which may have been overlooked otherwise. You may find that negative psych elements outweigh the positive in one stage, meaning more optimization work is needed.

Focus on your customers, not your product

Many founders justify focusing on their product and its features by claiming that the product will sell itself. We’ve seen this across all niches and industries, including new trends like blockchain, AI, and the Internet of Things.

But to hold people’s interest, new features and technologies aren’t the most important thing. Novelty only gets you so far, especially as competitors catch up.

The biggest takeaways for market and customer research:

• The problem your product solves is what makes your company important to customers.
• Without understanding this problem, you won’t be able to identify your target audience.
• Use the JTBD framework and research to find out the problem your users most want to solve. Then build or refine your product based on your findings.