David S Duncan - The Secret Lives of Customers

I f you want to understand customers, start by thinking like a detective.

Ive long believed the art of understanding what customers want and why they do what they do has much in common with how a detective goes about solving a mystery. Customers are endlessly surprising, often acting in ways that dont seem to make sense and presenting, for a time at least, a mystery to be solved. A market mystery, if you will. When this happens, the best response is to look around for clues about whats going onby talking to people, observing them, gathering data, identifying patterns, and drawing out insights that suggest the right next step.

Just like a detective.

Solid market detective skills are more needed than ever, and not just by people in specialized research departments. The maxim The customer is boss has become only more urgent as the digital revolution, social media, expanding choices, and 24/7 connectivity have empowered consumers and heightened their expectations for any experience with a product, company, or brand. This means nearly everyoneincluding those working in executive leadership, marketing, product development, sales, customer service, and even departments such as HR or financeneeds to be constantly attuned to what customers want today and in the future.

Whats surprising, then, is the absence of an effective approach to cracking market mysteries that anyone can learn and apply in a wide variety of situations. To be sure, powerful methods exist within the confines of market research (or, increasingly, data science) departments. But they are too specialized to be useful to most people working in the business world. More fundamentally, the result is often a deluge of data and analysis that, however sophisticated it may appear, falls short of the insights needed to truly improve customers lives.

My goal with The Secret Lives of Customers is to fill this gap by teaching a language, method, and mindset that equips anyone to understand the customers they serve (or want to serve). At its heart is the simple but profound idea that what drives customer behavior is the existence of important, unsatisfied jobs they are looking to get done. When these jobs arise, people look around for the best products, services, or experiences to hire to solve for them. Therefore, the top priority of any aspiring market detective should be learning how to discover, understand, and solve for these jobs.

This book shows you how through two very different parts:

, The Case of the Disappearing Customers, is a story about a leadership team confronted with a market mystery that threatens the future of their organization. Although fictional, its highly representative of real-world challenges faced by most organizations today. The skills and tools of the market detective are illustrated as the plot unfolds, and you see how solving a market mystery actually develops from beginning to end.

, Becoming a Market Detective, steps out of the story and explains in more detail the concepts, techniques, and tools used to crack the case, including how they can be applied to a wide range of real-world situations.

My hope is that you will find this book both useful and enjoyable, whether you work through it individually or with a team. And I hope it helps you to solve your own market mysteries, whatever they may be.

David Scott Duncan