A Blueprint for Understanding How People Buy Anything
A Blueprint for Understanding How People Buy Anything
How to use the three act Customer Forces story structure to define, position, and build better products
“Our irrational behaviors are neither random nor senseless — they are systematic and predictable.”
- Dan Ariely, Predicatble Irrational
There is no such thing as an impulse purchase.
Behind every purchase is a string of causal events and forces.
Unpack these forces, and you unpack how to define, position, and build better products for your customers.
Don’t believe me? Think of a specific product you recently purchased in the last 90 days. Once you have one, keep reading and apply the thought exercises to this product purchase.
The Three-Act Customer Forces Story Structure
Like any good story, customer journeys can be broken into 3 acts:
ACT I (Setup) - Old Way Breaks
ACT II (Confrontation) - Hiring a New Way
ACT III (Resolution) - Job Done?
“People don’t buy products. They switch between products to make progress.”
- Bob Moesta, Rewired Group
Act 1 captures the transition between the status quo (ordinary life) and passive looking (a call to action) through an inciting incident or triggering event (switching trigger). There’s always one.
Examples of B2C switching triggers:
Lifecycle event - birthday, wedding, anniversary, birth, death, etc.
Bad experience - a product you own, like a car, phone, or laptop, literally breaks or starts to underperform,
Awareness event - visit to the doctor, new technology, or product offering.
Examples of B2B switching triggers:
Startup funding event, company acquisition, or merger
starting a new role/position
Regulatory changes
These switching triggers challenge the status quo (old way) already in place and PUSH (or motivate) the customer to want to change. The thought of a better outcome (desired outcome) serves to PULL the customer up the progress hill. But progress requires work represented here as INERTIA.
Examples of inertia:
procrastination
switching costs
old habits
We’re constantly tempted by new purchases that we ignore. This is when
PUSH + PULL < INERTIA.
A necessary condition then to transition from Act I to Act II is when
PUSH + PULL > INERTIA.
Thought exercises for the product you recently purchased:
- What were you using before to get the job done (old way)?
- What caused you to look for something new (switching trigger)?
- What were you hoping to accomplish at that moment (desired outcome)?
- What where the barriers to switching (inertia)?
Act 2 is the crux of the story, where the customer auditions other candidate solutions and picks the “best” solution for the job. This is where their (job) requirements get defined, and choices are made (confrontation).
These forces don’t remain static during this stage but continue to evolve.
For example,
an impending regulatory deadline amplifies (PUSH) the motivation for a change.
discovering additional switching costs amplifies (INERTIA) the comfort of staying with the old way.
Each candidate solution comes with a promise of better/unique value proposition (PULL) and barriers or anxieties to adoption (FRICTION).
For candidate solutions that don’t get picked,
PUSH + PULL < INERTIA + FRICTION.
For the chosen solution, PUSH + PULL > INERTIA + FRICTION.
Thought exercises for the product you recently purchased:
- What solutions did you consider (consideration set)?
- What didn’t you like about the solutions you dicarded (firing criteria)?
- What did you like about the solution you picked (hiring criteria)?
- What was still missing in the chosen solution (tradeoffs)?
Act 3 is the final resolution step, where the customer uses the chosen solution typically over some “trial window” and determines whether to keep or return the product.
Thought exercises for the product you recently purchased:
- Did the product meet your orginal job requirements and expectations?
- Is it a keeper?
How to Use this Three-Act Customer Forces Structure to Define, Postion, and Build Better Products
Unpacking a customer journey into these three acts helps uncover several actionable insights you can use to improve your product.