What do your customers really want? How can you find that out – and give it to them?
In this interview, Richard Kielbon teaches us a process that helps small businesses find out what their customers really need and how we can offer them the things that make them take action, i.e.:
- Click our link
- Sign up with us
- Buy from us
Over the last 20 years, Richard Kielbon has worked for governments, large companies, and organizations. And he shows us how the same process applies to marketing and sales.
Design Thinking Process Introduction
About 20 years ago, Richard stumbled onto something designed by a professor of Industrial Engineering called Breakthrough Thinking, by Gerald Nadler at the University of Southern California (USC). For 50 years, Gerald was curious and had a lot of questions like:
- What goes on in the brain?
- What goes on in the thinking process of noted solution finders?
- What goes on in the mind of people who are famous for creating famous designs and solutions?
- How do they think?
- How do they create solutions?
One great example is Dr. Paul B MacCready, who is behind the well-known Gossamer Albatross, a human-powered aircraft. What motivates him to design the Gossamer Albatross?
And that started a whole chain of projects for Richard to adapt and use the same process.
“Getting behind the curtain of what people really actually need instead of what they tell you they want”
-Richard Kielbon
He discovered that what people tell you they want is not what they really need. People don’t know how to articulate that. And that became his goal, to discover what’s behind the curtain and what people really need to be done.
In reality, this is actually a huge problem in marketing. Customers say what they want, but it’s very often not what they need. Do we sell them what they want, or do we sell them what they need? If they don’t get results, they’re going to be unhappy with the purchase. At the same time, we still need to address what they want and deliver what they need.
And this makes Richard’s process invaluable for businesses and marketers to find that out.
What is Design Thinking Process?
It can be called a lot of different things:
- Design Thinking (the most popular one)
- Breakthrough Thinking (by Gerald Nadler of USC)
- Jobs To Be Done (by Clayton Christensen who is also known for Disruptive Innovation)
Most people’s approach to solving a problem is to analyze it. Analyze the circumstances, the parts and pieces of it. What creative solution finders do is exactly the opposite of that. They don’t dig in and analyze the problem. They have a process of analyzing a potential solution.
Naturally, humans are purpose-driven creatures. Gerald Nadler and his work with industrial design apply that to industrial design. But as an architect, Richard discovered very quickly that people have also emotional and social purposes that they’re trying to achieve. And he believed that in marketing, that’s really important.
What is the Flow of the Design Thinking Process?
Step 1: Discover the Purpose
Start looking for or discovering and trying to understand the purpose of your customer. As Clayton calls it, Jobs To Be Done. In this process, your job is to look for the broadest purpose. Because the larger the purpose you can identify, the more creative you can be.
For instance, a business owner might want to expand his business by a certain percentage, and that’s what he tells you he wants. But his real, broader purpose is:
- Maybe he wants to travel more
- Maybe his real purpose is to be with his kids more
- Maybe his purpose is to buy that Ferrari
No one really knows what his real purpose is. That is where you should come in. There’s always a broader purpose. Go and search for the biggest purpose you can solve.
Step 2: Identify a Fantasy Idea or Solution
After successfully determining the purpose, the next step involves exploring a realm of fantasy by generating an idea or solution that is detached from the constraints of reality. This entails envisioning possibilities that may not be achievable in practical terms. A solution that sounds childish. A fantasy solution first then deal with reality last.
Step 3: Relate to Today’s Problem
The final step involves confronting reality and its relevance to present-day challenges. We must evaluate how the proposed solution aligns with the problems we face today. How does that solution relate to our problems today?
Design Thinking Process Application
In an article that Richard wrote, Breakthrough Thinking Victory, he was able to apply the Design Thinking Process in his son’s school project. Josey’s school decided to participate in an international competition to build a bridge and then crush it to see how much it will hold. The winner was to get a scholarship to Miami University.
As an architect and a father, Richard made a conscious decision not to excessively assist his son in the design process. Instead, he aimed to guide Josey in understanding the principles of design, specifically emphasizing Breakthrough Thinking. They approached each step by posing the fundamental question of Breakthrough Thinking: “What is the purpose of this part?”
His son’s project won at the school level and even went international in Miami, Florida. He ranked 3rd place and even though he didn’t get any scholarship, it was still a winning moment for them. Because even though Josey doesn’t want to be an engineer, he was able to apply what he learned from building that bridge in his everyday life. He is now a successful businessperson. It’s helping him move forward in his personal career, sort of be a leader in a business industry. Because he’s always asking the right questions. He’s always thinking ahead now.
Design Thinking in Marketing and Sales
Richard believes that the fundamental issue with any business in marketing and sales is trying to understand what your customer needs. One of the basic things you’re taught is to ask a client or customer:
- What are you trying to achieve?
- What do you want?
- What are you trying to accomplish?
And they will tell you what they think they want to accomplish. But what your customers haven’t done, is to broaden their perception of what it is they really actually want to achieve.
For instance, creating a mission statement for any business. It’s very popular to create a mission statement with a business. But Richard thinks mission statements are next to useless. They’re so broad and so fuzzy. What you need in a business is not a mission statement, but a whole array and cluster of purposes, a number of things. Purposes that people at the lower, middle, and upper levels are supposed to achieve.
In terms of marketing, you need to understand several things.
Clayton Christensen says that people in marketing like to go shallow and broad and understand their whole market. He also says that you need to do is pick a few people in your market and go very, very deep. Go as deep as you can into what their needs are.
And in order to get at that, instead of asking what they want, you need to ask:
- What’s the job to be done?
- What’s the outcome we’re trying to achieve?
- What are your purposes?
- What are your motivators?
- What are your drives?
- What really are you going after?
Because what they want might not be the best. But if you understand their motivators and drives, you can help design a better solution than they would have done on their own.
How does Design Thinking help a small business get clients?
Richard shared how he will incorporate Design Thinking Process in helping a small business get their clients.
For instance, Richard as an architect, they do something called Request for Proposal. A company will send out what’s called an RFP and they’ll describe what they’re trying to achieve and what their outcome is. It should be described in detail to get a chance to compete to get that job.
They failed many times and found out later that the person who got the job figured out something that was not in that RFP to respond to. Somehow they discovered a higher level need, or a need that was off to the side, that actually won the job.
As a marketer, knowing to ask the right questions instead of the obvious questions can help you a lot. Getting behind the curtain of that expressed need and learning to get behind what they give you at face value. That’s what helps an engineering firm or a design firm of any kind, helps a design company to win the job. It is by getting what the real need of your clients.
Design Thinking Applied for a Coach or Consultant
Richard also provided some insightful ideas that can help any coach or consultant in dealing with their clients. Instead of asking the obvious question (such as how do we create videos to get more views), dive deeper and ask a better question such as:
- What’s the purpose behind that channel?
- What are the purposes of my clients?
- What are your clients trying to achieve?
- What’s the big picture?
- What are you really going after here?
- What satisfies you?
Richard also mentioned that his greatest takeaway from using this process is asking the right question. What satisfies you emotionally? Not the obvious technical solution, but what are you trying to achieve experientially in your solution?
“It feels good to be doing the right things and be succesful.”
-Richard Kielbon
Richard reminded us that applying his process, Design Thinking Process, makes him feel motivational, and gratified. He said that it was just good to be doing the right things and be successful. It’s good for the company’s culture. Good for your self-worth and it brings a bright outlook in life to be hitting the right target.
How To Get In Touch With Richard?
If you want to feel good about doing the right things and being successful, Richard can be a great help. You can reach him at the following:
Design Thinking is another way to get closer to what your clients really need. Looking forward to applying this approach in the coming days. How about you? Have you tried adding this process to your routine? Tell us what happened in the comment section below. Would really love to know the outcome!
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If you are a coach or consultant, and your goal is to get your very first client online, then I have a simple strategy for you that’s very beginner friendly, you can download this strategy for FREE from my website at CreateGrowProfit.
Thank you and see you on my next blog!