I cringe every time I hear a production team member say that.

Their intention This is usually to indicate that it will be difficult for us to get a detailed understanding of it Why People buy these types of cheap and low-risk products.

What I hear It is that, as consumers, we make these types of low-risk decisions based on subconscious impulses that are completely impossible to identify, understand, or comprehend.

Consumers who create progress

One of my favorite Clay Christensen quotes is: “A question is a place in the mind where an answer can fit.” After speaking with thousands of consumers about their purchases, his quote has proven to be true almost 100% of the time.

In other words, if a consumer has an idea in mind about the progress they are trying to achieve, they will see and pay attention to the products, advertisements, and suggestions offered by others. If there’s no concept of progress, all those fancy products, packages, ads and glowing reviews from friends bounce off of it.

Said another way; If there is no motivation, all the attraction in the world will not push the consumer to do it Impulse purchase.

I can’t count the number of times a consumer has started a “jobs to be done” interview with a laugh and a comment like, “You know, it was just there, and I thought I’d give it a try, so I threw it in my cart.” After researching the details of the situation, they often mention a commercial they saw A long time ago. Now I have something to work with.

“What do you remember about the ad?”

“Oh, there was this lady, and she was…”

“So what were you thinking when you saw that?”

Using this technique I can have them describe why their situation relates to the story they saw in the commercial. As the power diagram below shows, often the stress of a situation is so low on a consumer’s list of priorities that there is very little energy associated with it. This does not mean that it does not exist. It’s a little hard to find.

Once we get a full picture of the power map, we can understand the progress they are trying to make, how satisfied they are, and where they are underserved (we are still looking for a solution we can offer them).

Raise your hand if we just add more features

It’s our job as designers and developers to understand, in as much detail as possible, the progress consumers are trying to achieve so we can create solutions they will use. What happens if the team reaches an agreement that the product we’re working on will be automatically purchased? Should we spend less energy understanding the progress the consumer is trying to achieve and their hiring standards?

A vote to classify a product as an “impulse buy” is a vote to focus on flashier packaging design, load up on features to beat out the product next to you on the shelf, and blindly add cost without any idea of ​​the impact it will have.

These tactics have been shown to lead to further prosecution (I’ll try it once because it’s cheap and maybe it will help me make progress), but only by chance will it lead to a sustainable pattern of repeat purchases (consumers have found a function that fits your product, even though you are not aware of the details of the function).

Consumers will say it

People will keep telling us they made an impulse purchase because it’s the easiest way to describe their behavior to us.

Let them keep saying it, but we have to erase it from our vocabulary.