Switch and Retain: customer research notes

People rarely switch products on a whim. A switch usually starts with a struggling moment: a point where the current way of getting something done stops working well enough, and the person starts looking for something better. Understanding those moments is one of the most useful things a product team can do.

Customer interviews are the most direct way to find them. Instead of asking what features people want, ask about the last time they changed how they solved a problem: what was happening, what they tried, what almost stopped them, and what finally made them commit. The jobs-to-be-done lens helps here, framing a product as something customers hire to make progress in a specific situation.

Retention is the other side of the same story. Customers stay when a product keeps doing the job better than the alternatives, and they leave when a new struggling moment appears that it does not solve. Listening for those moments after the switch matters as much as before it.