Martin's Chilling Decision: The Cold Plunge Jobs to be Done Interview
What causes someone to spend thousands on a self-torture device?
The more you study Jobs to be Done the more you realize how much growth comes from simply addressing customers’ anxieties that arise during the shopping process.
In this interview Martin shares the story of his cold plunge purchase, from his first [terrible] cold plunge experience over six years ago, through months of struggling with the decision, to finally making the purchase.
Whether you’re an engineer or product person in charge of building, or a marketing or salesperson in charge of positioning or selling, the opportunities are going to jump out at you as Martin describes his struggle.
Debrief
What opportunities for new products, changes to the existing product, or marketing and positioning jumped out at you during the interview? After the interview, Martin and I took the opportunity to debrief together and compare notes.
The Four Forces of Progress
Push
What is happening in Martin’s life that causes him to think about a cold plunge? It often helps to list these in the form of: When I am ______.
When I move into a new house with a little more space in the workout room.
When I feel like I’ve hit a plateau on my wellness journey. I added the Peloton, then the sauna, and then made the weights more accessible in my new home. Now some time has passed since I made the change with the weights and I’m thinking about my next step forward.
When I read about not procrastinating when it comes to investing in myself in Die with Zero.
Pull
What about the cold plunge is making him believe that it will help him make progress? It often helps to list these in the form of: So I can ______.
So I can have better recovery after my workouts.
So I can feel more refreshed and alert during the day.
So I can get a lot of health benefit in a very short amount of time (just a few minutes).
Anxiety
What aspects of the cold plunge are giving him pause?
Should I put it inside my house or outside?
If it goes outside, I need to start doing it in the summer. If I try to start in the winter the cold weather will make it too difficult.
If I put it in the wrong place, will it be to difficult to use and will I not use it frequently enough?
If I fail, I’ll have to call the company and tell them that I’m a failure and that they have to come pick it up.
I don’t like doing my cold showers, and I didn’t like doing the cold plunge in 2016. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to stick to this as a habit.
Habit
What existing solutions could he fall back to if he doesn’t find a way to make progress?
I can keep taking cold showers.
I can work on trying to figure out how to make the water colder in my new house.
Conclusion
If you’re serious about learning Jobs to be Done, stop what you’re doing, call a friend, ask them to list the big purchases that they’ve made recently, and interview them about one of them.
Tell them that you’re working on learning something new for work. Let them know that some of the questions that you ask might sound a little silly but that they need to play along and answer. Partners and spouses are not eligible for this exercise (they’ll feel like you’re grilling them because you think they made a bad purchase choice, spent too much money, etc - just pick someone else).
I hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know your take-aways in the comments. Can one of these companies develop an indoor model of the cold plunge? Can they make it quieter? Manage the water spillage better? Charge more for it? What other opportunities exist?
Awesome interview, Chris!
Lots of thoughts swirling around ...
- There was a lot of anxiety about where to put the tub, specifically indoors vs. outdoors. While I'm sure there are examples of people putting it inside their homes, based on Martin's anxiety around location pre-purchase and what he's learned now that he is using it, it seems like putting it outside is the best solution for most (more space, issues with water flying all over the place, very noisy all the time, etc.). So would the company be able to reduce a lot of anxiety around the purchase by emphasizing / focusing only on outdoor use (i.e., take the idea of putting it inside out of the equation so that it doesn't clutter the potential customer's mind)? Along these lines, would Martin have purchased it earlier (shortened his timeline) if he had only thought about it for outdoor use -- i.e., would he have purchased it while in the previous home he was in (he talked about it being smaller than his current home, but maybe it had adequate outdoor space for a tub/tank)?
- I like the idea of the rental option discussed here in the comments. Agree that there seems to be a lot of social anxiety around the purchase (if I can't handle it, it will be embarrassing having to ship it back and telling people in my network that I failed).
- Related to the "what if I'm a failure / can't handle it" anxiety ... What about shifting the mindset from the outcome being binary (either I can handle it or I'm a failure) to realizing that there are "middle grounds" and that you can make adjustments to ensure "success":
> It sounded like the tub that Martin bought has a temperature adjustment feature. I'd been picturing tubs that are full of lots and lots of ice, plus a little water, so I hadn't considered that you could control the temperature of the water. So the company could point out that you can set it at 60 degrees and still get value from it. Then as you get used to it, you could move it down to 55 degrees, and so on.
> Similar to what was mentioned in the recap video is the idea that you don't have to start at 3 minutes immediately but instead could shoot for 30 seconds for a few days initially, then 45 seconds, and so on. The company could mention tips and tricks for getting going with the new cold plunge tub.
> Are there things you can wear -- a wetsuit "shorty" or something to cover your feet and hands or whatever that you can use to start with, and then gradually remove over time? If so, the company could suggest these options -- and perhaps sell them too.
- Similar to the above, it seems like there's an opportunity for the company to become the leader / thought leader around cold plunge tubs/tanks. In addition to content related to where to put the tub, how to set it up, etc., they could provide info like what is mentioned above in terms of getting going with cold plunges (and how to work your way up to longer and colder plunges), they could give examples of people of all walks of life who have "succeeded" and how (perhaps they already do this via testimonials), and they could even have a place within an app to record times and temps for each plunge, share with others, get encouragement from "coaches" or experts/advisors, etc. This might also be an opportunity for an independent source if the companies selling the tubs/tanks don't do this.
- I did catch myself "judging" for a moment when Martin talked about the issue of rain and cold and wind while being in the tub, thinking that it shouldn't really matter because you're going to be so miserable and so focused on the cold water you're in that you won't really notice the weather / it won't make a difference! But then I realized what matters is what his anxiety is around the colder / bad weather being an issue -- not how I think about it (plus, I know nothing about this, having never done a cold plunge, so why I do think I know better?!?!). So turning it around, I thought about how the company could show people who do cold plunges outside in bad weather environments talking about how it doesn't matter what the weather is (assuming it really doesn't, which may be a big assumption!). Additionally, the company could provide tips for how to get in and out of the tub in cold/bad weather environments in a way that doesn't add to the misery (gear to wear, heat lamps nearby, placing it near walls or using things to create wind barriers, etc.).
- One thing I wanted to learn more about was what was going on in Martin's life at the time that he was vacationing and made the purchase. He mentioned having a child. He also mentioned that he liked the idea of the cold plunge because it has "lots of benefits" in a "very small amount of time", "making it fit with my life." Was he finding that he had a lot less time to exercise / focus on his health because of family life? Was he busier elsewhere? Was there something going on with his health that was causing him to focus on it more at that moment? Why did he feel the need at that point in time to push his health to the next level? It seemed like you provided opportunities for him to talk about that, so there might not be anything there, but was curious about this while watching the interview.
- Liked your idea of focusing initially on going after the middle / bottom of the funnel people -- those like Martin who already bought into the idea of cold exposure / cold plunges as having health benefits -- and trying to shorten their timeline / get them to purchase, rather than focusing on trying to convince people that cold plunges are a great idea.
This is another one where I bagged a lot of pushes - triggers like the recommendation from a trusted party (first the workshop, then Wim Hoff, then Rhonda, and finally his coach who all pushed to say this is a thing he needs). There was also the push from the time factor - "when I'm running out of time to get this delivered before the weather changes", coupled with the pull of "so I can build a habit of using it before it's miserable outside".
I wonder whether there's a boost if they changed the business model to renting cold plunges vs selling - this would make it less of a challenge for Martin to persuade his wife to let him buy it, and the high anxiety of admitting failure and getting them to come back to take the plunge makes it a sticky product. To me it felt more like he was worried about admitting failure amongst the network of coach, Rhonda, and others he would have told "I'm getting a cold plunge and committing to this lifestyle" more than calling the firm that sold him the product. All that social anxiety makes this sticky, even if he didn't use the product once he rented it.
I did a quick google for these things and the imagery shows serene people in plunge pools in natural settings - I bet they could drive more sales showing normal people using these in home/garden settings to make it easier to imagine the tub sitting in a home like your own.