From Healing to Hacking: A Nurse's Journey into the Tech World

Watch a Jobs to be Done interview that uncovers how a TikTok video sent Sennie down a path of investing in a bold career change.

A first thought can truly come from anywhere. In this interview Sennie opens up about how how a TikTok video that she saw while relaxing after a long shift at her job as a nurse prompted her to shop for courses that could help her transition into a career in technology.

As you listen, put yourself in the shoes of someone designing and publishing an online course, or someone on the team at a course publishing platform such as Udemy or Coursera:

• How can you position and design courses so that more people will enroll?

• How can you make sure that your course is creating the value that they expected when they enrolled:

  • Is it more social? Displaying the certification on LinkedIn or using it to get the new job?

  • Is it more functional? Getting better at a skill?

  • Is it more emotional? Ensuring that they’re feeling like they’re investing in themselves?

My Interview Prep

I always take 15 or 20 minutes before an interview to think about the product being purchased and jotting down some notes about what I want to ask . During this interview I wanted to make sure that I uncover:

• What was going on in her life that caused her to need to make progress in this area, and how did the idea of a course come into consideration?

• How did she first hear about the course?

• How did she choose the platform?

• Why now? Of all the things to invest time in, why this?

• What is she hoping life will be like after the course is completed (or after the certification is completed). Is it more practical/emotional (internal)? More social (external)?

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My Thoughts - Post Interview

I’d love to hear your reaction to Sennie’s story:

• What were the four forces that you identified?

• What opportunities do course creators have based on the story?

• What other opportunities for innovation or new products exist based on her story?

• What questions would you ask her that I didn’t ask?

Here are my thoughts immediately after the interview ended:

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The Four Forces of Progress

It’s a good exercise to identify the forces that we hear in each interview. The lists from each interview become especially powerful when we’re conducting a set of ten or more interviews on one topic and we can begin to find patterns.

Push

What is happening in Sennie's life that is motivating her to try something new? It often helps to list these in the form of: When I am ______.

• When nursing isn’t turning out to be the career that I thought it would be before the Covid pandemic happened.

• When my job is stressful and keeps me on my feet for long hours.

Pull

What about the new solution is making her believe that it will help her make progress? It often helps to list these in the form of: So I can ______.

• So I can figure out if I can have a job like the people on TikTok who are filming a day in my life videos.

• So I can learn about transitioning to a career that is less stressful.

• So I can figure out if I’m interested in this field of work.

• So I can learn about a variety of different kinds of jobs and work in the field (instead of going deep on one area).

• So I can learn when I have time, instead of being committed to a set schedule that might conflict with my work.

• So I can explore an entirely new topic.

Anxiety

What about the new solution is giving her pause?

• What if it’s just a repeat of what I learned about IT in high school?

• What if it’s not for beginners?

Habit

What existing solutions could she fall back to if she doesn’t find a way to make progress?

• I can continue being a nurse.

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Recruiting

I conducted the recruit using Respondent.io. The goal of the screener is to recruit someone who made the decision to purchase an online course recently, and who was ultimately in charge of the decision (not their boss, their company, etc).

I went with Respondent’s recommended of a $125 incentive for the interview.

If we get the design of the survey right, we’ll spend our time interviewing the right person and being able to get to the causality behind the decision. This one came together well.

When did you sign up for and purchase the most recent online course that you've taken?

With this question we’re making sure that the person made the decision recently enough that they’ll remember details about it, but not so recent that they haven’t had a chance to use the product or understood if it delivered on the expected value.

This one worked out great with Sennie selecting Within the past month. I made sure that she had an understanding of actual value in Q7 below: How much of the course have you completed up to this point.

Who picked the course that you took?

If they’re not the shopper or the decision maker, it’s not worth interviewing them to understand the causality. Here we want to make sure they were the one shopping.

Who paid for the course?

Similar to the previous question, we want to make sure that they’re taking the purchase seriously and putting thought into it. One way to do that is to make sure that they’re spending their own money on the purchase.

What is the topic of the online course?

This is more about screening out anything that doesn’t feel right. Most answers won’t raise any concerns, but it’s worth asking just in case something jumps out.

Are you taking the course for professional development or because of a personal interest.

I was open to having a conversation about either, but I did want to know, and I planned on making sure that nothing felt out of place in terms of the topics that they listed in Q4 or the price point that they paid.

How much did you pay for the course? If the course is an ongoing subscription, estimate how much you'll pay in total over the course of the subscription.

Similar to Q4 above (who paid for the course?), I want to make sure that it’s a big enough purchase that thought and consideration went into it. This would be slightly less important if I was conducting a larger series of interviews on the topic, and it’s certainly possible to study products with low price-points, but for this single interview I opted to talk to someone who spent over $100 on the course.

How much of the course have you completed up to this point?

I want to make sure that I get some understanding of whether the expected value was delivered. This worked out well with Sennie, and she selected I’m more than halfway through it, but haven’t finished it yet.

When you purchased the course, how long did you expect it to take to complete it?

Similar to the cost of the course and the validation that they paid for it and selected it themselves, I want to make sure that it wasn’t something that would be over too quickly. Something that requires a longer time investment will typically lead to more considered shopping before making a selection.

Our conversation may be used for training purposes.

As with all of these interviews, because I’m intending on sharing it. I want to make sure that they’re comfortable with it being shared.

Are you comfortable joining a Zoom call with your camera on while we conduct the interview?

Roxana’s interview about her Airbnb stay turned out so well that I wanted to try to ensure that I could recreate a similar experience, with the selected participant on camera. I decided to add this question to increase my odds.

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My iPad Notes

Conclusion

How can you translate what is shared here to the product or business that you’re working on? Is it an easy leap from this screener, recruit, and interview style to your project, or are you struggling to make the connection? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And if you have a product or service that you’d like me to interview someone about, leave me a note below in the comments.