Last week I talked about the insight gap - that frustrating space between having loads of customer conversations and actually knowing what to do with them.

‍

This week, I'm pulling back the curtain on exactly how we close that gap.

‍

Because here's what I've learned after hundreds of research projects: the magic isn't in asking good questions (though that matters). It's in what you do with the answers.

The framework that changes everything

We use two tools that work together like a dream: Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) and the Four Forces model.

If you've not come across these before, here's the quick version:

‍

JTBD helps you understand what people are actually trying to achieve (not what they say they want, but what they're truly hiring your product to do).

‍

The Four Forces reveal what's happening in someone's head when they're deciding whether to buy:

‍

• Push: What's pushing them away from their current situation?
• Pull: What's pulling them toward your solution?
• Anxiety: What's making them nervous about switching?
• Habit: What's keeping them stuck where they are?

‍

Together, these frameworks turn scattered feedback into a complete picture of why people buy (or don't).

From transcripts to themes (without losing your mind)

Here's our process. Nothing fancy, just systematic:

‍

1. Categorise by source first

Before you do anything else, sort your feedback by who said it.

‍

New customers vs power users. SME vs enterprise. Technical buyers vs business buyers.

‍

Why? Because the same piece of feedback means different things depending on who it came from.

‍

When an enterprise customer says "it needs to integrate with our existing systems," that's a different insight than when an SME says it.

‍

We use a simple spreadsheet. Columns for: source, segment, verbatim quote, which force it relates to, journey stage.

‍

Nothing complicated. Just organised.

‍

2. Map insights to the Four Forces

This is where it gets interesting.

‍

Go through each piece of feedback and ask: which force is this really about?

‍

• "We were spending 3 hours a day on manual data entry" → Push (pain driving them away)
• "The demo showed us we could do this in 10 minutes" → Pull (attraction to your solution)
• "We weren't sure if our team would actually use it" → Anxiety (fear about switching)
• "We've always done it this way and it sort of works" → Habit (inertia keeping them stuck)

‍

Here's the thing: people rarely tell you which force they're talking about. They just tell you their experience.

‍

Your job is to translate it.

‍

One customer might say: "The pricing seemed high." That could be anxiety ("what if it's not worth it?") or it could be comparing to their current solution (habit: "we only pay £X now").

‍

The force matters because the solution is different.

‍

3. Spot the patterns across conversations

This is where most people stop too early.

‍

Individual pieces of feedback are interesting. Patterns across 20+ conversations are strategic gold.

‍

We literally use AI for this now (Claude is brilliant at it). Feed in your categorised feedback and ask it to:

‍

• Cluster similar themes
• Identify which forces appear most frequently for each segment
• Surface contradictions (these are often the most revealing insights)
• Quantify sentiment without losing nuance

‍

For example, one of our clients discovered that enterprise customers mentioned integration anxieties in 18 of 20 interviews. But SMEs mentioned it zero times.

‍

That's not "integration is important." That's "we have two completely different ICPs with different anxieties, and we need different messaging for each."

‍

See the difference?

Turning patterns into positioning

Once you've mapped the forces, you can finally answer the strategic questions that actually matter:

‍

Which segment should you focus on? Look at where your product creates the strongest push and pull, with the weakest anxiety and habit forces. That's your sweet spot.

‍

What positioning will cut through? Lead with the push (their pain), prove the pull (your unique solution), address the anxiety (their fears), and acknowledge the habit (why switching is worth it).

‍

Which features to build next? Build whatever strengthens your pull or reduces their anxiety for your target segment. Not what's technically cool. What moves the forces.

‍

What message will convert? Use their exact words for the push and pull. Address the specific anxieties they mentioned. Make switching feel inevitable, not risky.

A real example (because this sounds abstract)

We worked with a B2B SaaS company selling to financial services. They'd done 25 customer interviews but couldn't figure out why some deals closed and others stalled.

‍

We ran our framework. Here's what emerged:

‍

The pattern they'd missed:

‍

Compliance teams had massive push (audit nightmares) and strong pull (automated trails). Low anxiety, low habit. Easy close.

‍

IT teams had mild push (systems work okay-ish) but huge anxiety (what if it breaks something?) and massive habit (current system is embedded everywhere). Deals stalled.

‍

Business teams had strong push (speed to market pressure) but were never involved in buying decisions.

‍

What they'd been doing wrong: Selling "governance" to everyone with the same message.

‍

What we told them to do:

‍

• Lead with compliance teams (natural champions)
• Build specific anxiety-reduction content for IT (proof it won't break things)
• Enable compliance teams to bring business teams into conversations early
• Stop wasting energy on deals where IT was the primary buyer

‍

Results: Sales cycles shortened 30%. Win rates up 25%. Same product, completely different approach.

The uncomfortable truth (again)

If you can't clearly state:

‍

• Which push is strongest for your best customers
• What pull is unique to your solution
• What anxieties are stopping people from buying
• What habits are keeping them in place

‍

Then you haven't done the analysis yet. You've just collected feedback.

‍

And that gap between collection and analysis? That's where growth dies.

What to do about it

Option 1: Build the muscle internally

Start categorising your next 10 customer conversations using the Four Forces. Just practice labelling: push, pull, anxiety, habit.

‍

Then look for patterns. What comes up repeatedly? What's different between segments?

‍

Use AI to help spot themes you might miss. Feed transcripts into Claude with this prompt:

‍

"Analyse these customer interviews through the lens of the Four Forces model (push away from current solution, pull toward new solution, anxiety about switching, habit keeping them in place). Identify which forces are strongest and surface any patterns by customer segment."

‍

Option 2: Work with people who do this for a living

This is literally what we do. We've built the entire system: interview guides, analysis frameworks, AI prompts that actually work, templates for turning insights into positioning.

‍

If you're sitting on customer feedback and can't figure out what it's telling you, or if you know you need better insights but don't have capacity to run the process properly, let's talk.

‍

We can help you see what you're missing.

The bottom line

Having customer conversations is table stakes.

‍

Turning those conversations into strategic intelligence that changes what you build, who you target, and how you sell? That's the competitive advantage.

‍

The insight gap closes when you stop treating feedback as data collection and start treating it as pattern recognition.

‍

Because the difference between a guess and a strategy isn't having conversations. It's knowing what to do with them.

‍

Want to chat about how we could help you turn your customer insights into clear positioning?

‍Drop me a line - I'd love to hear what patterns you're spotting (or struggling to spot) in your own research.

‍