Understanding target users' job-to-be-done

TL;DR

People hire software to do a job. Incentives vary. This community worked closest to the deal. Unlocking this shared incentive provided a counter-steering opportunity resulting in 10x engagement.

Problem

RFIQ, an application designed to streamline government market research, had become a blocker. Vendor registration accounted for (seriously, not a made-up case study stat) +80% of support tickets.

A design choice accounting for +80% support tickets

Onboarding vendors believed registering for government [opportunities] was the correct action. This confusion was only exacerbated by the word “industry” (Program Management Office jargon for contractors). RFIQ’s addressable market certainly didn’t understand.

Despite resolving the registration issue, industry engagement remained discouragingly low. Few vendors equaled fewer contract officers equaled even fewer Requests for Information (RFI).

Challenge

Vendors were focused on pursuing high-PWin (Probability of Win) opportunities. Onboarding another system was viewed as a speculative investment of time and effort. How might we align with contractor incentives to deliver immediate value for vendors and government?

Key Insight

Vendors worked closest to the deal. Engagement depended on us de-risking their experience. Impact depended on us steering into discounted effort — increasing value required less effort.

Strategic Decision

We pivoted toward building a “data factory” that created vendor profiles using public government procurement data (SAM, FBO, FPDS, etc.), providing immediate value to government contract officers. When a vendor registered using their DUNS number, they could verify and claim their profile (like a business listing on Google or Yelp), unlocking access to RFIs.

Vendor profile registration and verification using DUNS lookup

Outcome

• Eliminated the signup friction responsible for +80% of support tickets.
• Replaced a multi-page registration flow with with a single input.
• Enabled vendors to claim their profiles using their DUNS number, which was already a requirement for government contracts.
• No updating ever again! Vendor logins and government queries refreshed profiles automatically, eliminating the burden of manual updates.