Embark

Merriam-Webster defines a customer as a person (or organization) that buys goods or services from a store or business. What if I told you customers don't buy products, but instead buy jobs? As silly as it sounds, stay with me. Let's use an example that most everyone loves and can relate to – chocolate. Snickers, to be more exact. We've all probably heard the popular slogan "You're Not You When You're Hungry." As delicious as chocolate- covered, peanut-coated nougat is, what people are actually buying is not a Snickers, per se. What they are buying is the job that a Snickers performs – putting an end to the grumbling in your belly and alleviating the hangry-ness so that you can be yourself once again. This example explains the Jobs to be Done framework. This framework takes the focus off of the product itself and puts it on the customer. This requires a deep understanding of the jobs that customers need to accomplish and how they measure the success of those jobs. The job-to-be-done indicates "where" to create value, but not necessarily "how" to create value. To gain deep understanding of the customer's job-to-be-done, you have to figure out what the customer's "needs" are to get the job done. Command Alkon has adopted this Jobs to be Done framework for our own product development processes. Our goal is to develop customer- focused solutions that make it easier to automate, streamline, and take control of complex operations and empower teams to drive operational and financial success. To understand customer needs, we have to intentionally listen to the unique challenges that stand in the way of their job-to-be-done. To help achieve this goal, we have set up a customer advisory board which will help guide the evolution of our solutions and services, provide a structure for questions, concerns, and issues to be raised, and engage on important industry topics. Command Alkon's Vision, Direction, and Priorities Our product managers are partnering with customers around the globe to gain feedback on their existing products and discover how best to optimize their business operations. We are quickly iterating solutions based on the feedback received to ensure that products are driving meaningful results. A few examples of applying this framework to our product development can be demonstrated by the updates we have made to these solutions based on feedback from customers: • Better user experience for TrackIt – Customer feedback indicated that our TrackIt solution needed to deliver a better experience for users. In response, we are rolling out many changes, including a new dashboard containing key charts and productivity indicators. • Integration of Apex with Ruckit – Improved product integration with Command Alkon and third- party solutions proved to be a need amongst customers. The integration of Apex with Ruckit improves visibility and communication with owned and third-party trucks and improves plant throughput. Integrations are being prioritized based on feedback. • Load Assurance – Many companies in the heavy building materials industry are focused on reducing carbon footprint. Load Assurance (formerly COMMANDassurance) provides insights to reduce rejected loads, improve quality and driver efficiency, and report on carbon usage. • Cloud-Based Dispatch – A consistent theme amongst customers was that they needed dispatch operations in the cloud. We listened, prioritized, and in record-time developed and released the first version of cloud dispatch. This product is rapidly evolving to meet customer needs from a dispatch perspective. Feedback from the industry indicated that our foundational solutions are necessary for their business, but that some updates need to be made to improve user experience. We are currently investing in updating the UI/UX to improve ease of use and onboarding, an open-API concept where users can provide controlled access to customers and partners, and infusing AI and Machine Learning to reduce "tribal knowledge" and improve accuracy and speed. We are also continuing to invest in our SaaS products, and building capabilities to migrate end-of-life products to the cloud. Ranjeev Teelock, Chief Product Officer at Command Alkon The Jobs to be Done Framework in 2023 and Onward Command Alkon 2023 commandalkon.com | 4

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