Finding Your Ideal Customer Profile

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is not a demographic. It's a description of the company or individual that gets the most value from your product, is most likely to buy, is cheapest to serve, and is most likely to stay. For a B2B SaaS, it's a company-level definition (industry, size, tech stack, buying process). For a B2C app like ShowerBuddy or BathCheck, it's more nuanced — often the buyer and the user are different people. For accessibility apps, the ICP question is particularly important because you often have multiple stakeholders: the person with the disability (the user, who may not control the purchase), the carer or family member (often the decision-maker and buyer), and the institution (NDIS, aged care facility, hospital) that may fund the purchase. These three have completely different motivations, objections, and communication preferences. Start by listing your 10 best hypothetical customers. For BathCheck, that might be: OT practices that recommend bathroom safety equipment, aged care facilities managing shower safety for residents, NDIS plan managers overseeing clients with bathroom-related risks, family carers managing elderly parents at home, and home modification companies that install grab rails and shower seats. Each of these is a distinct ICP with different sales motions.

The most powerful ICP tool is Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD). Rather than asking 'who is my customer,' ask 'what job is the customer hiring my product to do?' The job is the outcome they're trying to achieve, not the feature they want. For BathCheck: an OT is not hiring the app because they want an 'accessibility assessment tool.' They're hiring it to document bathroom risk assessments faster, reduce their liability exposure, produce client-ready reports without manual formatting, and demonstrate compliance to NDIS auditors. Every one of those jobs is specific and actionable — each points to a feature, a marketing message, and a sales conversation. For ShowerBuddy: the job might be 'help me keep Dad safe in the shower without having to be in the room' or 'give me peace of mind that Mum hasn't fallen.' The emotional dimension of the JTBD is as important as the functional one — especially in healthcare and aged care where fear, guilt, and love are powerful motivators. Conduct at least 10 customer interviews before finalising your ICP. Ask: 'Walk me through the last time this problem cost you time or money or stress.' Let them talk. The specific language they use becomes your marketing copy.