The Shifting Value Equation

If you’ve ever done customer research, you’ve probably asked some version of “Why did you choose Product A over Product B?” It’s a natural question. And the answer you get usually sounds like a preference: “I like Airbnb because it feels more authentic” or “I prefer hotels because they’re easier.”

But what if the same person said both of those things? Not about different trips. About different legs of the same trip.

That’s exactly what happened in this interview. And it reveals something that most customer research completely misses: the job isn’t static. It shifts as context shifts. And when it shifts, the product that was essential five minutes ago becomes irrelevant.

Roxana is a behavior analyst in Southern California who specializes in treating children with autism. She travels internationally at least twice a year and loves traveling alone. She’s experienced. She’s deliberate. And for this trip, she was booking everything herself for the first time.

For this trip, she flew to Budapest for about a week, then took a train to Vienna for a few days, and finished the trip in Prague, where she met up with a friend. Three cities, two weeks, one trip.

For Budapest, she booked an Airbnb. For Vienna and Prague, she booked hotels.

Same person. Same trip. Completely different hires.

The Budapest booking had weeks of planning behind it. She’d been dreaming about the trip for nearly a year, ever since a conversation at a wedding where a groomsman talked about the ruin bars. She even had Pinterest pins of those ruin bars saved from ten years earlier. When her company finished opening an autism treatment center in April and things stabilized, she finally gave herself permission to go.

She sat in bed late at night with her laptop open and a show playing in the background. She pulled up flights in one tab and Airbnb in another, adjusting dates and combinations to find the best match. She filtered for a whole apartment to herself, good location near cafes and transportation, and safety features like carbon monoxide and fire alarms. She found an apartment she loved, let it “marinate” for 12 to 24 hours, then booked it.

Why Airbnb and not a hotel? Her words: “I wanted to feel like I lived there for a week.”

She wanted to go to the market. Cook for herself. Do laundry. Figure things out. Hotels, she said, are familiar. “There’s the concierge, people are kind of taking care of you. There’s nothing really novel about that.” Airbnb gave her the adventure and autonomy that was the whole point of the trip.

Then she got to Vienna.

She booked the train and the hotel the day before she left Budapest. She pulled up Airbnb, looked around, didn’t find one she liked enough, and just grabbed a hotel. Same thing in Prague. Day before, quick search, hotel.

When Chris asked her about the contrast, she was matter of fact about it. “Once you’re out there, you’re like, I don’t really wanna waste a bunch of time figuring this out. I wanna be out exploring. And it doesn’t even matter.”

The apartment in Budapest mattered deeply. The hotel in Vienna didn’t need to matter at all. She just needed a place to sleep.

A Shifting Value Equation occurs when the same customer hires different products for the same category of need, not because of a preference change, but because the context shifted the job. The product that was essential under one set of conditions becomes irrelevant under another.

In Roxana’s case, the variable was time. When she had weeks to plan, the job was “feel like I live in this city.” That job required a whole apartment, careful location research, safety filters, and the anticipation of discovery. Only Airbnb could serve that job.

When she had 12 to 24 hours to decide, the job shifted to “just get me a place to sleep so I can explore.” That job required speed, convenience, and predictability. Hotels served it better.

This matters because most product research treats the customer’s job as fixed. “Roxana is an Airbnb customer” or “Roxana is a hotel customer.” Neither is true. She’s both, depending on context. And the context can shift within a single purchase journey.