Jobs-to-be-done; some call it a theory, others a philosophy, but in the end, the definition is not important, it’s that it’s useful for innovation, market research, development, and even sales. But how?
In previous blogs, you’ve learned how innovation happens, what bias means for the process and innovation in the end, and how to avoid running in the wrong direction by using the jobs-to-be-done hierarchy. The magic of this method is that you use natural language while using the tool. If a glass is broken and you fix it by wrapping it with duct tape, it may not look as nice as it did before, but the duct tape did its job: The glass is whole again. And this “it does the job” is exactly the essence of the jobs-to-be-done method; it gets you where you want to go, or does what it claims to do. It may not be the best solution in all cases, for example, if I want the glass to look like it did before, then I would have been better off using glue to glue the pieces back together. But if I have the goal of just having all the slivers stick together, it certainly gets me there. So the main goal is always the task you want to do, and it’s also the basic answer to what the customer wants.
In the words of Clay Christensen, a customer hires a product to accomplish a task. It’s the same principle as understanding what the task is that the customer wants the product to do. The problem is often the developer of that product has a different purpose in mind than the customer, which brings us back to the story of bias.
As mentioned in the Product Quest Podcast, led by Yann Wermuth, Jonathan Edwards, and Scott Burleson, there is a similarity to the approach of separating the solution from the benefits. People often talk about the words “needs” or “benefits”, but the features of the product somehow get lost. When you have a clear structure to follow like a manual, you’re no longer tempted to stumble over those words and look at the problem through a different lens.
To learn more about Jobs-to-be-done’s insights and why there was a milkshake involved in its launch, listen to the full podcast here or stay tuned for the next blog.
All about Jobs-to-be-done at a glance
Blog Post 1: Wie beginnt Innovation? | How does Innovation start?
Blog Post 2: Verzerrte Wahrnehmung und ihre Auswirkungen | Having Biases – What are the reasons and how can you avoid them
Blog Post 3: Die Jobs-to-be-done Hierarchie | The Jobs-to-be-done Hierarchy
Blog Post 4: Podcast and Deep Dive
Blog Post 5: How it all started with a Milkshake
Blog Post 6: Jobs are stable
Blog Post 7: Job Metrics to define Customer Pain Points
Blog Post 8: Real-Life Example of Jobs-to-be-done
