Jobs to Be Done summary

Once you know that the first step is to focus on customer jobs, you can start to dissect those jobs in order to understand what’s really driving them. The concept of "job drivers" is crucial as it can lead to all kinds of possibilities for growth and innovation.

Job drivers are the hidden contextual elements that influence the importance of specific jobs in a customer's life. Consider the successful gym franchise, Planet Fitness. They looked at job drivers and discovered that there was an underserved market for customers who wanted a non-intimidating gym environment that didn’t cost too much. Along with low, flexible membership rates, they offered food benefits like Pizza Mondays and Bagel Tuesdays. These considerations are driven by the job drivers of their customers, leading to successful targeting and customer satisfaction.

When you dig into customer jobs, you can uncover even more important factors, like the pain points they’re currently coping with, as well as additional stakeholders who can be easily overlooked. These insights expand the space for both incremental and breakthrough innovations.

Identifying key stakeholders beyond the product purchaser is vital. A good way of doing this is to create a process map from the customer's perspective. This breaks down the job from when they begin thinking about doing it right through to when it's satisfied. This will help uncover the key players – like partners, kids, roommates, or even beloved pets – and their influence on defining the jobs.

Is a win for your company really a win for the customer? Success in product development is often elusive and not easily predicted. However, companies that excel in understanding and satisfying the right jobs – and alleviating the right pain points – tend to have the greatest success. This means honing in on contexts that matter to customers and understanding their true motivations.

Beyond just satisfying jobs, it's crucial to comprehend how customers want to satisfy those jobs. It's not always about more; it's about understanding what customers want more of, what they want less of, and where they seek balance.

In this section we’re going to talk about value. This is about translating the insights you’ve gained through customer research and turning them into value for the customer and revenue for your business.

To start with, let’s consider the Hershey brand. In the early 1980s, Hershey was losing a lot of ground to its competitors. But when it started taking a closer look at its customers, it had the revelation that adults, not children, were the primary consumers of candy. With this knowledge, Hershey began to design confections that addressed the emotional needs of this demographic. This strategic shift allowed Hershey to regain its position as a confection leader and expand the candy market.

Let’s say that you’ve conducted a broad range of customer research and drawn up your process maps to identify all the stakeholders and pain points. You might be ready to put your heads together and come up with some great ideas. So let’s look at some of the dos and don’ts of brainstorming.

Right off the bat, it’s important to know that boss-led brainstorming is often fruitless. Team members tend to be intimidated, and so they’ll propose safe and uninspired ideas, fearing that bold concepts won't be appreciated. This early influx of uninspired ideas tends to dominate discussions.