In today’s ever-evolving marketplace, companies of all kinds are looking for ways to stimulate innovation and create lasting growth. The answer may just lie in the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) theory.
Tony Ulwick originated the theory and processes of jobs-to-be-done and outcome-driven innovation (ODI) in the late 1980s and early 90s. JTBD is built around the theory that people purchase products and services to get jobs done. In completing jobs, people are trying to achieve specific, measurable outcomes. JTBD, then, connects businesses’ value-creation activities to consumer-defined metrics.
Why Is Jobs-to-be-Done the Answer?
The real question is not “Why is JTBD the answer?” but “Why do people buy products and services?”
The answer is that individuals make buying decisions based on the expectation that the purchase will make their desired business outcome more likely to be achieved and will work better than other options.
JTBD is the tool to use when trying to determine what outcomes people are working to improve — in other words, the jobs to be done.
How Does Jobs-to-be-Done Work?
To understand in detail how JTBD works, read What Customers Want by Tony Ulwick. However, if all you need now is a high-level overview, follow these ten simple steps:
- Identify the market you want to serve.
- Interview potential buyers of your product or service, considering all possible industries, applications, and roles in the buying process.
- Identify the different jobs that each person may be trying to achieve. Don’t be surprised if you identify more than 100 different jobs. Some will be tangible (e.g., increase output), and some will be emotional (e.g., make a job less stressful).
- Identify and quantify how important each job is to each person.
- Identify how the prospects currently complete a job and how satisfied they are with their outcomes.
- Put the jobs with the most satisfied outcomes on a separate list to ensure you do not waste time trying to improve them.
- Order all of the remaining jobs from most to least important.
- Start figuring out what your new product or service must offer to be purchased.
- Carry out this process to its logical conclusion — either commercialize or kill.
- Repeat as often as possible.
I recommend that you divide the importance list into three groups as follows:
- The primary jobs to be done — These jobs already have an acceptable method for accomplishing the desired outcome. The job is probably relatively unimportant, and the prospect is reasonably satisfied. Do not put this product on your to-do list unless this is a high-volume, consumer-type product.
- The important jobs that should be done deserve a serious investigation into how easy or difficult it will be to make significant improvements in prospect outcomes. Compare costs and outcomes to current solutions, and work on the ones that have the strongest likelihood of commercial success.
- The mission-critical jobs that must be done — Mission-critical jobs must be vigorously investigated because it is very likely that the selling price will not matter unless you have incorrectly assigned the importance. These are the issues that can shut down a manufacturing line, allow for the release of a contaminated drug, cause serious injury to patients, and put businesses at significant risk.
Next Steps
If you’ve gotten this far, you’ll now have a to-do list that is prioritized based on the importance to potential buyers. This means that any job for which you can create a solution that is commercially viable should be profitable. By comparison, the common practice of creating products and then trying to sell them has a success rate of less than 25%.
About Middlesex Consulting
Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals whose primary goal is to help capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. We focus on our strengths in services, manufacturing, customer experience, and engineering to provide superior solutions and meet our clients’ needs. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization use jobs-to-be-done concepts to create new services, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here.