Infinity Jobs
That’s me, imitating Deadpool — sitting lonely in a sad posture. My head gravitates toward the floor, and my neck is almost sinking in my shoulders. Every muscle is trying to pull my head against the heaviness of my sadness. You know what? You can live this vulnerable moment by listening to Celine’s sensational voice. But if you don’t have a pinch of craziness, you can skip it.
The reason behind my sadness can be manifested in a single word: “value.” I guess you expected a heartbreaking love story. No, it is all about value. The way we consume it, create it and capture it. Note: “We” here stands for private corporations in the GCC.
We overconsume values. In other words, we unintentionally blindside ourselves from climbing the innovative value chain. If you can fulfill your needs by importing things, you will never find the time to export your own innovative creations. Merely extracting resources from the earth is not the type of value that we aspire to hold in the post-industrial age. We crave transformative values, not passive ones.
So, if we overconsume (almost any value) and undercreate (innovative value), how can we thrive via business models that places value capturing in the driver’s seat? Shockingly, in some industries, this is a reality. Can you believe that such a model exists? (capturing value before it even exists) Believe it. I worked in one. Don’t play with this ancient equation (business growth = create real value — capture fair portion of it) or you will be participating in the slow death of your business.
So what lays behind this reality? You might paint a dark picture of the reasons behind such practices (e.g., greed, inequality, corruption, etc.). But what if I told you that a deeper reason lies underneath all of this? Sadly, we don’t read enough. All that we need to elevate our business decisions is a click away from us. I must acknowledge one reality: a spark of hope from the enormous initiatives by H.E. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who has encouraged younger generations to read. Unfortunately, on the institutional level, we are far from where we must be.
This post stands as a humble attempt to bring some of the quality reading (i.e., concepts, thinking, theories, etc.) as well as to introduce the masterminds behind them to our professional life: in a fashion that reminiscent of comic book author Stan Lee.
Jobs to be Done
Among his superpowers are the following: Click on them if you want to understand them from their creator.
In his book Competing Against Luck, Clayton used an example of a milkshake to bring life to the profound insight — popularized a decade ago by Ted Levitt “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
This is how my brain pictured how Clayton theorized the jobs to be done: in a superhero’s style.
By gazing at the milkshake, he managed to perform a decomposition reaction by separating it into two elements: a physical body (the product), and its soul. Technically speaking, the physical body is the tangible part that we can see, hold, taste, etc. The soul is the intangible part, which is why we are using the product. In each product, he sees a solution represented in the tangible part and a job to be done manifested in the intangible part. Such understanding will allow you to venture from the scalable efficiency war zone (i.e., products improvements that is merely driven by competitive pressures) to improvements driven by the power of scalable learning.
About this Superhero my suggested action:
- Provide copies to your executives and Board members. This is a must-read Book.
Value Proposition
Among his super powers are the following:
- Business Model Canvas “BMC”.
- Value Proposition Canvas “VPC”.
Alex Osterwalder empowered me to understand businesses in an unprecedented way. With a single glimpse at the BMC, you can unpack the secrets of complex businesses and repack it innovatively. To dig deeper, Alex introduced the VPC to help you in visualizing, designing and testing the “jobs to be done theory.” You will have a deeper understanding of the (what, why, and how) of your offering.
About this Superhero my suggested action:
- Provide your staff with these two books.
- Enroll relevant teams into his online course.
- Schedule an executive with a junior staffer to attend one of Alex workshops.
From Pipes to Platforms — Enabling Interactions
Sangeet Paul Choudary infected me with a deadly virus of “platform thinking.” His book Platform Scale is lethal and contagious. If you are not ready to enter the platform universe, avoid this book, or it will capture your brain. Platform Scale and Platform Revolution will help you to get rid of the rusty concepts carried over from the industrial age. He will introduce you to the business architecture of the 21st century, an architecture of enabling interactions.
Suggested action:
- You, along with your strategy team, must obtain these two books.
- I can guarantee you one thing: an hour with Sangeet equals a month of hard work. So, if you have a platform situation, contact this superhero.
Ecosystem-Potential-Platform (E-P-P) Fit
The Italian superhero, Simone Cicero, is a rising star among the superheroes. If you are into platform thinking and design, follow him now. Otherwise, you might not be able to catch up with his work.
In his recent posts (here and here), he showed us his other side, the devastating Hulkish side — connecting value chains with platform strategies.
In a nutshell, Simone took the fight into the ecosystem. With his tools, you can vividly see and design the emergence of possible interactions that might take place within your platform and the ecosystem.
Suggested action:
- Keep a close eye on his web page.
- Register yourself in one of his upcoming masterclass.
- Contact him if you want to take your platform to the next level.
Network Effects “New Religion”
This superhero is making a massive impact within the network effects arena. His Network Effects Bible, will acquaint you with this dominant religion. And with his Vibranium shield, he unlocked 13 shades of network effects and still counting.
He is working on a top-secret project, aimed at changing the landscape of VCs, by transforming how true innovators are funded. I managed to locate the secret underground facility where James Currier launched his secret project.
Suggested action:
Machine Platform Crowd
Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson
To understand the future trajectories of businesses, you must read their book Machine Platform Crowd. Andrew and Erik are envisioning a triple revolution: integration between, mind and machine, product and platform, and core and crowd to harness our digital future.
Suggested action:
- This book must be among your reading list.
Intangible Economy
Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake
These two superheroes wrote a masterpiece, Capitalism without Capital. With their quadruple superpower (i.e., scale, sunk, spillover, and synergy) you will understand the rise and growing dominance of the intangible economy. This book should be a mandatory regulatory requirement for financial institutions.
Suggested action:
Additional note: The book clearly explained the role and limitation of VCs in capital development. It reminds us that growing a VC sector is a twenty-year project. But why we should accept such a reality? By narrowing the physical proximity between our superheroes (i.e., James, Jonathan, and Stian), I can see a synergy between the 4S and James’ secret project. A collaboration here might shorten the twenty-year time frame significantly.
An Ocean of Noncustomers
W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
These two superheroes shifted our perspective from “customer first” to “noncustomers first.” A business should not compete for existing customers: a business must strategize to unlock new demand. The real growth is laying out there.
Suggested action:
- Click here and buy the Blue Ocean Shift now.
Context to be Shaped
My son’s favorite superhero — how can I describe him? Can you imagine Thanos power and strength? Imagine him again but this time with a kind heart: This will be John Hagel. Among his superpowers are the following:
In front of this superhero, I stand speechless: I cannot find the right words to express how his teaching and knowledge transformed my thinking — professionally as well as personally.
Suggested action:
- Do you care about the future of your business? Follow the league of this superhero: continuously visit his page, read his publications, follow him on Twitter, search his videos on YouTube, etc. Both my son (Faisal) and I, committed ourselves toward this end.
I sincerely hope that I managed to ignite your curiosity to look at the work of some of the above superheroes.
Don’t tell me that you thought this is the end of the post: you cannot expect someone imitating Deadpool to sit and tell stories. It’s time to make our own story, or shall I say our narrative.
I would like to repeat Clayton’s experiment of gazing at the milkshake.
I managed to decompose a third element: in my world, I call it the “demon.” But you can call it “Jobs to be Avoided.”
So, what is the “jobs to be avoided”? It is the demon in your product or service. In Deadpool’s head, this is called exorcism: the attempted expulsion of the evil spirit from your product. In commercial terms, it is the harmful substance in your product. In the milkshake example, it can be the excessive amount of sugar, cream, or fat.
Why is it important to know the jobs to be avoided? Customers do change during their lifecycle, for example, at a younger age, I used to believe (and sometimes still believe!) that Starbucks Ultra Caramel Frappuccino was the most delicious coffee drink. By getting older and a bit wiser, I cannot accept putting so much sugar, cream and fat into my body. So, if Starbucks doesn’t take this issue seriously (i.e., the job that I want to avoid), their competitor might do it instead.
The other reason, which is the focus of this post, is that by knowing the demon in your product, your chances in exploring an unexplored customer base will be amplified. Yes, we need an example.
Nespresso Example
Ingredients:
- Nespresso Machine.
- Nespresso pods.
- Clayton’s “Jobs to be Done” theory.
- Alex Business Model Canvas.
- My “Jobs to be Avoided” concept
- W. Chan and Renee Three Tiers of Noncustomers.
- Andrew and Erik’s Complements Shift Curves explanation.
- John’s “Context to be Shaped”.
So, what job will a Nespresso pod do for me?
Let us take this post as an example: having a shot of coffee will help me to focus to finish it.
But, if it is midnight, for sure I will not take a caffeine shot. I don’t want to look like an owl with bulged eyes for the rest of the night. So, the demon here is the caffeine. What if Nespresso can provide a new drink that doesn’t include this substance — a drink that can give me a short electrifying, energetic shot yet not compromise my bedtime? Important note: the “job to be avoided” does not mean producing a decaffeinated coffee pod.
Let’s see how far the “jobs to be avoided” concept can take us. It took me a year to decide to buy a Nespresso machine, not because it was expensive, but because of guilt: a selfish act of buying a device that no one will use but me; my wife doesn’t drink coffee, and it is not suitable for my kids.
So how can Nespresso help other families (customer and non-customer) in such a problematic situation? The “jobs to be avoided” concept can push Nespresso’s thinking to move beyond the current market to explore the refusing noncustomers (non-coffee drinkers) as well as the unexplored noncustomers (kids), as in the W. Chan and Renee framework.
But what if Nespresso are not thinking of creating a new market? In such case, the “jobs to be avoided” can help them in appreciating the value of the Nespresso machine by applying the supplementary product’s concept as explained by Andrew and Erik: to shift the demand curve of the Nespresso by introducing supplementary pods to other members of the family. They can even subsidies such pods.
Nespresso can move from the “jobs to be done” narrative to an opportunity-based narrative rotating around a new concept called context to be shaped advocated by John Hagel.
If Nespresso aspires to understand my context, they will not be able to only serve different jobs for my family; in fact, they will be able to serve us in a different context as well. We drink coffee when we want to focus: at work, attending an important meeting, studying for exams, etc. but what if we are experiencing a different context — being sick as an example?
I hope you noticed the infinity symbol in the above picture. We will be moving into a new frontier. I call this frontier “Creation to be Empowered,” or “Infinity Jobs.” To do so, we need a reliable tool to withstand the upcoming battle. I guess I need all the help from the above superheroes.
The war has begun: here is our weapon “Platform Value Proposition Canvas,” made from Asgardian metal Uru. Briefly speaking, let’s bring the battle into Medium’s universe.
1) The platform architecture (as in Sangeet’s platform canvas)
2) The “Jobs to be Done” frontier (as theories by Clayton)
3) The “Context to be Shaped” frontier (as conceptualized by John)
4) The “Creation to be Empowered” frontier (as envisioned by me)
Producers of value
Numbers 5 to 7 are examples of the Producers of value within the ”Jobs to be Done” domain.
Number 8 is a holistic view of the producers: their true potential under the “Context to be Shaped” domain.
Number 9 is an opportunity-based ecosystems’ narrative: potentials/creations to be empowered within the “ecosystem of ecosystems.”
In the above imaginary example, John, Simone and I, are considered part of Medium’s network effect, with each of us participating in the value creation. Unfortunately, we mistakenly visualize the word “value” from a too-narrow and simplistic angle: the word value is a universe by itself (i.e., its magnitude, time, superiority, etc.)
Moreover, we write for different reasons: John’s job (i.e., writing) differs significantly from my job. So, if our jobs vary and the value yielded from our jobs varies as well, how can Medium extract the maximum value by providing us with the same functionality? I firmly believe that they are leaving some money on the table. Medium can introduce different monetization frameworks based on the varying levels of our needs.
Being new on Medium, my ambition (job to be done) is to share my humble contributions, by mixing what is inside my head with the quality knowledge of others, to reimagine how things could be done differently. At this stage, I need Medium’s network effects to help me to nail this job. I don’t need a wealth of data or an advance writing infrastructure. Kindly refer to path number 5.
Let’s examine John’s path as in number 6. John already has his own network. Most probably he doesn’t need Medium’s network to spread the word about his work. Moreover, his rich network can provide him with the required data: again, Medium cannot be of great value to John in this sphere, but he might desire a superior infrastructure of writing functionality.
Being active and influential on Medium, Simone, (see path number 7) might need Medium’s data functionality for his value creation, more than for the network effects or the infrastructure functionality. Imagine if Simone can post a request for specific data for his next article, and then either Medium’s algorithm or the crowd (Medium’s social power) can provide him with the requested data. Such service will liberate Simone to focus on the big picture. Medium can monetize such service and at the same time can incentivize the crowd by granting them some forms of tokens.
As we can see, within the “Jobs to be Done” frontier, the WHY behind the J2bD is more about the product (i.e., a deeper understanding of why we write to enhance the process of writing)
Now let’s move to the “Context to be Shaped” (C2bS) frontier: here, Medium will shift its attention from understanding the “Jobs to be Done” (J2bD) of the product to the writers’ context. Do you remember the saying “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.” I guess under the context to be shaped concept; John is trying to draw our attention that if we understand the context of our customers, we might realize that they might not want a quarter-inch drill nor a quarter-inch hole.
For example, in number 8, Medium can have a deeper understanding of Simone context (e.g., making an impact within the platform industry) and at the same time, Medium can notice, via their smart analytics, that I am passionately writing in the same domain.
With their advance algorithm, Medium may predict a potential collaboration, by creating a common battleground, enabling Simone and myself to fight side by side. Under the C2bS, Medium will move from enhancing writing functionality to enabling a higher level of interaction within its ecosystem (i.e., tools for better collaboration and communications), which can yield more content for Medium.
Let’s move to the third frontier, the Creation to be Empowered (C2bE). Here, the growth potential does not rely on the platform’s competitive advantages nor its defensibility capabilities. Here, the conventional supply-and-demand chart simply vanish and become almost irrelevant. The growth relies on the interactions between the participants of different ecosystems via the plug-and-play concept, but on ecosystems’ level.
One way this might be possible was envisioned in one of my previous posts. If this frontier is of any interest to you, please have a look here.
The C2bE will push the platform to move from being selfish to selfless. The latter can be profitable as well. At this frontier, Medium doesn’t know what the outcome of the envisioned collaboration (number 8) might be, neither do Simone or myself. In the above hypothetical example, Medium predicted after examining the quality of several joint articles an emerging potential for a natural evolution: from writing articles to a possibility of writing a book. In such case, Medium can mobilize its ecosystem (as in number 9) to plug-and-play with other ecosystems toward this end. As an example, with:
- www.99designs.com for book cover designs.
- www.upwork.com, https://www.paperblazer.com/, or https://app.grammarly.com/ for proofreading.
- Business Schools (e.g., Ivey, MIT, Harvard, etc.) for resources such as case studies, essays, etc.
- Amazon for publishing the book.
- Twitter for marketing and advertising.
Concluding remark: for some the “Creation to be Empowered” frontier, might sound like a fairytale. For those, I would like to whisper a secret:
The difference between the platform-based businesses and the industrial-age-based businesses is that the former understood that only part of the value gets produced within your walls: whereas, the abundance of value creation resides outside your walls. As a result, they orchestrated the fragmented and isolated interactions that reside outside their domain. I bet you know that. But the untold story is that we (you, me and the rest of us) are the interactions. Without us (i.e., Hosts, Guests, Tweeters, Readers, Drivers, Riders, Video creators, Viewers, etc.) there will be no massive economic value. If enough of us realize this fact and reorganize ourselves, we might be able to slightly push the trajectory of the value chain toward the ecosystem. Maybe, and I am just saying maybe, it is a good time to have a universal app that can administer peaceful virtual strikes, protest, etc. governed by a decentralized platform-based union. Can you imagine what a 10% drop in active daily users might do to these giant orchestrators? Even the advertisers will have bargaining power. If you are not convinced, I would like to remind you of the 20% plunge of Twitter stock resulted from deleting fake and offensive accounts.
One last contribution by my son Faisal: He asked if he can have a page on Medium. I asked why. He said because at school they (teachers) tell us what to write, and I want to use Medium to write what I want. Medium should seriously think of this unexplored segment “Medium Kids” — ecosystems with plug-and-play between Medium and schools, to give our kids a more considerable space for creativity.
This post reflects my approach of thanking all the amazing people who keep enlightening us with their knowledge and wisdom. The approach is to embrace their knowledge, spread it, and embed it into our daily work.
By the way, you can do the same thing here, by showing a few claps. Few as in 50 claps. See you soon with another crazy post….
You are most welcome to connect via https://twitter.com/KhalidiAlmadani or https://www.linkedin.com/in/khalid-al-madani-2009a1160/
