[Pt. 1] Which Methodology Should You ‘Hire’ to Apply Jobs to be Done?

“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ was his response. ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.”

Heard about Jobs to be Done?

Maybe you picked up Clay Christensen’s 2016 book “Competing Against Luck” or you’ve seen the #jtbd hashtag on Twitter. You’re interested in this idea that “customers want to make progress in their lives and they hire products to help them get that job done” and how it can help you make progress.

Unfortunately, this seemingly simple little theory has amassed a daytime-television-worthy level of intrigue and drama.

Little JTBD has (at least) two men who can lay claim to have originated the approach, and others who have raised it as their own and expect some credit too.

The irony of course is what the argument is over. Laying claim to the belief that:

Customers don’t care about your product. They care about what it helps them do.

The product in question? The ‘right’ approach to surfacing and applying JTBD insights.

As an innovation and strategy consultant, my goal is to help my clients consistently create winning products. I’m purposely methodology-agnostic. That being said, I see a lot of value in looking at problems through the “Jobs to be Done” lens.

Over the next few days, I’ll be releasing a series of posts on the different flavors of JTBD and how to decide which is most appropriate to help you meet your innovation goals. I’m open to feedback, suggestions and criticisms to make this series content more accurate. My goal is to help others pick up on the nuances of these approaches so they can make focus on making progress on their own innovation journey.

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See you next time!

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Andrea Hill is the principal consultant at Frameplay. Frameplay is an innovation consultancy that helps companies become more customer-focused and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Learn more at frameplay.co