Jobs To Be Done

In a challenging economy filled with nimble competitors, no one can afford to stagnate. Yet, innovation is notoriously difficult. Only 1 in 100 new products are successful enough to cover development costs, and even fewer impact a company's growth trajectory. So how do you pinpoint the winning ideas that customers will love?

Sifting through purchasing data for clues about what might sell or haphazardly brainstorming ideas are typical strategies. But Jobs to Be Done offers a far more precise and effective approach: determining the drivers of customer behavior — those functional and emotional goals that people want to achieve. Using the Jobs method, it becomes easy to see that people don't really need a 1/4-inch drill bit, but rather a 1/4-inch hole. They're not just buying ice cream, but also celebration, bonding, and indulgence.

This simple shift in perspective opens up new insights about your customers and a wealth of hidden opportunities. Social media newcomer Snapchat, for example, used the Jobs process to capture the millennial demographic. The company satisfied its users' unmet need to document real life, in the moment, while retaining control over their privacy.

Packed with similar examples from every industry, this guide explains foundational concepts laid out in Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Solution and presents a detailed action plan developed by innovation expert Stephen Wunker and his team. From ideation to iteration, you'll learn how to:

• Figure out what customers really want, even if they can't express it
• Sort out valuable insights from less useful customer data
• Dig into the underlying "why" of consumer behavior, beyond the "what"
• Target unaddressed jobs to be done that have the power to disrupt
• Identify key customer segments you didn't know existed
• Develop solutions that work with ingrained habits, not against them
• Use a Jobs-based lens to get a broader view of the competition
• Generate better ideas in brainstorming sessions and vet your solutions
• Sidestep common mistakes, such as engaging in "feature wars"
• Spot emerging trends that are changing how customers will behave
• Work customer insights into the design process
• And much more

Jobs to Be Done gives you a clear-cut framework for thinking about your business and a roadmap for discovering new markets, new products, services, and generate creative opportunities to innovate your way to success

• Introduction: Charting a Roadmap to Great Ideas
• Part I: Understanding Jobs To Be Done:
  Finding High-Potential Avenues for Growth
• Know Where You're Starting From
1. Jobs: What Customers Are Trying to Get Done
2. Job Drivers: Why Customers Have Different Jobs
3. Current Approaches and Pain Points: How Customers Look at Today's Solutions
• Chart the Destination Roadblocks
4. Success Criteria: The Customer's Definition of a Win
5. Obstacles: What Holds New Ideas Back
• Make the Trip Worthwhile
6. Value: How Insights Become Revenue
7. Competition: Becoming King of the Road
• Part II: Using Jobs To Be Done to Build Great Ideas:
  Making Success Repeatable
8. Establish Objectives
9. Plan Your Approach
10. Generate Ideas
11. Reframe Your Perspective
12. Experiment and Iterate
• Appendix A: Quick Reference Guide
• Appendix B: Jobs in the Public Sector

A fairly solid and good book on the Jobs-to-be-Done concept.

Excellent starter book