doesn’t originate from one particular discipline, such as design or marketing, other teams can readily adopt the approach and form insights of their own.
• Third, because JTBD views an individual’s objective independent of technology, the technique future-proofs your thinking. Framing the job as universally as possible better prepares you to create solutions around how customers may act in the future, not tied to the past.
Working with JTBD may feel uncomfortable at first. It takes practice. The rules of formulating a job statement, for instance, are precise. Start small and experiment, and try not to overcomplicate things: a job is often more straightforward than you think. Eventually, you can have everyone in your organization adopt the lens of JTBD. You’ll then have a consistent engine that drives innovation and growth at all levels of an organization.
You might also feel like JTBD overlaps with other existing techniques. In many cases, you’d be right. Just remember that it’s unlikely that you will replace existing processes with a JTBD approach all at once. Instead, you’ll likely start by introducing parts of JTBD into your current workflow little by little. This book is designed to help you do just that.
The good news is that JTBD is compatible with other modern techniques, such as Design Thinking, Agile, and Lean. Together, these approaches can help you transform the way you do business from end-to-end. As you try the techniques presented here, consider how they may fit into a broader program of modern customer-centered activities.
For instance, people familiar with Intuit will point out after reading the story at the beginning of this introduction that the company also practices user-centered design. Their “Design for Delight” program (aka D4D) actively guides product design and development across the company. So while JTBD is not an instant cure-all, it works well in conjunction with other disciplines and fields.
Finally, keep in mind that techniques in JTBD are still evolving. I continually come across novel uses of jobs thinking, and I encourage you to develop your own approach as you explore the topic. Think of this book as a starting point, a beginning to your understanding of JTBD.
How This Book Is Organized
To structure this book, I asked myself, what is the core job any business strives to get done? Peter Drucker reminds us of a good answer: “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer... the business enterprise has two—and only these two—basic functions: marketing and innovation.”
In other words, businesses exist to create value—value as perceived by customers in satisfying needs (innovation) and value for the company by staying profitable (go-to-market).
From this perspective, I organized the techniques, or plays, in this book around the five stages in providing solutions that customers find valuable:
• Discover value: Find the right problem to solve for the people you serve.
• Define value: Set the direction for addressing the problem you’ve identified.
• Design value: Create solutions that are desirable, viable, and useful.
• Deliver value: Present the solution to the market in a successful business model.
• (Re)develop value: Continue to innovate and grow the business.
Figure I.1 illustrates how these stages come together in an iterative motion.
At the center is the core objective: develop an offering that people will value. To do that, organizations have to first discover and define what they believe customers value. This includes primary research and investigation, along with modeling customer behavior and finding the right opportunities. The left side of the diagram represents the innovation imperative that Drucker mentions.
FIGURE I.1 Providing solutions that customers value is an ongoing process between innovation and go-to-market activities.
The right side represents all the activities an organization does to create solutions and introduce them to a market. This begins with the design of the offering, which then must be delivered to the consumer. It includes everything from conception to planning and marketing to selling.
The cycle repeats: generating business and customer value is about constantly redeveloping your offering. That which is differentiated today will become table stakes tomorrow, and businesses have to constantly reinvent themselves. JTBD provides a consistent way to do that throughout an organization.
Note that this model is not intended to represent a process—rather, it reflects different modes of thinking and operation. A given business will be in all stages at the same time. It’s also important to keep in mind that I’m using this model to organize the various plays of JTBD, not as a practical framework of any kind.
After the book introduces JTBD, each of these stages is handled in a separate chapter. I select several plays to illustrate how JTBD can be applied within each mode of thinking. The last chapter brings plays together in methods or “recipes” you can use in different situations.
Who This Book Is For
Most distinctions between strategy and execution are meaningless. Judgment calls happen at all levels of an organization in a cascade of decision-making. In modern knowledge-worker-based companies, strategy isn’t confined to the upper echelons only—it happens throughout the enterprise. Managers and individual contributors alike need to be aligned to the same perspective, and everyone contributes to providing solutions that customers will value. JTBD provides a North Star to follow.
The CEO of a company, for instance, could look at customer JTBD to inform strategy. The director of a product line could leverage JTBD to prioritize development. A marketer could use JTBD to help shape messages. Support agents could use JTBD to solve customer issues in a consistent way. There are few parts of an organization that wouldn’t benefit from JTBD thinking.
This book is ultimately for change makers and transformation agents inside of companies looking to shift focus toward a customer-centric perspective. It’s suited for managers and thought leaders seeking internal alignment around solving customer problems and addressing unmet needs.
More specifically, this book is for people who have limited resources and would like to use JTBD in a lightweight manner. You don’t have to hire expensive consultants or execute lengthy, costly projects to benefit from jobs thinking. The techniques presented here reflect a simple view of JTBD so that you can get started right away.
CHAPTER 1 Understanding Jobs to Be Done
IN THIS CHAPTER, YOU WILL LEARN:
• How definitions of JTBD vary
• The origins of JTBD theory and practice
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