Simply asking “what job is the customer trying to get done?” can be a powerful way to enable innovation, because it forces you to go beyond superficial demographic markers that correlate with purchase and use to zero in on frustrations and desires that motivate purchase and use.
Seductive simplicity hides a rich, robust set of opportunity identification tools. Through our experience utilizing the “jobs-to-be-done” concept in a range of settings, my colleagues and I have developed five tips for would-be innovators: the five Cs of opportunity identification (modeled after marketing’s famous four Ps — price, product, place, and promotion).
1. Circumstance. The specific problems a customer cares about and the way they assess solutions is very circumstance contingent. A parent looking for a convenient way to diagnose whether their child has an ear infection thinks and acts very differently from someone who suffered a broken arm. In the first circumstance, MinuteClinic and other convenience-oriented, kiosk-based solutions work wonders; in the second they clearly fall short. Create a simple “job-circumstance” matrix that has primary jobs-to-be-done on one axis and common circumstances on the other axis. It is a simple way to visualize opportunities for innovation.
2. Context. Ask a customer to report what they did in the past and you are likely to get something that bears only a loose resemblance to reality. Ask a customer to describe what they will do in the future and you are going to get guesses that are less than accurate. As innovation thought leader and former Procter & Gamble executive Karl Ronn puts it, “You have no conscious memory of how you do routine tasks.”
The trick is to get to context — to find a way to be with the customer when they encounter a problem and watch how they try to solve it. Ronn, who helped P&G turn Swiffer and Febreze into billion-dollar brands, believes that small-sample contextual research is much more valuable than larger sample focus groups.
3. Constraints. One of the time-tested paths to growth is to develop an innovative means around a barrier constraining consumption. Southwest’s discount airline service, which attracted people who might otherwise take the bus or not travel at all, and Nintendo’s Wii gaming console, which appealed to families looking for simple entertainment, are but two examples of companies reaping the rewards of this strategy. One warning: understanding why a customer doesn’t consume is critical. If it is because existing solutions are too expensive, require specialized skills, or are inconvenient, then innovate away. If it is because of basic indifference, be careful. Success might not be quite as attainable as you thought.
Read the full article Harvard Business Review
Scott D. Anthony is managing director of Innosight Asia-Pacific.