Jobs-to-be-done provides a framework along with the vision with which an organization can understand its customer’s requirements in-depth. Thus it takes their needs to another level and brings innovation.
How is Jobs-to-be-done unique?
When you opt for the Jobs-to-be-done framework, marketing and innovation completely change. You get to see something unique. Here are some of the things that change-
- The main focus of analysis shifts from the customers or the product to the key function i.e ‘the job’ that the customer wants to be completed.
- The buyer’s section is not restricted to a particular demography, in fact, depended on how the buyers struggle in a variety of manners to get their work done.
- JTBD helps in understanding that customers are not only the buyers but the real job executors.
- Markets are not about the products available but they are defined as what the job buyers want to get done.
- The needs of the customers are not dependent on the unknowledgeable or valuable content it is based on the kind of job customers want to be completed.
- It is all about what job is trying here to be done and finding solutions.
The atlas of the Jobs-to-be-done framework
Be clear about what job customers are trying to get done
First and foremost, the developers of the product should be recognizing and then arrange the jobs that all buyers want to be accomplished. That is begun by recognizing their buyer’s job which comes from-
- The background and the long-term plan
- The personality traits and the customer’s attitude
- The situations that sum up their immediate or near-time related incidents.
The above three elements help in understanding how the customers try to get a particular outcome to be done. In the book, the author discusses the two varied ‘prototype consumer personas’ Jill is a soccer mom who lives in a suburban area. She wants her children to be involved in extracurricular activities and to participate in soccer. She wishes that her family would have healthy and nutritious food and wants everyone to be on time, where they have to be. Due to this, Jill will be keen to have functional products that will fulfill all the requirements quickly and efficiently. She might go for microwaving the food as it is quick cooking while saving the nutrients at the same moment.
While on the other hand, we talk about Buzz as a young technology boy. He may not prefer the same product as Jill. He may be interested in novel features or something related to gadgets. Product developers may want Buzz to purchase their technology-related products. The features that the developers may want Jill to select will be different from what Buzz will select.
Do you have to understand what ‘success’ is as per the customers?
After this, the author of the book recommends that leaders should look at how the customer is trying to define success and also identify the blocks that may interfere with it. The idea is also to develop how a product can give a seamless user experience when there is friction. That is how it is done to choose the features that need to be developed in a particular product.
Outline your product enhancement timeline
Furthermore, the author also recommends that the decision-makers should outline the business stakes and also produces a roadmap. This is done by how the organization will be creating the products within the time to which the job that customers are trying to complete to get their job to be done. The author also suggested that according to him JTBD is a simple and clear mechanism that shifts customers from job driven to jobs for a particular buy and usage activities.
Lastly, the authors mentioned that the organizations should change their way of pricing and evolve from the competition-based pricing model to one that is based on its value. In another language, in ranging their products they should view the customers at how much they are ready to pay at the present moment to reach the desired outcome which prices their commodity and the services as per the demand.
The thing that makes the book unique is that the author has pointed out several things that made the product a failure of the current product. The approaches that were involved here are customer research and brainstorming. The issue is that you need to satisfy the customer and need to find new ones. This is the highest challenge that is faced by the current customers that many organizations are facing.
The author stated that the organization should look at the buyers as the people who are trying to get their multiple jobs to be completed on a daily basis. Due to this, the buyers switch on multiple products, as they are not able to achieve the desired outcome from the first product.
Summing up
The book also explains the reason for the current failure in the development of the commodity, it does not take into doubt capital efficiency itself. It is not necessary how the new methodologies would lead to boosting profitability in the near term or sometimes long-term.
Another thing the book lacks is the analytical assessment of the risk in the development of the commodity development spaces. After the launch, the failure can be because of the same reason which is the inefficient product development methods.
Author Bio
Kriti Saraiya is a blogger and journalism student and writes on technology and health related topics. She has good experience across technology, consulting and marketing. She has written for Thrv – Job to be done.
