The crux of success in innovation is adoption. We may think we know what our customers will like, but more often than not, we are surprised and dismayed when we watch our “innovative” product or service flounder after launch.
The odds of creating exactly the right product or service to disrupt a vulnerable incumbent are probably less than 25%. Failure is expensive as it comes late in the development cycle after the investment of time, energy and money.
Best-selling author and Harvard professor Clayton Christensen provides answers and a solution in “Competing Against Luck” which comes after two decades of research where he carefully and inductively observed people who bought and sold things. What is the customer trying to do with the purchase? Why does the seller think the customer needs the product?
He found a big disconnect… and the answer to why adoption is often not achieved. He also found a solution. He urges readers to abandon the old way of framing customer’s needs and look at the customer through a new lens with one question, “What is the customer hiring the product to do? What is the job?”
“The fundamental problem is that companies accumulate masses of data that are not organized in a way that enables them to reliably predict which ideas will succeed. But none of the data tells you why customers make the choices they do."
Now with “Competing Against Luck,” Christensen offers a paradigm change, “The Jobs Theory,” that provides a new lens and a discovery mindset that will help innovators (and investors) answer one of the most important questions that has bedeviled us for decades: is innovation inherently a question of luck? With this new tool, the answer is no.
In Section 1, “An Introduction to Jobs Theory,” he defines “what is a job?” and goes on to put meat on the bone by explaining what is not a job, how can we discern a job and what are the theory’s limits.”
To understand a job, it is critical to understand what “progress” is for the customer. A job is defined “as the progress that a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance.” It’s key to why choices are made. It represents movement.
Circumstance is fundamental to finding a solution. Where are you? Who are you with? While doing what? What were you doing ½ an hour ago? What are you doing next? What social or cultural or political pressures are exerting influence?
Social and emotional needs can far outweigh any functional desires. Who will I trust to take care of my children? The old ways of organizing - centered on product attributes, customer characteristics (lifestage, financial status, etc.), trends and competitive response - are insufficient.
In contrast to what is normally baked into today’s customer research, neither product/service cost nor efficiency are a core element to defining a job. Also, Christensen notes from his research that new products succeed not because of the features and functionality they offer but because of the experiences they enable. When you enable the right experience for your customer, they will pay a premium price.
Section 2 gets at the nuts and bolts of how to apply the theory. The author challenges us to uncover jobs to be done in our own life. Look for opportunities in non-consumption, identifying workarounds, zoning in on things we do not want to do and spotting unusual uses of products.
While it is important to listen to the customer, you have to listen to hear what your customers don’t say. “Rarely can the customer articulate the requirements accurately or completely – their motivations more complex in their pathways to purchase more elaborate than they can describe. What they hire – and equally important, what they fire – tells a story.” Steve Jobs was famously known for listening to what was not said.
Southern New Hampshire University, which has become a national leader in online education, sought answers to these questions when trying to ascertain “what they were being hired to do”:
What are the experiences customers seek in order to make progress?
What obstacles must be removed?
What are the social, emotional and functional dimensions?
In Section 3, Christensen outlines how one can create a Jobs focused organization. There are many critical elements. One is metrics. What gets measured gets done. Creating the right metrics is hard but important. Companies get focused on revenue instead of delivering the customer benefit. We can consider metrics like “how much time do we save this customer? Do we improve their cash flow?” He notes that Amazon focuses on when orders are delivered not when they are shipped.
He goes on to note the problems of the old frame. Engineers and operators have focused on the product specification rather than the “job specification.” As a result, the organization has overweighted the value of its technology and underweighted the downstream applications of that technology to solve customer problems that enable their desired progress.
There is a lot in “Competing Against Luck” to unpack. Just keep in mind that Christensen’s Jobs Theory was developed not to explain past successes but to help us increase the predictability of new ones. Identifying and understanding the job is only the beginning. Having empathy for the customer so we can create the right set of experiences in solving the job- is the key. It is easier for competitors to copy products but it is difficult for them to copy experiences that are well integrated into your offering.
Should you buy this book?…that depends on the progress you seek and the job that needs to be done. By digging in and applying this new lens, you can cede luck to your competitors and leave them in the dust.
Some afterthoughts:
• NetFlix was hired to provide entertainment anywhere, anytime with control over time without a penalty.
• Why didn’t Hertz come up with the Zipcar?
• Why didn’t Kodak excel in digital photography?
• Why is Sports Illustrated being fired for ESPN?
• Why is Amazon buying Whole Foods?
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I find This book to be quite useful. A more expanded Version of the jobs to be done theory from Clay Christiansen. I do find the book could’ve been a little bit more concise and a little bit less on the stories themselves. Alas one actually need stories to explain a lot of things.If you have red clear Christiansen work that he has done before. You’ll be very familiar with his jobs to be done Theory and This would be A delightful refresher for you and a more expounded version that you can readily apply.Like about this book is that it also lays out what the theory is in capable of doing. It is not a “fix all” solution.Al in all good read.Personal caveat: Never expect to get all the answers for businesses, startup or Innovation solutions from anyone book or anyone theory.
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Top reviews from other countries
Hande Z
Right question, wrong answer
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 22, 2019
Danny
One of the most useful books
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 22, 2019TinaN
Great book! Totally recommend it!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 10, 2021George Perry
The only innovation book you should buy.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 7, 2017RX8bqRERT0PgorZDzRjG
too much waffle
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 23, 2018
