In the marketplace, competition is fierce. In order to stay relevant and profitable, businesses need a way to stand out from their competitors. One of the most effective ways for a company to do this is with innovation. Innovation can take many forms but oftentimes it boils down to helping customers get their jobs done better or more cheaply than before. When we examine product successes and failures in the marketplace, we observe the same phenomenon: new products and services win in the marketplace when they help customers get a job done better or more cheaply. This realization led Professor Clayton Christensen at Harvard Business School to develop an innovative framework called “jobs-to-be-done” that has been used by many Fortune 500 companies as well as small businesses to help them innovate and grow. It provides a framework for categorizing, defining, capturing, and organizing all your customer’s needs. In this blog post, we’ll discuss The Jobs to be Done Framework: Understanding Customers and Innovation, how the framework works, and take a look at an example of where it helped one company innovate and grow.
1. What is the Jobs-to-be-Done Framework?
The framework provides a way to categorize, define, capture and organize all your customer’s needs. It does not describe what the customer is doing but rather describes what they are trying to get done .
How would a company use this knowledge?
They could use it as a guide for which products or services they should focus on innovating in order to have the biggest impact with customers.
The Jobs to be done framework helps you understand where customers’ jobs begin and end, what their pain points are (job dissatisfaction), whether they’re getting the job done better or more cheaply by using your product, and how you can make it easier for them to get the job done.
What does this mean?
This framework helps companies understand where customers’ jobs begin and end as well as if there are any pain points or if they are satisfied with how their job is being done.
2. How does it work and what are its benefits
By understanding what customers are trying to accomplish you can create products and services that help them do their jobs better, more cheaply or both .
What does this mean? This means that if a company knows exactly what customer needs are being fulfilled they can successfully innovate in order to have the biggest impact with their customers.
The benefits of using this framework include:
-
Create products that help customers get their jobs done better or cheaper
-
Quickly identify opportunities for innovation and new product development
-
Gain deeper understanding of customer needs, motivations, expectations and behavior
-
Develop a clearer picture of the customer’s journey and identify areas for improvement
-
Increase sales growth, market share and profitability by understanding what drives customer behavior
3. An example of how the Jobs-to-be-done framework helped a company innovate and grow
A home improvement store in Quebec used the framework to help them identify opportunities for innovation.
What did they do?
They conducted interviews with customers who were coming into their stores but not buying anything. This helped them understand what was keeping these potential customers from making a purchase and how they could be more helpful during this process.
What happened?
They were able to identify key moments in the customer journey that they could improve upon. This is what helped them create new products and services which lead to increased sales, market share, profitability etc.
Who can use this framework?
Any company with customers looking for either a better or cheaper way of getting their jobs done.
What are some more examples?
Companies in the financial services, telecommunications, retail and travel industries have all used this framework to help them innovate better products for their customers .
Final Notes:
In conclusion, the Jobs-to-be-done framework is a powerful tool that can help you innovate and grow your business. The way it works is by understanding what jobs customers want done in different situations, which will allow you to create products or services that fit their needs better than anything else on the market. If this sounds like something you would be interested in learning more about, please contact us for a consultation today!