This document provides an introduction to foundational concepts of innovation including:
1. Customers hire products and services to fulfill jobs or tasks that need to be done. How the job is defined impacts innovation opportunities.
2. Customers determine what defines success or failure for the job based on their outcome expectations.
3. Properly scoping the job to be done, either by broadening or narrowing the focus, helps ensure innovation efforts target the right problem.
4. Understanding customer outcome expectations, like wanting something faster or cheaper, helps provide solutions customers truly value.
3. Foundational Concepts
Customers hire products and services
to get functional and emotional aspects of jobs
done.
2. How the job is scoped impacts innovation.
3. Customers define success and failure criteria
for each job (called outcome expectations).
1.
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6. “The lesson here for the drill manufacturer
is that if they really believe their business is
the manufacture of drills rather
than, say, the manufacture of the means of
making holes in materials, they are in grave
danger of going out of business as soon as
a better means of making holes is
invented, such as, say, a pocket laser.”
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7. What does the customer need?
Job to be Done
Get somewhere
See clearly
Search for
information
Old Solution
Horse
Glasses
Library*
Newer Solution
Car, plane
Contacts, Lasik
Internet
*Actual example used in the workshop and book
Wear clean
clothes
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Washing
machine and
detergent
Wait ‘til you hear
this!
8. Aspects of JTBD
Functional (practical, objective customer requirements)
Emotional (subjective customer requirements)
Personal (how customer feels about the solution)
Social (how customer believes he’s perceived by
others while using the solution)
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9. Shoot for specificity
Solution-neutral
action verb + object of action + (optionally) contextual
clarifier. For example:
Hang a framed print on the wall in my office
Share accurate procedural information with work colleagues
Listen to music while working out
Entertain my young children on long weekends
Get away from work during my lunch hour
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10. Write a job statement
Think of a topic from your own work where you might
benefit from creative thinking.
Use the formula, action verb + object of action +
contextual clarifier.
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11. Paradigm Shift
1.
What functional or emotional job to be
done is satisfied by a book? What else
(“out there”/our competitors) also
satisfies that same need?
2.
Segment customers by
JTBD/outcomes, not by demographics
or products. What would this mean?
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13. Ensure that the innovation opportunity is
effectively targeted at an actionable level
Solve the right problem
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14. Go broader or narrower
Example: Increase circulation
Each of these merits different solutions.
•Increase circulation of
children’s items
•Increase circulation of
children’s DVDs
•Increase circulation of
children’s educational DVDs
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Why are items not
circ’ing?
17. Scoping a JTBD
From Library’s Perspective
Broaden the focus by
asking, “Why do we want to
solve this problem?”
Narrow the focus by
asking, “What is stopping us
from solving this problem?”
Or, “What is the root cause
of this problem?”
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From Patron’s Perspective
Go higher: Ask the
patron, (higher: fundamental
aim), “Why are you doing
what you’re doing?”
Go lower: Ask the
patron, “What prevents you
from doing it? What are the
obstacles?”
20. Give customers more of what they desire. Determine
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what is of value to customers.
Each step in a process and each job has OE
attached
Set by the customer
Solution has to meet these parameters.
Metrics: What is acceptable to the patron? How will
we know if we’ve met their needs?
21. Common OE Drivers
Customers often want it faster, cheaper, better.
_________________________________________
Minimize cost
Increase safety
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Increase flexibility/options
Increase ease of doing a job
Increase speed (minimize time)
Increase quality
(reliability, accuracy, maintainability, consistency/pre
dictability, completeness)
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22. Two Questions
What to tackle first? For each step in a process
or each outcome expectation, ask the patron:
1. How satisfied are you?
2. How important is this to you?
?
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?
26. “Humans naturally establish logic
patterns as they process information
over time, so creative thinking
actually becomes unnatural.
The only way to spark it is to move
away from these patterns, and using
random stimulus is one way to do
that.”
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27. 1. Random Stimulus: mayonnaise
2. What comes to mind
when you think of mayonnaise?
3. What does any of the above
have to do with our
JTBD, Increase foot traffic in our libraries?
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In May I went to a 4.5 day innovation tools and techniques workshop in Denver put on by BMGI. Use handout
Innovation is a 4-phase process, each with its own tools.
Part of Define phase
4 activities today in 90 minutes.Every time you see the *, we’re doing something…except this time!
People don’t want a lawnmower, they want an attractive lawn. Hence, innovative solutions could include slow-growing grass or grass that only grows 2” high. That’s better than a better lawnmower!In his classic article on marketing, Marketing Myopia (1960) Theodore Levitt pointed out that when customers buy 1/4 inch drills what they really want are 1/4 inch holes. As de Chernatony and McDonald point out, “the lesson here…(Creating Powerful Brands p. 4). http://advertisingmodule.wordpress.com/module-notes/week-1/what-do-customers-want/Link to libraries?
Clothes washing (want clean clothes; solution right now is washing machine. In China, spray and hang outside; sunlight causes reaction to clean clothes; Sanyo washer uses sonic vibrations to clean clothes). If clothes physically repelled dirt, could not get dirty then we wouldn’t have to wash them. Special glasses that make others THINK you’re wearing clean clothes.
A main JTBD and related JTBDIf three parts of brain in conflict (reptilian, emotional, intellectual), reptilian wins.If emotional-intellectual conflict, emotional wins. Find intellectual alibi to justify themselves.Goal: meet all layers and jobsFunctional: I need to hang a picture (nail). Emotional: personal: I feel soothed when I look at this picture of the Bahamas. Emotional-social: I feel sophisticated when others remark on my art selection
Can find new JTBD that our existing solution meets. We have open rooms; who needs them? Whose problem would that solve? List a JTBD from patron perspective
DiscussionWhat are our patrons’ jobs to be done? What do they come to us for REALLY? Think beyond our items. Why do they want them? Share what I think patrons come for (entertainment, information). Then who are our competitors (movies, television, crafts)not by adults, teens, children; not by audiobook readers versus DVD patrons versus storytime attendees)
How narrowly or broadly you define the challenge will impact your solutions
Back to our ¼’ drill. Not about making a better drill. What about going broader? Why does the customer want a hole? To insert a screw. Why a screw? Trying to fasten two pieces (say, hinge and wood). What if there was a better way to fasten items together?
What is your perspective? It matters.
Narrower: What’s the root cause of the problem? What’s stopping us from solving this?Broader: Why do we want to solve this problem?
Use the handout. Better to work from the patron’s perspective
Can also be extracted from comments.OE. Nail: Sturdy, not rust, certain length, cheap, not show, must be removable without damageJewelry: silver, under $50, look expensive, match my taste, be unique
In bold are the more common wantsWhy do people go to McDonald’s? Fast and cheap. Not the best food. If want the best food, go elsewhere.
You’ll graph them and this is what you’re looking for: very important to patron and very unsatisfied
Move resources away from over-served? Market view but could it be organizational view?Another tool: Ethnography to watch patrons and askOpportunity score/value quotient
Discovery tool for spawning fresh ideasFree association with a random word or image
Bring dictionary or have a magazine. Open and point.15 minutes to list associations15 minutes for ideas15 minutes to report out
Best resource!
Spoke at CAL, 10/17/2013& deadly sins that keep us from doing our best:Fear of perceived consequence of failureGuardedness: Innovation is a team sport, we need others to keep us focused, mobilized, and engaged.Comfort: you can’t pursue comfort and brilliant work simultaneously