Jobs To Be Done and

Innovation isn t about coming up with new or better stuff it s about solving the problem of what to come up with in the first place. Most organizations are busy filing patents and making their products and services better, but what they really need to do is better address their jobs to be done, and their customers jobs to be done. 

Which tool is best for developing expert systems The answer is that it depends on the job to be done and the resources available. How large is the problem to be solved Are professional programmers and/or knowledge engineers available to create the system Is broad hardware compatibility an issue Which is more important, development time or system performance time Is the system to be distributed How important is cost These questions are some of the considerations in the choice of development and deployment tools. 

Fipcos and satellite companies from the pharmaceutical industry seek help in the pages of C EN. One typical kind of help-wanted advertisement describes the particular job to be done and specifies an identifying job code. 

Establishing the planning and analysis concept is emphasized here, with a caution against creating burdensome procedures and reports for simplistic non-routine jobs. For those jobs, if it became the accepted practice that workers think through the job to be done and plan the work methods, discuss the hazards and risks, and determine whether the risks are or are not acceptable, that would be a highly favorable accomplishment. 

Depending upon the purpose and circumstances of the job to be done, the operator will need different ways of setting off his charges. He may need only a short delay, such as may be provided by a piece of time fuse, to permit him to get out of range of the explosion. He may need a reasonably accurate delay of several hours. He may wish to initiate the action instantaneously himself at a precise moment. Or he may wish to have the action initiated by the target. 

The job analysis provides useful information for both employees and managers. For managers, information from the job analysis is used in writing job descriptions, interviewing job candidates, screening candidates, and setting performance criteria. For employees, information from the job analysis tells employees how work is to be done and the outcomes expected. 

If you remember anything about jobs to be done, remember this they are completely neutral of the solutions you create (your products and services). While a customer JTBD remains fairly stable over time, your products and services should change at strategic intervals as you strive to provide ever-increasing value. 

In Jobs To Be Done (Technique 1), we provide instructions for how to develop job statements and how to determine which JTBDs are priorities for innovation. Follow these steps to select the JTBD for which you ll develop related outcome expectations. 

The outcome statements improve the consistency and reliability of collecting useful information regarding the job to be done. It is very important to follow the outcome statement structure to enhance repeatability and avoid confusion. 

The appliance company decides the JTBD is to clean clothes at home. See Jobs To Be Done (Technique 1) for more guidance on how to formulate and prioritize jobs for innovation. 

Use Heuristic Redefinition when your innovation job to be done (JTBD) is not well defined, or is broad rather than targeted in nature and you need more specificity to take meaningful innovation action. This technique is very helpful to innovation leaders who are assembling their innovation project portfolios. 

The team should create an illustration of the system for meeting the JTBD (see Jobs To Be Done, Technique 1), showing all of its major elements. Remember that any combination of functions can be considered a system or a subsystem, no matter how large or small. The waiting room at a dental office is a subsystem, and so is the dentist s tool tray. 

Scoping an innovation project is important because the way you define the opportunity, or the job to be done (JTBD), can make the difference between a run-of-the-mill solution and a truly innovative approach. Although similar to Nine Windows (Technique 6), Job Scoping may take your project in a completely different direction, so it s worthwhile to apply both techniques early in the innovation project. 

Choose team members with a variety of technical and nontechnical skills, experience, and motivation related to the specific job statement or JTBD (see Jobs To Be Done, Technique 1). 

What job, problem, or task creates the focus for your innovation effort What are its associated customer and provider outcome expectations Have you already created a project statement or job statement See Jobs To Be Done, Outcome Expectations, and Project Charter (Techniques 1, 2, and 10 respectively). 

Before you use this tool, it s best to make sure you have clarity on how the current process or product is used to achieve the job to be done (JTBD). Articulate the JTBD and the current approach for delivering its solution. Remind the team to stay focused on the JTBD, so that innovative solutions (with higher value quotients) can be generated, not just incremental improvements to current solutions. (For more information, see Jobs To Be Done, Technique 1.)... 

Review the problem, or job to be done (see Technique 1), and identify the following key elements ... 

The goal of Provocation and Movement is to improve the satisfaction level of an outcome, or generate a solution that allows you to better fulfill a job to be done. 

Using other techniques in this book, you have already scoped the JTBD (see Jobs To Be Done, Technique 1) and identified associated outcome expectations (see Technique 2). Now, ask, What would nature do to solve this problem In doing so, you realize that nature isn t the environment in which your design will live instead it s a model on which to base your design. This subtle shift is important if you want to draw inspiration from nature and follow its guiding principles ... 

A concept links a group of ideas together, whereas a broad concept brings all the concepts under one umbrella. Both concepts and broad concepts are subjective—there is no right or wrong answer as long as the answer serves the job to be done. 

It can appear sometimes that perception expectations are synonymous with outcome expectations, but they are not. While they can seem similar to the untrained eye, perception expectations relate specifically to the solution at hand (as do performance expectations), while outcome expectations are solution-neutral and relate to the job to be done. 

Each alternative concept is compared to the baseline datum relative to several evaluation criteria, in this case, solution-level performance and perception expectations. Each evaluation criterion becomes a row in the Pugh Matrix. When using the Pugh Matrix to evaluate initial innovation ideas relative to some job to be done, the list of evaluation criteria are synonymous... 

The Mistake Proofingtechnique can be leveraged early in the innovation process to help you scope your opportunity and generate ideas. For instance, a new feature in some automobiles makes the car brake automatically if it senses that you re about to hit the vehicle in front of you. The mistake-proofing strategy of preventing accidents was leveraged early on when the job to be done was identified. 

A job to be done (JTBD) is the purpose for which customers buy products and services, like buying sanitizing soap to keep hands clean and germ-free at work. If you can fulfill this JTBD for your customers better than your competitors can, at a lower cost and with no harmful side effects, then you win market share. 

In reality, business success requires focus on more than just performance and perception expectations, which are related to the features and functionality of specific offerings (solution specific). It s also critical— especially if you want to innovate—to understand outcome expectations, which are less concrete and related to the jobs customers need to get done (solution neutral). For instance, if illuminating the darkness is the job to be done, then doing this with ease and convenience is an outcome expectation. 

On the flip side, when important outcomes are poorly satisfied, or the solutions for important jobs to be done are ad hoc or nonexistent, that s a glaring opportunity for innovation. Once the opportunity is identified, any company can pursue focused ideation and solution development to provide more value than what exists today. 

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