JTBD Application Methods

The business concept of Jobs to Be Done (JTBD), if desired, can be reduced to one term – customer focus. This is literally “The Job That Must Be Done” to ensure that the customer is satisfied with your product and returns to the company's services in the future. This sounds generally simple and straightforward, but there are comprehensive methods for applying JTBD to innovation, and each of them turns the theory of work into an effective, repeatable method of innovation.

Whether you follow the traditional method or create a situational sequence within JTBD, try to include your teammates in the dialogue. So, these are the methods we are talking about.

1. Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI)

Tony Ulvik's bottom-line innovation is perhaps the most comprehensive and mature approach to using JTBD to date. It represents a complete JTBD process covering the entire company's strategy. Summarizing the results, ODI can be divided into four stages:

• Define the job

The core job is a broad definition of a functional goal, accompanied by a portfolio of desired outcomes (i.e., needs) and emotional and social dimensions. Works can be discovered through in-depth preliminary research with the performers. The term “work” is used here within the framework of the JTBD concept, i.e. these are the processes that the client wants to be carried out. He doesn’t want a specific product, he doesn’t want your employees to perform any internal corporate actions, the client requires perfect work, he buys the result.

• Create a job map

Work is presented as a process rather than a static point in time. It is captured in the form of a diagram showing how the work unfolds. The work map becomes a key model for organizing information in the process of activity.

• Define desired results

Needs are considered in relation to the main job. Each main work can correspond to from 50 to 150 desired results that are discovered during the research process.

• Quantify the market

By using surveys to find unmet needs, market opportunities can be pinpointed from a JTBD perspective.

The information discovered is applicable to everything from creating a corporate strategy to developing a product map and even shaping marketing campaigns. Keep in mind that ODI is not a product development method, but rather a market-level view of any business through the lens of JTBD. ODI's influence reaches the highest levels of the organization and can extend even further. But following all the ODI steps requires extra care. Finding shortcuts does not work here: it will distort the results and provoke false interpretation. The last stage, the quantitative assessment of the market, is particularly problematic. The survey used for this purpose is quite difficult for participants, even with good incentives. Further analysis requires precise measurements. ODI is difficult to repeat without preparation, guidance and practice.

Still, ODI is a well-described and accessible method. There are many resources available to explore it in depth, including Ulvik's full book, which is freely available.

2. Atlas of works

Stephen Wunker, Jessica Whatman, and David Farber recommend creating what's called a job atlas, or a big-picture view of how a job gets done. Creating a work atlas is a complete method, divided into three large stages.

Step 1: Know where you're starting from

At this stage, the goal is to find jobs in your industry that people are eager to do. Start by understanding the problem space from the individual's perspective. The key step is to find the engines for getting the job done—that is, the underlying contextual elements that make the job more or less important to specific clients. There are three types of drivers that can be identified during interviews.

• Circumstances – situational ones related to the near future

factors influencing the decision-making process.

• Views represent basic personality characteristics that can influence how work is done, including social pressures and other people's expectations.

• Prerequisites – long-term context that influences the decision-making process, such as environmental factors (weather), work schedules, or unexpected events.

Then you determine what approaches people use when doing the work. For

To do this, create a sketch of the scenario (an example is shown in the figure), including not only the stages of work, but also the people involved, pain points and the available means of achieving the goal at each stage.

It is pain points that make it possible to help the client do his own work better. In this sense, they correspond to unfulfilled needs in the work process.

Stage 2. Designate the destination and obstacles along the way

Once the first step is complete, teams can begin designing the solution. Resist the urge to rush through the process and continue to understand the problem you’re solving. The goal of this step is to gather the metrics of success that customers will use to evaluate your solution. Regardless of its features or functions, focus on the outcomes that people want. For example, a maker of portable digital music players might emphasize storage capacity and battery life. But using the language of work will highlight the most important needs that customers might have, such as a larger music collection and better ability to listen to music on the go. The trick is to identify what people want more of, what they want less of, and find a balance between the two. Finally, Wunker and his colleagues recommend looking for barriers to achieving the goal. They write, “If the new offering does not align with ingrained behavior and expectations, customers will resist the change and will find reasons not to switch.” Consider different types of potential barriers, even before the solution is designed.

• Lack of knowledge about the job. Customers don't buy what they don't know and can't understand.

• Changes in behavior. Getting people to change is often harder than you expect.

• Lots of decision makers. The purchase must be coordinated with several people, this often complicates or completely cancels a potential sale.

• High price. Direct and indirect costs may be perceived as disproportionately high.

• High risks. Solutions may be perceived as risky to use.

• Unfamiliar category. Consumers find it more difficult to accept innovative products entering a new category. It is difficult for them to immediately determine their value.

• Lack of infrastructure. Product adoption will be slower if the solution requires new infrastructure, such as a network of charging stations for electric vehicles.

• New pain points. Switching to a new solution may cause more problems than it solves.

• Advertising hype. The craze for cool new products can pass faster than they are adopted.

• Wrong target audience. Products are aimed at the wrong target audience or are not customer-focused at all.

The resulting list of obstacles for your situation will serve as a guide to help shape your solution. Think of them as requirements to use to evaluate potential ideas as you develop them.

Step 3: Make the trip rewarding

Unlike other JTBD approaches, Wunker, Whatman, and Farber use a framework to make a preliminary assessment of the potential value of an innovation. This way they can turn their findings into possible profits. The goal is to frame markets in terms of work rather than products. Look at the different market segments that you have identified by researching the circumstances, attitudes and background of the people doing the work. Then ask yourself: Will satisfying each person's work needs have an impact on the company's bottom line? The point is to evaluate the business value of doing the work before you have a specific solution.

Overall, the customer-centric innovation roadmap provides a practical approach to creating products and services that people actually want. Don't forget that the work atlas is part of a broader innovation roadmap. Its creation must be purely practical. It requires straightforward, intuitive methods that are suitable for a wide variety of affected groups.

3. Switching and the Four Forces

The switching method also provides a directed sequence of steps for applying JTBD. Following in-depth switch interviews, Four Forces analysis provides a framework for understanding client motivations. These discoveries can then be used to improve existing products or create innovations.

Shifting is not a completely innovative method, but it fits well with other methodologies such as design thinking, lean manufacturing and other approaches to creating innovation. The sequence of stages when switching may look like this:

• Conduct an interview. As a general approach, switching is based on a completely understandable interview methodology. In this JTBD approach, all studies begin with interviews aimed at understanding the underlying motivation for switching between different ways of working, which in turn indicates the work that needs to be done.

• Find patterns. Review the content of the interview and use the Four Forces analysis to find common threads. Compile the key patterns you discover into a summary report for your team. The goal is to identify the main motivations for doing a job, which will help predict why people hire a solution.

• Identify opportunities. Test your motivations in a mixed workshop. First, communicate the key drivers and give each participant the opportunity to pose issues for discussion during the ideation process. Questions should begin with the phrase “How might we…” to have a consistent format. Then group the issues and prioritize them so that the team finds the biggest problems to solve.

• Form decisions. Conduct structured brainstorming sessions as a group. Dedicate separate group discussions to the most pressing questions in the “How We Might…” series. Then let each of these groups develop a solution to the problem. Present final decisions to the whole group for discussion and repeat the cycle.

• Conduct experiments. The ideas and concepts generated during the process are not yet ready for application. To bring solutions to perfection, experiments are needed. Find ways to quickly prototype, test proposed solutions, and go through the cycle again.

After all, comprehensive methods are good, but they can rarely be replicated in detail. As a rule, situations arise that require changes: time, budget, personal characteristics of the participants and desired results require deviations from the canon.

JTBD is a voluminous topic, but very important for successful business. This approach, if applied correctly, can increase the efficiency of your business by a third, and in certain situations even save the company. You can learn in detail about how it appeared, how it works and, most importantly, how to apply JTBD in practice, in the book by Jim Kalbach “Jobs to Be Done Method. Designing a Customer-Oriented Product”. Jim is a well-known teacher in the field of ux and customer service, having worked as a consultant for large brands like SONY, eBay or Audi.