Entrepreneurship and StartupsBusiness Models

• Main Point: Customers hire products and services to get a particular job done – to achieve an outcome they desire.
• Actionable Step: Conduct customer interviews to understand the specific jobs they are trying to accomplish. Focus on the underlying motivations and desired outcomes.
• Example: In the book, Ulwick describes how parents don’t just buy a bedtime storybook to read; they do so to help their children fall asleep quickly and peacefully.

• Main Point: Clearly define the functional, emotional, and social dimensions of the customer job. Functional jobs are practical tasks, emotional jobs encompass personal feelings, and social jobs relate to perceptions and social interactions.
• Actionable Step: Create a customer journey map that identifies each aspect of the job, categorizing the functional, emotional, and social aspects.
• Example: A customer may hire a meal kit delivery service not only to save time cooking (functional) but also to feel healthier (emotional) and to impress friends with their cooking skills (social).

• Main Point: Ulwick introduces Outcome-Driven Innovation as a systematic and predictable approach to innovation that is focused on customer needs and desired outcomes.
• Actionable Step: Use surveys and interviews to gather data on what outcomes are most important and least satisfied in current solutions. Prioritize these outcomes to guide product development.
• Example: Ulwick mentions the development of a new type of surgical stapler based on understanding the specific outcomes surgeons wanted, which included reliability and minimal tissue damage.

• Main Point: Identify and prioritize unmet needs to find innovation opportunities. This requires quantifying the importance of the outcome versus how well current solutions perform.
• Actionable Step: Develop a scoring system to evaluate how well existing products meet each identified need and where the gaps are.
• Example: In the book, Ulwick explains how a company identified that customers were frustrated with slow download speeds for software updates, suggesting that a solution addressing speed would be valued.

• Main Point: Segment markets based on the job-to-be-done rather than traditional demographics.
• Actionable Step: Organize market segments by shared specific jobs and desired outcomes. Adjust marketing messages to speak directly to these segments.
• Example: Ulwick shares a case where a pest control company segmented its market into different types of ‘jobs’ customers had, such as immediate need for eradication versus preventive measures.

• Main Point: Develop a precise innovation strategy that targets the high-value jobs and outcomes.
• Actionable Step: Create product or service concepts that explicitly address the most critical and unsatisfied customer outcomes.
• Example: The book mentions how a company realigned its dental product line to specifically address the primary outcomes desired by dentists, such as improved patient comfort and procedural efficiency.

• Main Point: Analyze competitors through the lens of the jobs customers are hiring their products to do, rather than through product features alone.
• Actionable Step: Benchmark competitor products based on the same outcome-driven metrics used for your own products to identify where your product can outperform.
• Example: Ulwick describes how a tech startup compared its app’s ability to organize tasks against competitor apps by measuring user satisfaction with each task management outcome.

• Main Point: Collect detailed data on customer outcomes by employing qualitative methods (like interviews) and quantitative methods (like surveys).
• Actionable Step: Develop a standardized list of questions focused on understanding what customers want to achieve and what struggles they face.
• Example: When designing a new kitchen appliance, a company followed Ulwick’s method by interviewing users to discover that ease of cleaning was a crucial unmet need.

• Main Point: Prioritize outcomes based on their importance to customers and their current satisfaction level.
• Actionable Step: Use outcome prioritization grids to visualize the importance versus satisfaction for various outcomes. Focus R&D on high-importance, low-satisfaction outcomes.
• Example: In the book, the author illustrates how prioritizing easy-to-use interface features over less critical functionalities led a software company to greater success.

• Main Point: Develop product concepts that aim to address the prioritized outcomes.
• Actionable Step: Create prototypes or concept sketches that specifically enhance the top-priority outcomes. Test these concepts with customers for feedback and refinement.
• Example: Ulwick describes how testing new medical device features with actual doctors helped refine the product to better meet their clinical needs.

• Main Point: Build a business case for your new product or service concept rooted in the jobs-to-be-done framework.
• Actionable Step: Quantify the market potential by assessing how many customers share the same high-priority jobs and unmet needs.
• Example: A fitness equipment company crafted a business case by modeling how addressing common workout frustrations would potentially tap into a large, dissatisfied consumer base.

• Context: Bosch sought to innovate its cordless drills.
• Outcome: By identifying the critical outcome of maximizing battery life and minimizing recharge time, Bosch developed a new line of drills that outperformed competitors and resonated with both professional and DIY customers.
• Actionable Insight: Focus product development on specific high-priority outcomes identified through customer feedback.

• Context: Microsoft needed to regain trust after the poorly received Vista OS.
• Outcome: By focusing on the outcomes customers wanted, such as fast boot times and compatibility, Microsoft realigned its development efforts and launched a much more successful product.
• Actionable Insight: Conduct extensive pre-launch testing and feedback sessions with users to ensure key outcomes are met.

• Ongoing Review: Continuously revisit the jobs-to-be-done framework to adapt to evolving customer needs and market dynamics. Ensure your product development, marketing, and customer service teams are aligned with this customer-centric approach.
• Example: Regularly update customer research and refine products or services based on fresh insights, much like how tech companies continually release software updates to meet evolving user expectations.

Entrepreneurship and StartupsBusiness Models