Summary of Innovation Breakfast at GBQ Partners
On Thursday, 9/21, about 30 executives attended the executive breakfast hosted by Reveal at GBQ Partners – “Rethinking Innovation: How the Jobs-to-Be-Done Approach Delivers Dramatically Better Results.” GBQ’s offices, with their floor-to-ceiling windows and views, open spaces for mingling, and comfortable training rooms, was the perfect venue for the event.
Urko started it off presenting an overview of the “jobs-to-be-done” (JTBD) innovation approach, explaining how it answers perhaps the most important question every organization must answer: “How do customers define value?” He also showed how JTBD is different from and complementary to other innovation approaches increasing success rates by over 200%.
One of the big takeaways is that customer “needs” are separate and distinct from solutions. As the late great Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt said many years ago, “People don’t want to buy a ¼” drill; they want a ¼” hole!” The “drill” is separate and distinct from the need of “making a hole.” When it comes to innovation, customer “needs” are best defined as the ‘jobs’ (or tasks) customers are trying to get done in a specific circumstance, and the criteria they use to measure success. While it is true that customers cannot tell suppliers what solution they want because they don’t have the expertise, they can tell suppliers what they want to get done, functionally, emotionally, and socially. Understanding this distinction between needs (jobs to be done) and solutions enables organizations to turn innovation into a business process that deliver predictable results.
After Urko finished the JTBD overview, an executive panel convened comprised of Darci Congrove (Managing Director of GBQ), Jeff Baker (Head of Customer Insights, Category Management, and Strategy at Valvoline) and Curtis Crocker (Managing Partner at Reservoir Venture Partners and CEO at SpineDynx). Each executive shared how they used JTBD (and Reveal) to overcome a particular growth challenge. Interestingly, the circumstances, objectives, and results that each executive obtained were quite different even though they all were relying upon the same JTBD approach.
For Darci and GBQ, in addition to creating new service lines and revenue, one of the best outcomes from employing the JTBD approach with Reveal was to see the partners and associates adopt the customers’ point of view. As Darci put it:
“One of the most important things that came out of our work with Urko, that enabled us to create new services and revenue, was a shift in our mentality from focusing on what we know how to do, to what the client is trying to get done. Instead of saying “Here’s the audit report,” now we ask, “What is the client trying to get done with the audit report and how can we provide good business advice along with that work product?”
When leadership helps its people understand what target customers are trying to accomplish – as opposed to what the firm sells – a culture of innovation is being created.
Jeff Baker of Valvoline focused more on some of the principles he has learned in his 15 years of using the JTBD approach including projects he did with Urko at NetJets and Microsoft. He reiterated something he said in a recent Business Journals interview:
“Once you get into it, JTBD is the most robust and sound approach I’ve used. I’ve participated in probably more than 100 JTBD projects over the years, and I’ve yet to see a case where it fails to deliver. I’ve seen teams fail to capitalize on the insights JTBD uncovered, but I’ve never seen the approach itself fail to uncover insights that pointed to potentially game-changing new product/service concepts.”
Curtis Crocker, of Reservoir Venture Partners and SpineDynx, explained how he used JTBD to size the market for the SpineDynx lower back diagnostic tool he is commercializing. The first step was to redefine the target market from the customers’ point of view as “a group of people who are trying to get the same task (job) done.” The group of people that comprise SpineDynx’s target market are “healthcare providers who evaluate and manage lower back pain and injury.” This included rehab physicians, pain management physicians, family practitioners, chiropractors, occupational therapists, and others. By determining how many of these professionals exist in the US, and how frequently they evaluate and manage lower back pain, we can calculate the size of the market for a product that doesn’t even exist yet.
Contact Urko to learn more about how Reveal can help you address your innovation and growth challenges, too.
